A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez

Have you ever seen a movie trailer for a movie that looked really good because of the trailer only to see the movie and realize that you already saw all the good parts in the trailer and that the rest of the movie sucked? That's the vibe I get for Selena Roberts book A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez.

Gordon Edes read the book so that I don't have to and he posted a rather amusing review of it. I was 100% on the quiz - so I think I can pass when it comes to either buying the book or even reading it if it came to me as a gift. However, if you are inclined to buy the book or give the book as a gift - hook a brother up and buy it from the link below.

A couple of random thoughts regarding the book:

1: Selena Roberts used anonymous sources to break the story that A-Rod was a steroids user in the first place - so I give her a break when it comes to the criticism that she relies too much on un-named sources. I would be disappointed to learn that most of the 65 or so sources claimed in the book were Hooters waitresses though.

B: Is anyone surprised that Kevin Brown was named as a performance enhancer cheat?

III: The part about tipping pitches I just don't buy. A-Rod isn't smart enough to pull it off; he'd need accomplices from other teams (and how would that stay quiet?) and heck - everyone knows what some pitchers like Mariano Rivera are going to throw anyway and people still can't hit the pitch.

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Under the radar - Baltimore's first three in the batting order are all in the top 11 in batting average in the AL - Brian Roberts (.356 11th), Adam Jones (.359 10th) and Nick Markakis (.381 3rd). That's quietly impressive... I get confused - is I Want Revenge the name of the Kentucky Derby favorite or the name of the Selena Roberts book on A-Rod?... I feel bad for Pittsburgh's Ian Snell. In his last three losses he gave up a total of just 6 earned runs. Why is it that some pitchers always seem to have bad luck when it comes to their team's offense always taking a day off when they start?... There are still 4 players who have as many or more home runs as individuals than the Oakland A's have as a team total... People in Boston are very worried about David Ortiz. I imagine that people in Chicago may be similarly concerned about Derrek Lee and his single HR and .200 BA... Not for nothing but if A-Rod had 3 HR but was hitting just .197 - he'd be booed both at home and on the road. Those are Mark Teixeira's numbers so far... Is Julian Tavarez really the Nationals new closer? Wow - things are worse in Washington than I thought.