Until the Veterans’ Committee votes him in anyway, or the first truly courageous Hall of Famer comes out and admits he used PED, and refuses to resign from the Hall.

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Look, his chances of making the Hall are nearly 0% right now. He may be in self-denial about that, but with every changed story, with every additional drip of information that he dispenses, he becomes less credible, and a bigger laughingstock.

Stop giving the media material, and they will be FORCED to move on to something or somebody else.
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McGwire did not keep silent; he basically attempted what A-Rod is attempting now, without the admission he did “something”. He tried the “partial limited hangout”, and is being silently crucified for it, still.
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A-Rod has two choices: come totally clean, right now, and risk investigation by law enforcement and prosecution, plus give away his entire career record, or shut up, forever, about it. Partial limited hangout is death by 1000 cuts.

It wouldn’t have been stupid at all, provided he told his teammates to say whatever they want about it, whatever they need to in order to make their lives easier, to throw him under the bus if they feel they need to.
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That’s involving your teammates, where they get daily questions about A-Rod because he didn’t address the matter personally, making the situation a much larger distraction to the team than it needs to be.

If a writer tries to barb him with a loaded question, just say, “no comment”. No comment the story to death.
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Terrible idea. McGwire, in his own way, dodged his issue with comment similar to “no comment” and his legacy is not only ruined, but he is perceived as a coward to the public and especially the press. A-Rod showed balls and admitted it, the public can respect and empathize with that.

And the story would inevitably die, no matter what dirt is dug up in the future.
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If he dodged the story with no comment, the story would never die. Every journalist would take it personally and dig up every little dirt that they have on him and make it public, from his steroid use to if he accidentally drives one mph over the speed limit. They’d bury him.

Evan, I don’t mean to slam your theory and if it seems like i’m being mean, that’s not my intention in any way. But some of the most expensive and most skilled pr firms were working for A-Rod during this whole fiasco, and even though thy didn’t make him come out pristine and looking clean, they pointed him in the right direction. The goal was to admit fault, spill a little more beans than any other admitted user has, and take all the fault in hopes that, for the next 9 years and the years after that until he’s HOF eligible, he can have enough people forgive him to get into the Hall. If he dodged every question with a no comment, and disrespected the fans, the game and the media with those no comment answers, his chances at the Hall would be 0%.

butchie, this is the first time we’ve ever agreed on something, and i like it.

It wouldn’t have been stupid at all, provided he told his teammates to say whatever they want about it, whatever they need to in order to make their lives easier, to throw him under the bus if they feel they need to.

In a little while, having no story to write, the media would’ve had to move on. Their investigations into what he’s done would continue, but without help from him. He should be polite, and simply say, “no comment” about it. He should definitely answer any question on any topic not related to it. If a writer tries to barb him with a loaded question, just say, “no comment”. No comment the story to death.

There’s very little chance of a prosecution, and almost no chance of him facing a suspension in the absence of a positive test in the future.

And the story would inevitably die, no matter what dirt is dug up in the future. The public would become bored with every new story with the same headline “A-Rod is a dirtbag, and here’s why”.

My reading of A-Rod’s personality is that he’s too weak to do this, especially the “throw me under the bus” part. So the modified limited hangouts will be repeated with every new revelation, and they will all be transparently false, and they will avail Alez nothing.

And then, finally, long after everyone is exhausted and every mention of this topic is so painful for everyone that they want to smash their own skull in with a hammer just to not hear about this anymore, some grownup close to A-Rod will stage an intervention and say, “Hey, stupid, shut up about this, you keep making it worse for yourself.” And they’ll have finally come to the right answer.

When you’re standing in a deep hole, the first rule is to stop digging. Or: quit while you’re behind.

It’ll still be a distraction, but the fact he addressed it means it has a chance to boil over as time moves on. He also said more than any other accused player has said, and presented more private information. These will, over time, earn him some points. Staying silent would have been a terrible situation for he and the Yankees. Quote from Crank

I agree with that no matter how I feel about Arod/Aclod/Aroid.Shutting up about this would have been extremely stupid given that this would have been a line of questioning all season long. NOW he’s nipped it in the bud so to speak……

Idk if you’re joking or not Evan, but if you’re serious, i’ll have to disagree with you.

Did his statements fully make sense? No, did everything he say start to raise more questions? Of course. But if he was silent and didn’t address it, it would have caused a humongous shitstorm of never-ending question and coverage. The guys who haven’t fully addressed it, Sosa or McGwire, are removed from the game and can hide from the media. A-Rod has nine more years in baseball, nine more years with the Yankees, and if he didn’t address it like he did it would have caused an even larger distraction for A-Rod and the team.

It’ll still be a distraction, but the fact he addressed it means it has a chance to boil over as time moves on. He also said more than any other accused player has said, and presented more private information. These will, over time, earn him some points. Staying silent would have been a terrible situation for he and the Yankees.

A-Rod shouldn’t have said anything about this. Ever.
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I agree completely Raf..unfortunately someone will argue with those points, regardless of how much sense it makes!

Nonetheless, I also wonder if they would be feeling the same way if it was Curt Schilling and not Alex Rodriguez who was in this spot now.
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I would. My stance has been fairly consistent WRT this issue.

As anyone who has read “Ball Four” knows, drugs have been around baseball for quite some time. According to Tom House, steroids have been around since the 60′s.

AFAIK, baseball did not have a policy against steroids, so they were open game. Therefore, players that were juicing, were doing nothing wrong within the framework of baseball.

There’s also the fact that it really hasn’t been proven that these drugs have an effect.

The cheating angle is overblown. There have always been players who cheated, Gaylord Perry built a career on “spitballing.” We’ve heard stories about scuffing balls, corking bats, moving fences in and out, tailoring the grounds to benefit the home team, etc, etc, etc.

Is it about integrity of the numbers? Ok, fine, then we’ll need have to have asterisks for pre 1961 (154 vs 162 game seasons), pre 1947 (color line), post 1968 (lowering of the pitchers mound), post 1973 (DH added), so on and so forth…

Anyway, back to Rodriguez. Had he failed a test yesterday, fine, have at him. Tar and feather him, whatever. But to get at him for failing a test some 6 years ago, before penalties were implemented is a bit ridiculous, in my opinion.