A-Rod’s Primo In Trouble
Via the Miami New Times -
Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is finally playing hero in the post-season. That whole notion of A-Rod-can’t-hit-in-the-clutch seems but a distant dream this October. Ditto for the steroid revelations that dominated sports pages this off-season and Spring Training. But Miamian Yuri Sucart, his cousin and right-hand man made infamous for his role in A-Rod’s ‘roid use, might still be dealing with the consequences. After being barred from MLB facilities, Sucart has hit some serious financial straits: His Kendall home is in the midst of foreclosure.
For about a week in February, after it was exposed that he provided Rodriguez with Dominican-bought steroids, 46-year-old Sucart became the national sports media’s most-chased figure. ESPN.com devoted 3,000 words to the man, “who was more like an older brother” to the superstar. Reporters camped outside his home, interviewed his cocker spaniel, and described his A-Rod-dependent financial situation. From the ESPN.com article:
It’s unclear what Sucart’s exact income is or has been, but friends say his compensation couldn’t be much. Sucart always seems, according to one friend, to “just be getting by.” The one-story house Sucart owns in South Miami-Dade sits on a beautiful estate, but from the street, it looks to be in rugged shape. Friends say the house is “a dump.”
Soon after he was implicated in the scandal, Sucart was banned from all MLB facilities — a devastating career blow to a professional right-hand man. And on August 12, US Bank began foreclosure proceedings, which are continuing, on the SW 94th Street home he and his wife Carmen purchased in June 2006. The 1,300-square-foot house sits on almost an acre. According to a claim made in Miami-Dade Court, the Sucarts owe $538,266.24 on the property they originally purchased for $675,000.
The Sucarts, who have two children, are notoriously media-shy and did not immediately return a message left by Riptide at their home.
If you’re wondering, the money owed on the mortgage represents less than three games’ salary for A-Rod, who made $33 million this season. So we gotta ask: Where’s the big-money cousin now?
Poor Yuri…young, dumb and naïve…and, now, possibly homeless. And, it doesn’t appear that cousin Alex is about to dip into the secret compartment of his ring that he fills with his A-Rod super energy pill and help him out any time soon…does it?
Or
With the way the real estate market is in Miami, maybe the house isn’t worth the $500,000+ still owed and foreclosure and giving him money for a new place is the better move.
throwstrikes wrote:
Bingo. If the house “is a dump” and it’s a one-story structure sitting on a “beautiful estate” then it was most likely overvalued at the time of its purchase.
I hate these kinds of stories, where somebody in the media decides to tell ballplayers how they should spend their money. Particularly when, if A-Rod did help the cousin out, that would become an even bigger story.
And Steve, what about a bet on A-Rod for the ALCS?
Yep, it’s really starting to feel like an eternity since a Yankees game now…..
lisaswan wrote:
Well, you’re consistent!
You came to me on the day of game 1 of the ALDS looking to place a bet at the last minute – and I suggested that we do it for the ALCS where we would have time to agree on a line, terms, wager, etc. And, you’ve had a full week to come to me on this, and now you’re asking me the day before game 1 of the ALCS. Where ya been all week? Or, is this your strategy…sorta like asking someone if they need help with a project once it’s 99% done?
lisaswan wrote:
Yeah, let’s just forget that it was A-Rod who made the cousin “a story” in the first place.
JeremyM wrote:
Would you be saying that if this was a story about how A-Rod had saved a kitten from a burning building?
Steve Lombardi wrote:
The real question is would *you* be writing this same story if it were about one of the Yanks you liked?
Or, to keep things parallel, would you write this story if it indeed was about A-Rod saving a kitten from a burning building?
@ MJ:
Yes and yes.
@ Steve Lombardi:
Still waiting for the first time you write something about A-Rod that involves his off-field life where you don’t slam him…
@ MJ:
Still waiting for the first time A-Rod does something in his off-field life that is not an attention-seeking PR stunt or something foolish where I can write something nice about him…
Steve Lombardi wrote:
That’s all in the eye of the beholder, Steve. I have a feeling anything he does will be an “attention-seeking PR stunt” to you. What can he do that’s not attention seeking, in your opinion?
This entire year (since Alex returned in Baltimore) has shown A-Rod out of the spotlight, not doing anything stupid and speaking to children about PEDs and their negative impact. Maybe the real story here is that A-Rod had an amazing year on an injured hip and found a way, for the first time, to not be in the spotlight and not be a distraction. I praise him for that.
@ Steve Lombardi:
What a bunch of bullshit.
@ MJ:
Tell/show me the “positive” off-the-field A-Rod story that I missed…really…huh?
YankCrank wrote:
That’s like praising a convict for doing the community service segment of his sentence…
I’ve been debating this in my head for an hour or 2, and I’m not sure what decision to make. What do you guys think:
so i’ve been working 2am-10am the past few days, but I didn’t do it last night (or this morning, depending how u look at it), and I’m at work right now doing 9am-5pm. So tonight I get home at 6ish, but I have to go back in tonight (or tomorrow morning depending how you look at it) at 2 am. My dilema: Should I sleep during the time in between going to work? Like from 6pm to 1 am and watch the Yankee game on delay, via DVR? Or should I gut it out to watch the Yankee game live.
ah man, I meant to put that in the cooler…see how tired I am lol?
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Granted he had to do it because he did a negative thing, but A-Rod DID go to schools to talk out against steroids. He didn’t have to do that.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Except for the fact that there was no sentence for what he did, and all of what he’s been doing hasn’t been with a camera crew or a PR guy reporting his every move.
The guy goes out and has an amazing year, including an AMAZING ALDS and this is the crap we still have to talk about with Alex? You do realize that this just feeds the retarded masses of Yankee fans who will never appreciate him, right?
Corey wrote:
Gut it out, my friend. You’ll know what happened in the game if you DVR it because it’ll be everywhere.
@ Steve Lombardi:
It’s not my job to keep track of what A-Rod does off the field. For all I know, he does plenty of wonderful things off the field that don’t get reported. After all, isn’t that what all of George Steinbrenner’s apologists always say? That for all the bad things that man did in his life, he would always anonymously donate to charity?
Anyway, who freakin’ cares about this stuff? You keep on living your A-Rod obsessed life. You can be as bitter as you want to be that he doesn’t live his life up to the standards you set for him. By all means, keep spilling ink about how bad a guy he is. Keep on telling us that he’s never done anything nice for anyone and that anything he’s ever done for someone was purely for PR. Believe any subjective self-deception you want. But know this:
Homeboy’s mad rich, is the best player on the best team, and doesn’t give a shit what you think about him. Live with it.
@ Steve Lombardi:
FYI – I don’t mean to offend you and I hope you don’t take my post directly above personally. It’s not intended any anything more than a strongly-worded response to the conversation and not an attack on you.
In any event, to prevent anger from brewing on either side, I’m outta here for the day.
Enjoy the game everybody and go Yanks!
MJ wrote:
It’s cool man, we’re all adults and it’s cool if we strongly disagree. Come back! haha
After all, isn’t that what all of George Steinbrenner’s apologists always say? That for all the bad things that man did in his life, he would always anonymously donate to charity?
—–
Actually, continuing what I said about my neighbor in the Ronan thread, there was another guy in the Steinbrenner box with him at Game 1 of the ALDS. My neighbor told me there was a man in there who lived in NY, had become extremely ill and had no money to pay for medical coverage or bills. He told me George paid all of his expenses and told him not to tell anybody, just to get healthy and come to a Yankee game when he could. I guess going to a Yankee game meant sitting in the Streinbrenner box with Steinbrenner’s daughter haha.
I’m sure he was an evil man, but he’s also a compassionate one at times. That can’t be disputed.
Now that Arod found a new dealer with steroids not detected in the testing he dumped Suri. Poor guy.
kia wrote:
I like that joke, never heard an A-Rod steroids joke before actually. Very timely and well-placed kia!
Suri? A-Rod dumped Tom Cruise’s kid?
@ Steve Lombardi:
I did suggest earlier in the week that we do something a la your Giambi thing (a sign of “I was wrong about A-Rod” or something). Maybe you didn’t see that note.
But perhaps it’s just as well if we don’t do a bet until the World Series. A-Rod really won’t be considered to have the monkey off his back anyway, until he gets through that. Here’s my suggestion now – I’m getting it in fresh and early:
IF the Yankees make it to the World Series, and IF A-Rod has an MVPish series, then maybe you could have a graphic saying, “I WAS WRONG ABOUT A-ROD. HE REALLY IS CLUTCH” or something like that. If he stinks up the joint in the World Series, I could have a graphic on Subway Squawkers, saying, “I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO WASWATCHING.COM ABOUT A-ROD. STEVE WAS RIGHT.” or words to that effect. I’m flexible with the wording.
@Steve Lombardi:
Still waiting for the first time A-Rod does something in his off-field life that is not an attention-seeking PR stunt or something foolish where I can write something nice about him…
I dunno – I think him spending thousands a month to pay for his father’s assisted living facility is pretty nice (source: Selena Roberts, of all people), given that A-Rod’s father disappeared from his life when he was 10, messed up his psyche, and only came sniffing around again when A-Rod became famous. Most people in that same situation wouldn’t be so kind to such a lousy father.
The problem with your assertion, though, is that if we know about A-Rod giving money to charity (like when he gave $250K to fund a mobile Washington Heights dental clinic) it automatically becomes an “attention-seeking PR stunt”, doesn’t it?
@ lisaswan:
OK. Lisa, here’s my terms for the World Series:
Including Game 1 of the 2009 ALCS, A-Rod’s career post-season batting average is .294 – so, let’s use .290 as a baseline and add/subject 30 points to that…
If A-Rod bats .260 or less in the World Series or has a Bob Stanley type moment where his failure in a situation costs the Yankees a game that they should have won, then you, in your blog, have to do an entry entitled “On The Biggest Stage Of All, A-Rod Proves That He’s Not Special” and then write about how he did not do well, etc. In which, you have to give me a nod.
and
If A-Rod bats .320 or better in the World Series or has a Joe Carter type moment where his actions turn a potential loss into a win for the Yankees, then I, in this blog, will have to do an entry entitled “On The Biggest Stage Of All, A-Rod Proves That He’s Is Special” and then write about how he did not do well, etc. In which, I have to give you a nod.
OK?
@ lisaswan:
And, adding to the above, if A-Rod hits between .261 and .319 in the World Series, and/or, costs the Yankees a game and also wins the Yankees a game, then it’s a push and no one has to do anything.
@ lisaswan: You have until Game 3 of the ALCS to accept these terms.
@Steve Lombardi: I had Squawker Jon, my consigliere, review this. He agreed with me that your terms are reasonable and fair. But, he pointed out that we each might each end up losing this bet; that A-Rod could end up having both a Joe Carter and a Bob Stanley moment! Heck, knowing A-Rod, he could do that in the same game!
I’m okay with that possibility, though, that we both might be writing that A-Rod is special/not special. Or would that be considered a push?
Other than making sure we agree on that issue, I accept these terms!
@ lisaswan:
It’s a bet, and, FWIW, I hope you win – because that means:
A. Yanks win the ALCS
B. A-Rod has a great WS
C. Odds increased that Yanks win WS
I’ll be more than happy to eat that crow.
But, it was to be one winner, one loser, or nada. We can’t both lose or win. So, if A-Rod hits .320 AND has a Stanley moment, it’s a push. Or, if he has a Joe Carter moment and hits .260, it’s a push. Make sense?
@ lisaswan:
Or, should we have the Stanley or Carter moment an auto-override on the BA marks?
Hey, Lisa, I think the bet is moot now – A-Rod has proven that he is capable of great, unmatched, clutch batting in post-season play. The record is now clear on that, and, I admit to it.
If you want to go on with the bet, that’s fine. But, you’ve already won, in a sense, and keeping it would only seem silly and strange – should the Yankees reach the WS and A-Rod doesn’t put up good numbers…as he’s already proven that he can come through on the big stage in NY. Make sense?
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Of course he is; from 1994-01 he hit .340/.375/.566/.941 in the playoffs
That’s cool, Steve. Thanks. More than proving any point on A-Rod, the most important thing is that the team is winning!
More on this story today -
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2009/11/21/2009-11-21_alex_rodriguez_sucart.html
MIAMI – An entire baseball season has passed since Alex Rodriguez acknowledged using steroids at that awkward spring training press conference in February, and the Yankees’ $275 million man has rebounded quite nicely, going from steroid zero to World Series hero in just nine months.
Rodriguez was a beleaguered man after Sports Illustrated reported that he had tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003, but he recovered from both his steroid scandal and hip surgery to help the Yankees run away with the American League East. He silenced the critics who said he couldn’t perform in the clutch by hitting .365 in the playoffs and driving in 18 runs in 13 games. He won his first World Series ring and paraded through a blizzard of confetti up the Canyon of Heroes.
At the end, A-Rod even got the girl: The notorious skirt-chaser started dating “Almost Famous” star Kate Hudson in May, and their blossoming romance has fueled rumors about future wedding bells. Rodriguez has already bought Hudson a ring: Just last week, the slugger gave his girlfriend her own World Series trophy, a $39,000 Louis Vuitton white-gold ring with pink sapphires and diamonds.
But the cousin Rodriguez claims persuaded him to use steroids from 2001 to 2003 – and then obtained and administered the banned drugs – has not fared so well since A-Rod’s mea culpa moment. Banks began foreclosure proceedings on Yuri Sucart’s Miami home and three South Florida rental properties in the months after Rodriguez’s Feb. 17 news conference.
Perhaps even more disturbing for Sucart, who spent the past 15 years as A-Rod’s anonymous go-fer, his rich and famous cousin dragged him out of the shadows and turned him into another steroid sidekick, much like Roger Clemens’ former trainer, Brian McNamee, and Barry Bonds’ boyhood friend Greg Anderson.
“I think he was disappointed that he was blamed for everything,” says John Ruiz, a Miami attorney who represented Sucart in one of the foreclosure proceedings.
Unlike McNamee and Anderson, professional trainers who worked with world-class athletes for years, Sucart is not a fitness guru – he’s a pudgy middle-aged man who suffers from lower back pain and other health problems. Rodriguez has a history of letting others take the blame for his blunders – agent Scott Boras, for for example, took the rap after Rodriguez announced in the middle of the 2007 World Series that he was opting out of his contract with the Yankees. But the idea that an elite ballplayer like A-Rod would use performance-enhancing drugs based on the recommendation of a cousin who spent the past decade laying out his clothes and making dinner reservations strains credibility, and Ruiz says it was not right for Rodriguez to drag Sucart into his steroid scandal.
“Was it fair? I don’t think so,” Ruiz says. “Yuri is a very good-hearted person but there are times in life when they use you and abuse you and it gets to you.”
Sucart may be related to one of the most famous athletes in the world but he seems to shun the spotlight even more than Rodriguez craves it. Sucart and his wife, Carmen, did not respond to interview requests; a woman at his home threw a bottle at a metal gate in their driveway when a Daily News reporter asked to speak to Sucart. Several friends and associates said Sucart has asked them to not talk to reporters.
“I don’t know much about him,” one neighbor says. “He keeps to himself.”
Sucart, who is 13 years older than his famous cousin, took the young A-Rod under his wing when the Rodriguez family moved from New York to the Dominican Republic in the early 1980s, according to an ESPN profile published earlier this year. Sucart had been A-Rod’s surrogate big brother, but their roles changed after Rodriguez became a baseball star in the mid-1990s. Sucart became his cousin’s personal assistant, a yes-man who picked up dry cleaning, bought airline tickets and chauffeured Rodriguez to the ballpark. Sucart, once Rodriguez’s role model, had become his flunky, dependent on his cousin’s cash to support his family.
Sucart bought three rental units in Miami to supplement his income, but the landlord business apparently has not worked out for him.
One former tenant, Maria Botella, said she saw more of Carmen than her husband when she lived in a Sucart-owned pink condo in a working-class Miami neighborhood.
“They were not good landlords,” Botella says. “They never made repairs. All they ever wanted was the rent.”
Ruiz says he doesn’t know of any investigations by law enforcement that were spurred by Rodriguez’s February press conference linking Sucart to drug activity. Sucart was banned from Yankee Stadium and other Major League Baseball parks for his role in the Rodriguez steroid scandal, and while baseball sources say nobody sees Sucart as a steroid kingpin, that doesn’t mean they want to give him access to locker rooms and training facilities. His relationship with frequent travel companion Angel Presinal, the trainer who worked with A-Rod for years even though he was banned from MLB ballpark after an October 2001 incident involving an unmarked gym bag full of steroids at the Toronto airport, is troubling to MLB officials.
A friend of A-Rod’s who spoke on condition of anonymity says Sucart still works for the Yankee superstar. “Alex takes care of his family,” the friend says
Nonetheless, A-Rod, who collected $250 to $475 per signature at a Steiner Sports autograph session attended by hundreds of Yankee fans earlier this month, apparently isn’t supporting Sucart enough to stave off foreclosure. US Bank initiated foreclosure proceedings on Sucart’s two-bedroom home on Aug. 12, according to Miami-Dade County court records. Sucart and his wife paid $675,000 for the house in June of 2006, but thanks to the real-estate crash, the market value of the home is now $444,635, according to county real-estate records.
Deutsche Bank began foreclosure proceedings on April 3 on a four-bedroom apartment Sucart purchased in February of 2005. Wachovia Mortgage initiated foreclosure proceedings against two other rental properties owned by Sucart and his wife in July.
Ruiz says that like thousands of other Florida residents struggling to hold onto their homes, Sucart got entangled with banks that offered him mortgage loans he couldn’t pay off. But none of those struggling Floridians works for cousins who made $33 million playing third base for the New York Yankees this year.
“I don’t know if he’s asked Alex for help,” Ruiz says.
Working as A-Rod’s Man Friday gave Sucart a front-row seat to a world of celebrity and wealth that few baseball fans ever see. Sucart probably understood that the price for that seat would be his dignity, that he would have to become subservient to a younger cousin he once mentored. Many wealthy athletes support entourages of relatives and boyhood buddies whose only purpose in life appears to be running errands, and Sucart seems to have gladly accepted the fact he supported his family by waiting in the car for hours while A-Rod dined with strippers and starlets.
But he probably didn’t understand that his professional responsibilities would also include taking the hit when his boss got caught cheating with banned drugs. A-Rod’s steroid troubles seem like ancient history after the team’s 27th World Series championship, but Yuri Sucart will never escape the taint that came when Rodriguez dragged him into his scandal at his Feb. 17 press conference.
Sucart will go down in history as the cousin who scored steroids for Alex Rodriguez and shot him up with them.
“Everybody wants a scapegoat,” Ruiz says.