All A-Rod, All The Time

Three things about A-Rod have hit the newsstands today:

1) A-Rod has declined an invitation to participate in the HR Derby during the AS break. While many Yankee fans want to see him in there, Rodriguez notes that the derby could cause him to tweak his swing which would be problematic for the Yankees in the second half. Basically, when trying to hit home runs, your swing is a bit different from when you hit a liner or slap one the other way. A-Rod doesn’t want his swing to become an uppercut sort of swing and says, “I’ve worked hard for my swing and I definitely don’t want to let anything get in the way of it. My only responsibility this year is to the New York Yankees.” I think most fans are fine with that reasoning. Jason Giambi (his swing is an uppercut swing, so it doesn’t matter) has expressed an interest to be in the derby but most of the other invites have been kept under wraps. However, I have heard that Josh Hamilton has agreed to be in the derby (I’ve got money on that guy).

2) Next, A-Rod has been nominated for Best Male Athlete at the ESPY Awards (ESPN’s award show). Tiger Woods, Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant will also contend for the honor. If you’re interested, the program will be aired on July 20th (the Red Sox are nominated for Best Team, so you can always watch and then turn it off at that segment or even just kick the nearest Red Sox fan).

2) Finally, some totally non-baseball rumormongering has hit a variety of media outlets. Apparently, A-Rod has been visiting Madonna’s home “late at night” and now we’re supposed to believe Alex and Madonna are now having an affair (they say they’re just friends). At the end of the featured article, it cites A-Rod’s strippergate situation from last year and says at least A-Rod is moving up in his taste in women. Frankly, that’s a poor statement. Madonna looks like Skeletor and that stripper looked pretty good to me (sorry Mrs. A-Rod!).