A-Rod: you gotta feel the sting
The AP's reporting that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who I'm pretty sure is the highest-paid player in sports, is now stating proudly that he goes to two therapists. Now, this is a pretty good story: here's a kid whose dad left the family at age 9, and with no one really to talk to, he turned to baseball. Now he's arguably the best ballplayer on earth, and he's leveraging his fame to make the very, very underrated point that if you're in therapy, it's for something that probably ain't your fault. That's a really classy thing to do: we need more role models who will stand up in public and say that psychological help is effective and that it has nothing to do with who you are as a person. Add that he's willing to take the private jokes that come with being out in front of the issue, and really, what he's doing is sincerely admirable.
That said, he's a Yankee. Here are some things he might be in therapy for:
- Lying awake at night, wondering if he cost the Yankees the pennant last year by blatantly cheating, costing the Yanks what little momentum they had left;
- Lying awake at night, wondering if he was right to sign a $252 million contract when he left Seattle to play for a winner.
- Lying awake at night, wondering if it was appropriate for him to come into Texas as the Rangers' savior, and then wait only two years before complaining that they weren't committed to winning. I mean, didn't they have the money?
- Lying awake at night, wondering, if he'd pushed harder to get the Red Sox trade to happen, if he'd have a World Series ring. Is it okay to keep having dreams about watching the Red Sox victory celebration from the bench?