Details magazine has published another standard athlete profile that would probably otherwise go unnoticed, except for the awkward photo shoot taken at a most inopportune time for Alex Rodriguez.
The magazine's long lead time makes the interview with baseball's biggest side show seem painfully late to the party. He's on the DL now and every one was ready to move on (for a little while.) And because A-Rod is A-Rod there's very little to learn about him from yet another sit down chat with a reporter. However, there is something revealing in the timing of the interview and the accompanying photo shoot—they both took place on the day Selena Roberts confronted him with her now infamous Sport Illustrated story and the day before the steroid storm hit the fan.
But even if all that hadn't happened, how could anyone think that photos of yourself stretching, posing, even kissing your own image in front of a full-length mirror would make you look like anything other than a clueless, narcissistic tool? Sure, the photographer tells you to do something and you do it without really thinking about it and you move on, but that's why high-powered celebrities have "people." And by "people," I don't mean fat workout buddies you went to high school with who get you your breakfast every morning. I mean managers, publicists and media relations people who are not your friends and don't want to be, but will do whatever it takes to make sure you don't look like an idiot. Didn't that come up in any of your enlightening conversations with Madonna?
Oh, and by the way, is anyone buying the story that Alex Rodriguez takes the subway to Yankee games? Can any New Yorkers vouch for this? It's a nice "man of the people" anecdote, but it's hard to swallow because every time I've taken the subway to Yankee Stadium, the train gets stuck and I'm miss the first three innings.