A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez

Got the book when I wanted it. Everything was perfect and in good shape

A timely and relevant book, whose sales figures would have benefited from an even more expansive title incorporating the by-line "PED's in Baseball". This book is a tour de force of the steroid culture whose ramifications are permeating baseball to this day. Using the life of Alex Rodriguez as the catalyst, not merely as the central character, the author explores the role of the office of the MLB Commissioner, club management, Scott Boras, the Players Association, BALCO and a netherworld of Dominican pseudo pharmaceutical fitness trainers in cultivating a sports mentality in which the rampant use of steroids is not only widely acknowledged and encouraged but supported by a code of silence in which non-using players, though disgusted, would never rat on a fellow player. The reader is taken on a journey behind the scenes of the club house, the training yards, the glitz of the celebrity scene and into the homes of the various stars. The story of the anonymous drug testing of 2003 is discussed in full, together with the reaction of the various major parties to establishing a bona fide drug testing program within MLB. Heavily supported by interview and drawing on numerous other books exploring the baseball drug phenomenon, the author provides a sense of authenticity supporting claims made, in what would otherwise be a clear route towards defamation litigation owing to the text's base grit in detail. As the names of the "List" of positive testers is slowly leaked in the papers, supported by the findings of the Mitchell Report, this book clearly explains the mentality of those who made themselves vulnerable to the "PED's in baseball" net. A contemporary book exploring a still unfolding drama. Readers are recommended to download the audio version of this text too. Read with immense color, its 7 hours provide a wonderful way to hear this story told. With nil repetition or filler, this book is simply a legitimate contribution to baseball history, written very much in the moment.

I thought Ms. Roberts did a wonderful job on the book. I read a lot of the reviews and feel that some of the negative views were totally off base. I recommend this book to anyone who wants an objective and in-depth read on A-Rod.

In uncovering, through articulate journalism, the behavior of another fallen hero, Selena Roberts should be applauded for an outstanding book! As a society do we trust that many achievers in business, politics and athletics achieve their "Hero" status through hard work and determination or should we probe their success to make sure that their "Hero" status is justified? It is quite apparent with the recent disclosure of people; such as, Madoff, Blagoavich, Bonds, Giambi, and probably, Roger Clemens, etc.etc....that it takes quality investigative journalism to reach for and find the truth in our Heroes. Congratulations to Ms. Roberts in uncovering the truth in the behavior of (someones) hero, Alex Rodriguez. Keep up the quality work Selena. Journalists that do their investigative work diligently and uncover deceptive behavior in our leaders helps me explain to my young son that getting ahead doesn't mean to "get ahead in life by any means necessary"!

I heard Selena Roberts discussing this book on "Today" and talk radio several times last week (she was hard to miss), and she presented her case more persuasively than the negative reviews here suggest. So I bought the book, read it, and quickly came to the conclusion that the nasty reviews here were written by people who either have not read the book or have a misguided antipathy to Ms. Roberts for writing about the Duke lacrosse team scandal. It might be a flawed book, but it's not the clip and paste grab bag of gossip that critics suggest. It's an admirable example of dogged, even courageous professionalism -often missing from sports journalism. In the Prologue, writing in the first person, Roberts describes how she confronted Alex Rodriguez with the charge that he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. This is the scoop heard round the world when it was published in Sports Illustrated in February 2009. But what's interesting here is the confrontation itself. Roberts didn't call Alex for a response, or email him. She didn't publish it without giving him a chance to respond. She didn't hide behind the protective screen of a blog or talk radio. She walked uninvited into the University of Miami gym, found Alex lifting in the weight room, surrounded by his heavily muscled cronies, and posed the question straight to his face. Gutsy journalism, not gossip-mongering. How many other reporters or TV talking heads would have the stones to walk into that gym alone? Answer: none. In the next chapter, titled "The Good Son," Roberts tracks down Alex's father at a nursing home, interviews him extensively, to create a complicated but totally sympathetic portrait of the Rodriguez family and Alex's childhood in the Dominican Republic and Miami. No smears here, just honest and thorough reporting. Next, in "The Phenom of Westminster," Roberts interviews Alex's sister Suzy, his teammates, and his high school coach to continue a sympathetic portrait of his home life and introduce a troubling picture of an elite high-school athletic program where performance enhancing drugs were used. She names the likely supplier of these drugs, who has not denied the charge. To Roberts credit, she includes the high school coach's denials that he never saw anything. None of this information has been reported anywhere else. It's a result of Roberts' follow-the-story diligence. Readers can decide who's telling the truth. So it goes, from chapter to chapter, where Roberts lays out her case that A-Rod is a preening adulation junkie who has enhanced his statistics with steroids and HGH (needlessly, she thinks, because of his prodigious talent). It's not a sympathetic portrait, but it's not the complete teardown I expected. The book's biggest threat is to Rodriguez's legacy as a great ballplayer. The numbers say he is. The evidence suggests that his stats are tainted. And as to the most damning charge in the book - his steroid use at Texas from 2001 to 2003 - Rodriguez admi