The timing could have been better for Alex Rodriguez, who sat down for a soul-searching interview with the New York Daily News on the same day that Jose Canseco was touting a new book, claiming that A-Rod took steroids. That publicity could have been used for damage control! At any rate, A-Rod tells columnist John Harper that he wishes he would have signed with the Mets instead of the Rangers, and that his opt out/opt-back-in drama with the Yankees was due in part to his daughter's fondness for her toys.
"My wife and daughter both love New York," said A-Rod. "Four days after I opted out (and was living in Miami), my daughter says, 'I really miss my bedroom and my toys in New York.' I wanted to shoot myself. I said to my wife, 'What the —- are we doing?' "
Hey, that's as good a reason as any! More A-Rod wisdom:
"I went for the contract when my true desire was to go play for the Mets," Rodriguez said of his decision to ink his $252 million deal with Texas eight years ago. As A-Rod looked back on the events of the past offseason, he seemed haunted by the idea that in breaking free of the Yankees he could have made another decision based strictly on money and wound up as unhappy as he was in Texas for three years. ... "So to make the right decision just feels really good," Rodriguez said, "versus being taken down a road where I'm like, 'Oh, my God, where am I? Oh, $400 million to play in some place I hate? Great, I'll blow my —- head off.'
You see, Alex Rodriguez just wants to be loved. And that is sure to happen in New York, the only place where you can hit .314 with 54 homers and still be burned in effigy.
Well, if this steroids thing gets too hot, maybe he can play in Toronto.
A-Rod Regrets Saying No To Mets, Doesn't Make Same Mistake With Yankees [New York Daily News]
A-Rod Hates Him Some Texas [Deuce Of Davenport]