A-Rod, A-Pologies & A-Holes

Jonathan Bernhardt at The Guardian explains why A-Rod doesn't owe us an apology--and, more importantly, why we'd be assholes to want one:

This letter, which was either encouraged or explicitly ordered by the Yankees brass, serves one purpose: to allow the average Joe... to pretend he’s Alex Rodriguez’s boss. That’s what this is: vicarious bossing. This is not a letter to the victim of an assault, or to someone who has been substantially deprived of life or property. This is a letter primarily intended to make the people who read it feel superior, as if they’ve taught a subordinate an important life lesson. It is a letter meant to assist in preening.

That’s what you’re doing when you type “Apology not accepted,” into social media and hit the send button. That’s what you’re doing when you opine that the letter is “too combative,” or that you don’t believe a word in it, or that there’s just simply not enough groveling. You’re preening. You’re pretending Rodriguez actually exists to make you happy not by hitting baseballs a very long distance, but by allowing you to exert moral power over him. And that’s fantasy. That’s not real life. A-Rod is not, should not be, and never will be accountable to fans on the street who are angry he didn’t play a moral game of baseball – something that never has existed; something that never can exist.

Bernhardt's "vicarious bossing" idea suggests that we're being manipulated into identifying with the accursed Junior Steinbrenners. Blech! Go read the whole thing.