Shhhh. Remember how Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids? We have to whisper, or the Yankees might ban us.
Reggie Jackson is no longer welcome as a member of the New York Yankees family because he made some fairly innocuous comments aknowledging that A-Rod used steroids.
In an comments published Thursday in Sports Illustrated, Jackson said of Rodriguez: "(Alex) is a very good friend. But I think there are real questions about his numbers. As much as I like him, what he admitted about his (performance-enhancing drug) usage does cloud some of his records."
In other words, he's only said what everyone else in baseball has already said about Alex Rodriguez - and what many, many more will say when his name first appears on the Hall of Fame ballot. But the Yankees don't like it, and Reggie Jackson, who is a special advisor to the team (whatever the hell that means), has been banned from Yankees activities.
"The team doesn’t need any negative publicity or aggravation, especially playing in a big market like Boston, and at Fenway," one of the "source" told the New York Daily News. "A-Rod doesn’t need the aggravation."
As George Costanza would say, we must not aggravate the delicate genius.
The funniest part of the story is that Jackson's comments never so much as raised an eyebrow when first published because 1.) no one reads magazines and 2.) he didn't say anything we all didn't already know. But now the Yankees have made a big fuss about it, and the delicate genius has been disturbed.
"With friends like that who needs enemies?" A-Rod said with an off-putting smile.
Jackson reportedly reached out to both the Yankees and to Alex Rodriguez to apologize, but that didn't keep him from getting banned. The ban is not expected to be a permanent "death penalty" for Jackson, but is meant as an indefinate suspension, shaming Jackson to keep him in line.
In the meantime, I'm sure the Oakland A's would love to have Reggie back on the fold!
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