A-Rod by Selena Roberts (2009, Abridged, Compact Disc)

It looks like A-Rod is one more of those just-in-time books that take advantage of a situation to be marketed and sell well. The situation in question is the scandal involving the personal struggles that Alex Rodriguez has recently faced, both involving the end of his marriage due to a supposed affair with Madonna and a steroid abuse case. However, it is a nice and opportune effort.

This book portraits Alex as a fame, money, love and affection seeker who did and does whatever it takes to be under the spotlight. An ambitious boy from a Dominican Republic family who is passionate about baseball since childhood and can do anything - including the use of the most powerful steroids - to be in perfect shape and break record after record so to become a legend in the sports history. Behind so much focus and determination, it lies a boy with issues and insecurities just like the rest of us.

It also tells that Alex has been lucky and smart enough to make the right - and dirty - connections in the business so his career would always have a jumpstart from time to time. Great performances enhanced by drugs and the right connections would lead him to the status that he always wanted to have - a national superhero to be forever remembered by all baseball fans.

Well, I don't think that a biography from any super athlete would be too different from this one. All things "super", too way out of ordinary, should be cautiously seen, but I don't think this is a problem for the audience. How many athletes out there don't rely on good connections in business, have to deal with personal problems time and time again, had somebody told them they got no future in sports and ended up proving everybody wrong, even if they had to count with a little help of the pharmacist next door? It's possible that some facts in this book might be overstated, but I don't think that the book is too far away from real facts.

Should we call this book an ode to Alex Rodriguez, regardless of the conotation that each reader perceives? Hmmm....no. This is just another biography from a baseball star that, chemically enhanced or not, has made history in baseball. Reading the book is worth just because of that - Alex is the subject. A subject we love to talk about.

Even though Alex himself might not necessarily like what was written about him, I'm sure that he liked being on the spotlight again. It is publicity, anyway. And what's wrong with it?