Raissman: Yankees announcer John Sterling injects some truth into Alex Rodriguez saga

Sterling and Swingin’ Brass.

Baseball on the radio is relaxing. Exhibition baseball on the radio is sleep-inducing. Yet, to his credit, Sterling not only provided a wake-up call, he caused serious whiplash. Sterling was under no internal pressure to address this topic. There’s no doubt Yankee brass would rather Pa forget it— kind of like he does with balls and strikes.

...Ma wanted to get a word in. Smoke was coming out of her ears. We imagined we saw it on the radio. “Yes, John, but you’ve got to wonder what they (A-Rod, Francisco Cervelli and others) were doing there in the first place,” she said.

They went back and forth on this for a while. During the exchanges they never mentioned Rodriguez by name. They didn’t have to. You knew it was all about him. Their tone was drenched in disgust.

Waldman recounted a comment Mark Teixeira made at a recent charity event. “He said, ‘I want to talk baseball,’” Waldman said. “ ‘But every time a fan comes up to me all they want to talk about is steroids. I’m sick of it.’”

Now there was just resignation in their voices. “After the initial wave (of steroids revelations) hit they (MLB officials) thought they stopped it,” Sterling said. “But they didn’t stop it.”

They both agreed the chemists will always be a step ahead of the testers. “There will be problems down the road,” Sterling said. “In 10 years they will discover a drug called Festeris that will make everyone amazons.”

...Sterling provided evidence of this later in the radiocast. Reeling from his trip to the dark side, he looked for a bright light to shine on the Bronx.

“It’s always A-Rod. A-Rod, A-Rod, A-Rod,” Sterling said. “What if the Yankees are locked in a tight race halfway through the first half and can get two big players back — Alex Rodriguez and Michael Pineda. It would be like making a major trade.”