Friday, August 30, 2013

Statement Analysis: Alex Rodriquez Denial of Steroids

This is an article from 2009.  Note that a reliable denial consists of three components:

1.  The pronoun "I" must be present

2.  The past tense verb "didn't" (or "did not") must be present, rather than "never"

3.  The specific allegation must be addressed.

"I did not use steroids" is an example of a reliable denial.

Lying causes internal stress on humans, therefore, they avoid a direct lie and will use "never" rather than "didn't", or drop their pronoun, or make the allegation 'vague' in their statements.  Here, A-Rod is seen deceptive on a number of points.  Can you pick up all the places where A-Rod is deceptive?

George Mitchell's blistering report detailing the illegal use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in baseball rocked the sports world this week. It implicated more than 80 players, some of the best in the game: MVP's, Cy Young Award winners, future Hall of Famers. 

One baseball great who wasn't on the list is Alex Rodriguez. He's on track to become the home run king, surpassing the likes of Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds. But for all of his individual accomplishments and seemingly clean record, A-Rod has been a lightning rod for criticism -- for his poor performance in the postseason, for upstaging the World Series this year, and, most of all, for his staggering paycheck. And that was before he signed a new contract with the Yankees worth an estimated $300 million dollars. Katie Couricspoke with him just after the Mitchell Report was released.



"For the record, have you ever used steroids, human growth hormone or any other performance-enhancing substance?" Couric asked.

"No," Rodriguez replied.

Asked if he had ever been tempted to use any of those things, Rodriguez told Couric, "No."

"You never felt like, 'This guy's doing it, maybe I should look into this, too? He's getting better numbers, playing better ball,'" Couric asked.

"I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I've always been a very strong, dominant position. And I felt that if I did my work as I've done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level. So, no," he replied.

But the Mitchell Report named names, including at least 16 current and former Yankees, like superstars Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens. 

What's Rodriguez's reaction to this investigation?

"Katie, you're putting me in a tough spot. I mean, these are guys that I play with. They're my teammates. If anything comes of this, I will be extremely disappointed. And it will be a huge black eye on the game of baseball," he told Couric.

"It sounds like this is rampant. According to the Mitchell Report, every single club has a player using banned substances. Did you ever witness or hear about or even suspect this was going on?" Couric asked.

"You hear a lot of things. I mean, I came in 1993. And you heard whispers from the '80s and '90s. But I never saw anything. I never had raw evidence. And, quite frankly, I was probably a little bit too naïve when I first came up to understand the magnitude of all this," Rodriguez replied.

But there's no escaping the magnitude of the scandal now. The Mitchell Report comes on the heels of Barry Bonds' recent indictment in San Francisco for perjury and obstruction of justice in a federal steroids investigation.

"Given this controversy, Alex, who do you think has the real homerun record? Barry Bonds at 762 or Hank Aaron 755?" Couric asked.

"Well, I think Barry Bonds. He has 762," Rodriguez said.

"But, he has an asterisk next to his name?" Couric remarked.

"Does he?" Rodriguez said. "Not yet."

"In the minds of many, he does," Couric said.

"The federal government is going to make its decision on that. Barry's been a phenomenal player. And I've really enjoyed watching him play. But, he's innocent 'til proven guilty," Rodriguez replied.

On the same day the Mitchell Report was front page news, A-Rod was making headlines as well. The Yankees announced he had been re-signed, breaking his own record-setting deal. He already had the highest paying contract in any team sport.

Asked why he thinks he gets so much grief over his salary, Rodriguez told Couric, "'Cause I make a lot of money."

"Your new contract is worth $300 million-plus. Are you worth it? Is any player worth that kind of salary?" Couric asked.

"I'm not sure," Rodriguez said. "I mean, that's not my job to evaluate or appraise players. I love to play baseball."


But the game that got Alex Rodriguez the most attention this past season was one he wasn't even in. It was the fourth game of the World Series and the Red Sox were about to sweep the Colorado Rockies, when the announcer suddenly broke away from the game, saying that Rodriguez had decided to opt out of his Yankees contract.

Opt-out, meaning he was leaving to become a free agent. That announcement upstaged one of the biggest nights in baseball.

"Can you understand why so many people found that so incredibly offensive?" Couric asked.

"Absolutely. A hundred percent," Rodriguez said. "If I was a sports writer, if I was a fan, I would have been very, very upset. I was angry and upset. Shocked -- disbelief. I mean, I'm sitting in my living room."

"You were watching the game?" Couric asked.

"Yes. And that was very, very difficult," Rodriguez said.

Asked what he did when he heard it, Rodriguez told Couric, "Nightmare -- you know, I got white like a ghost. I just couldn't believe my eyes. I was under the impression that it would come out a day or two after the World Series concluded. And I would never do anything to harm the game … to the Red Sox and the Rockies, my deepest apologies, and to all of Major League Baseball."

"You got hammered by the press. A number of respected sports writers called you, among other things, 'A gold plated phony.' 'Pay-Rod in Pinstripes.' They say you upstaged more World Series games than you actually played in. Were you surprised at the level of vitriol that came your way?" Couric asked. 

"No. If I was a writer, I would have done the same thing, because it was unacceptable. And inappropriate," Rodriguez said. "And, you know, when you do things the wrong way, that's what you get."

The whole debacle started, he says, when his agent, Scott Boras, told him the Yankees didn't want him anymore. 

"But they were trying to reach out to you. It's kind of hard to believe that you were taking Scott Boras' word as gospel when you had all these other signs coming from Yankee management," Couric remarks.

"You're right," Rodriguez says.

Asked why he fell for that, Rodriguez said, "Why wouldn't I trust my attorney. Most people trust their attorneys. I'm a baseball player. I'm not an attorney. I've never negotiated a contract." 

But at the age of 32, he was about to. 

"When I realized things were going haywire, at that point, I said, 'Wait a minute! I got to be accountable for my own life…this is not going the way I wanted to go and I got behind the wheel,' and I called Hank," Rodriguez recalled.

Hank, as in George Steinbrenner's son, who is now in charge of the Yankees. Taking the advice of his friend billionaire Warren Buffet, A-Rod says he negotiated directly and personally with the Yankees. 

Scott Boras, who told 60 Minutes he couldn't talk about his clients, was not welcome at the table, but he still stands to make about $15 million on the deal. A-Rod says he will pay him, and will keep him.

"What is your relationship like with him today? Why do you have to think about that so much?" Couric asked Rodriguez.

"Well, the whole situation saddens me a little bit," he replied.

Asked if he talks with him at all, Rodriguez said "No."

"Do you think that will change?" Couric asked.

"We'll see," Rodriguez said. 

Asked if he was talking to Boras during the negotiation process, Rodriguez said, "No, I wasn't. I was talking with my wife."

"Cynthia, how do you think Alex changed as a result of this?" Couric asked.

"He wasn't used to having to take such initiative and such action, especially in this arena….and he actually had to pick up the phone, make the calls, make some decisions and stand behind them…be confident and be sure…it was very difficult, but it was a huge growing experience," Rodriguez's wife replied. 

Is it all about the money for you?" Couric asked.

"No," Rodriguez said. "But economics always play a part of it. I wanted the best deal the Yankees had for me. Whatever that number was."

"Some people say you overplayed your hand. That there wasn't that much interest in you among other teams," Couric remarked.

"I beg to differ," Rodriguez said.

Asked why, Rodriguez said, "I thought there was a lot of interest out there."

"You thought or you knew?" Couric asked.

"I knew," he replied.

By the time this contract is over, Rodriguez will have made nearly $500 million playing baseball. Life in Coral Gables, Fla., is a far cry from his childhood in Miami, which changed dramatically when he was only nine. His father abandoned his family, leaving his mother to support them. 

"My mother's been a rock for a long time," Rodriguez said. "And again, she's working two jobs, secretary in the morning. She was a waitress at night. And it's funny 'cause when she got home and she would pick me up at the Boys and Girls Club in her beat-up car that half the times couldn't start, we would go home. And I was so excited to kind of get all her money out of her pocket. And I would sit there and count, you know, 23, 24, 25, 38, 40. Mom, you did great."

So has her son. Since high school, Alex Rodriguez has been one of baseball's most promising prospects. At 18, he was the number one draft pick for the Seattle Mariners. Over the years he earned a reputation as a player who could do it all, blasting home runs despite the most determined outfielders, diving for balls, and gunning down runners.

But since he came to the Yankees four years ago, New York fans have had trouble warming up to the enigmatic Rodriguez, especially when they needed him the most. 

"Why haven't you done better in the post-season?" Couric asked.

"I've stunk," Rodriguez admitted. "You know? I've done very poorly. And that's not acceptable."

Asked what it is like being booed by his own fans, Rodriguez told Couric, "Oh, that's awful. That's terrible."

This year there was a lot less booing. He seemed more relaxed and says he was finally comfortable enough to laugh at himself. 

A state-of-the-art batting cage he built near his home raised his game. Every day in the off-season, he blasts his music and gets to work.

"How much of getting a good hit is technical and how much of it really is psychological?" Couric asked.

"I think it really comes down to 90 percent mental and you know, once Yankee Stadium, the lights are on, you have 55,000 people there. It's all about your mind. You know you better than that guy on the mound, and you cannot let that guy beat you. It becomes a competitive battle, one on one," Rodriguez said.

But the lights are on Alex Rodriguez 24-7, and he's gotten singed, routinely described in the press as arrogant and disingenuous, not a team player. Then there were the tabloid reports about an alleged extramarital affair.

"It was a challenging time," Rodriguez recalled. "And you know, we've learned from it, we've regrouped, we've stood up and now I think we've become much closer because of the whole situation. "

It's unlikely the media attention will go away, but some of it will focus on his potential to break the homerun record.

"These are the two MVP awards," Rodriguez told Couric in his memorabilia room. "And this right here is the Babe Ruth Award-
for most home runs in Major League Baseball. But I would like to yank all three of 'em and put World Championship there. That's my goal. That's my ultimate goal."

Today, Alex Rodriguez says he's in a better position than ever to help make that happen. "I feel comfortable my team can expect me to be in the line up every day and at the end of the day, I get paid to be a Major League Baseball player, not anything else, and I do that pretty well." 


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

OT: I've been lurking for a while and have learned so much from this blog. Thank you! Question for any statement analyzers: Recently, I met an old friend of my mothers at a funeral. She told me she babysat when I was a baby. She indicated that I was fussy and would not stop crying. She said, "So, I beat the sh*t out of you." . "Just kidding". She seemed to be under the influence of something. I didn't smell alcohol, so I wondered if she was on pain meds. Was she making a joke about beating me as a baby or speaking from experience?

Jen said...

Hi Anon

Her statement is past tense and she owns her actions with 'I'...plus she adds 'just kidding' (which should be a given). The fact that she said it shows the subject overall is sensitive to her. What a strange thing to say to someone!

As far as A-Rod...I'm sick of all these liars. They get paid a fortune to play baseball for a living and their lazy butts won't even do the work and succeed without dope!? Take their salary and give it to our military members and put them to work at a real job...the world can survive without 'professional' baseball...especially baseball played by lying, blown up steroid abusers.

Anonymous said...

Your babysitter's comments reveal sensitivity around your so-called fussiness. She claims to have beaten you and then takes it back. This makes the topic sensitive to her.

Could be that she didn't know what to do with a fussy baby, was in over her head, frustrated. She might have been tempted to beat you, and considered it (hence the sensitivity) but probably didn't. Clearly your parents would have noticed bruises, etc., if she'd actually beaten you.

Jen said...

Negligence and drug abuse claims another helpless baby...when will people learn?

http://news.yahoo.com/dad-charged-baby-dies-hot-car-ariz-090150068.html?.tsrc=attmp

Jen said...

Well they got a conviction, despite all the hinkyness!

http://news.yahoo.com/teen-guilty-murdering-georgia-baby-stroller-195954169.html?.tsrc=attmp

Anonymous said...

Jen said...
Well they got a conviction, despite all the hinkyness

The fastest trial ever! Convictions can be overturned.

Anonymous said...

I still feel Sherry West is lying.

Does anyone know if gunpowder residue was found on his hands?

Jen said...

Hi Anon

I never heard that gunpowder residue was found on Elkins...he wasn't located until the next day. However gunpowder residue WAS found on the mother's (West's) hands, AND the father's hands (despite his claims that he was at Walmart buying baby supplies when the shooting occured).

I also believe there is more to this story and that the parents (at least the mother) were involved in some way. From the beginning both of their statements during the interviews they gave mere hours after the shooting reaked of alibi building and financial motive. For whatever reason LE has consistently refused to confirm or deny whether West had a prior relationship with the teens involved, and that alone makes me wonder what is being hidden.

It appears LE wanted this investigation to play out a certain way, and ignored anything that didn't fit with that theory, as evidenced by them settling on THIS STORY out of the 17 lies the star witness Lang admitted to telling them. Lang testified that he indeed told at least 17 different lies about what happened while being interveiwed, and that he lied when he didn't know the answer to LE's questions, lied to tell LE 'what they wanted to hear', and even 'rehearsed' his lies while alone In the interrogation room (he was caught on video doing so).

Another example of LE's tunnel vision in this case is West's daughter Ashley Glassey's repeatedly rebuffed attempts to provide info to investigators. She said on the stand that her repeated calls and messages to investigators went unanswered, so she took to the media to share the info she felt was crucial, including the fact that during her mother's call her story about how the shooting occurred changed, (regarding who was shot first, the baby or West) and that her mom asked her the night of the shooting when she would get a check from the life insurance. Glassey also said on the stand that her mother's demeanor and her entire story about the shooting 'didn't make sense'. (That she got herself and her baby shot protecting an empty purse).

John Mc Gowan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Mc Gowan said...

Then there were the tabloid reports about an alleged extramarital affair.


"It was a challenging time," Rodriguez recalled. "And you know, WE'VE learned from it, WE'VE regrouped, WE'VE stood up and now (I) think we've become much closer because of the whole situation. "

Here he uses the Plural "We've" 4 times making it sensitive..

It was he who allegedly had the affair,yet he includes his wife by using the plural "We've" sharing the the guilt and not taking responsibility.He then says "and now (I) think we've become much closer because of the whole situation. " Here he uses the first person singular "I" when it comes to their relationship being closer.It is only him who thinks they are closer and not his wife.Does she think differently?.

Tania Cadogan said...

off topic BBM

A Colorado teen is being investigated for first degree murder for allegedly stabbing her mother to death Wednesday night.

18-year-old Isabella Guzman was ordered to remain in Arapahoe County Jail today without bond as police continue to investigate the murder of her mother, 47-year-old Yun Mi Hoy.

Guzman was arrested Thursday morning after police found her hiding out in a parking garage near her home, having fled from the scene of the crime.

According to the affidavit, Isabella had grown 'more threatening and disrespectful' towards her mother leading up to her death.

It's still unclear what exactly her mother was worried about, but neighbors report calling the police in the past when they saw men jumping over a fence into the family's backyard.

Those men were later discovered to be Isabella's boyfriends paying her a visit.

The day before her mother was killed, Isabella spit on her mother and sent her an email threatening: 'You will pay.'

Mrs Hoy had grown so scared of her daughter, that she called on her ex-husband, Isabella's father Robert Guzman, to speak to the teenager.

Just three hours before Mrs Hoy way murdered, Robert Guzman paid a visit to the house his daughter lived in with his ex-wife and her new husband, Ryan Hoy.

As they sat in the backyard, he explained the importance of respecting your elders, and truly believed he had gotten through to her.

'In the conversation, I thought that I made progress,' Mr Guzman said, 'but obviously it didn't do nothing, because hours later, this thing happened.'

Mrs Hoy's husband Ryan Hoy was home when the fight broke out Wednesday night.

He says his wife had just returned from work around 9:30pm when she went upstairs to take a shower.

Mr Hoy was eating when he heard a thumping sound upstairs and his wife calling his name.

He ran to the upstairs bathroom, but Isabella quickly shut and locked the door and he noticed blood streaming under the door.

Mr Hoy called 911 as he heard his wife say 'Jehovah'.

Soon after, Isabella emerged from the bathroom and walked out holding the knife, staring straight forward as she passed her stepfather and went downstairs.

Mr Hoy tried to revive his wife but knew she was already dead by the look in her eyes.

When police arrived they officially pronounced Mrs Hoy dead.

Aurora police officer Frank Fania described the scene as 'pretty gruesome'.
Mrs Hoy was found stabbed a reported 78 times in the face and neck.

Isabella had since left the scene of the crime, and wasn't tracked down until near noon the next day.

Police found Isabella after receiving a report that there was a body inside a car at a parking garage less than a mile from the Hoy household.

When officers arrived, they found the car but no body inside.

'They did find items in the car, however, that led them to believe these items were related to the earlier homicide,' Fania told 7News.
Eventually police discovered Isabella leaving the parking garage. Witnesses watched as three police officers pulled out guns and ordered the teen to the ground, and took her into custody.

Isabella is currently being held at Arapahoe County Jail without bond as police continue to investigate the homicide.

She appeared briefly in court today, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and a bandage on her right wrist.

Her father said he is 'heartbroken' and 'upset' over the grisly death of his ex-wife.

'Isabella is a good kid, she's a good hearted [sic]. But I don't know what could've happened, honestly, to provoke this kind of reaction,' Mr Guzman said

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2407472/Mother-received-threatening-email-daughter-Yun-Mi-Hoy-day-fatally-stabbed-78-times.html

Anonymous said...

I too wonder about Sherry Wests' prior involvement with the shooter. Why wouldn't she hand over the purse, knowing there was nothing inside of any value; yet she steadfastly refuses to hand it over?

With a gun staring you in the face and your baby being threatened and you would refuse to cooperate with a thug? Ain't no way!

Had she made some sort of prior arrangement with Lang to approach her, demand the purse and threaten to shoot the baby if she did not comply? Even allowing him to count down twice while holding a gun on her? It certainly could appear to be this is exactly what happened.

Tania Cadogan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tania Cadogan said...

What is telling about this crime is not the age of the killer, the fact she telegraphed her intentions, not the fact she stabbed her mom 78 times.
What is telling is WHERE she stabbed her mom!

Stabbing her mom 78 times in the face and neck shows how much of a rage she was in, at that point she hated her mom with every part of her being, she wanted to wipe her mom's identity from the face of the earth, she wanted to obliterate her completely and utterly.

Our face is our identity, it is how we are recognised, it is a reflection of who we are, our eyes being the windows to the soul.

By stabbing her mom where she did and the number of times she did, she efhectively erased her mom's personality, her identity, her being.

This wasn't a child having a hissy fir or even a tantrum, this was out and out beserker rage, she kept going long after her mom was dead, this was complete overkill.

This is similar to what jodi arias did, she killed him 3 times, shooting, stabbing 29 times and slitting his throat from ear to ear.

This was revenge, i will have my way, you will not stop me, i will make you do what i want, if you try and stop me YOU WILL PAY!

This girl has probably shown a tendency to anger before, there are always warning signs, they telegraph their actions to the world.

If family and friends look back at their interactions with her, they will have seen the flashes of temper, the stubborness, even arrogance

She will kill again if someone tries to stop her doing or getting what she wants, arias told us "If you're not abusing me and attacking me and threatening to kill my life, there's no reason to fear."

Basically that means if she doesn't get her own way each and every single time then you have a reason to fear her, as we have seen, she gives us good cause to fear her rage, Yravis died because he said no to arias.

Anonymous said...

Hobnob, when I read this part of your OT I oddly enough thought of Hannah Anderson's mom being tortured, her head beaten in by a crowbar...odd, I wonder why my mind went there...

'Stabbing her mom 78 times in the face and neck shows how much of a rage she was in, at that point she hated her mom with every part of her being, she wanted to wipe her mom's identity from the face of the earth, she wanted to obliterate her completely and utterly.'