So Alex Rodriguez got caught cheating on his wife with a stripper in May, but at the end of the year he's on GQ's Men of the Year 2007 list?
It seems to me that if a man's infidelity results in the public humiliation of his wife, he ought to go at least a year without paeans being composed in his honor. GQ is probably the least manly men's magazine out there, and so it's understandable why the editorial staff might be unacquainted with any kind of traditional standard of male behavior. The magazine's pronunciations on the most commendable men of the year should thus be given little weight.
The back story for those of you who weren't paying attention: at the end of May Yankees 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez was caught cheating on his wife Cynthia Rodriguez [at right] with a noticeably muscular stripper named Joslyn Noel Morse. Another stripper familiar with A-Rod's preferences told the New York Daily News that the baseball player "likes the she-male, muscular type."
Which isn't really fair, because while Morse is definitely buff, she otherwise appears about as manly as a one of those frilly bath sponges that smell like rose water.
Regardless, the stripper's catty quip has seen wide circulation.
A-Rod did a brief atonement lap and then he and his wife made some awkward public reconciliation appearances.
Many people observed at the time that Cynthia Rodriguez is herself pretty jacked, as can be seen in these photos:
In this last photo I'll share - taken just the other day at the GQ Men of the Year party - Cynthia looks about five months along, and thus not particularly buff.
I had missed that Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez are attempting that age-old fix for a failing marriage - they announced it back in October.
I'm sure that will work out for them.
I'm glad that a well-known athlete has publicly demonstrated attraction to visibly muscular women.
I just wish he wasn't such a cad about it, and I can't understand why people are applauding him so soon after being caught out.
Lots of professional athletes - possibly almost all of them - cheat on their wives or girlfriends when traveling. I know one former NFL player who came up with a whole moral rationalization architecture for why it was OK to cheat on his wife - the guy would sit in the front pew at church without feeling any real conflict about his hypocrisy. So for a moment let's accept their rationalizations, and assume that A-Rod has a similar rationalization that allows him to avoid feeling guilt for cheating. That still leaves DISCRETION. If he has any regard for his wife and kids, he still has to avoid being caught. He didn't do that, even though it would have been relatively easy.
So shame on him for cheating, but double-shame on him for being photographed in public with Morse.
