Alex Rodriguez ripped the Astros and remained one of the biggest frauds in sports

Is anyone really buying what Alex Rodriguez is trying to sell?

Alex Rodriguez, the man who cheated throughout his MLB career and never showed much remorse for doing so, became the latest in the baseball world to take the cheating Houston Astros to task for their sign-stealing scandal that led to their World Series title in 2017.

How. Rich.

A-Rod ripped the Astros on ESPN while broadcasting Tuesday’s spring training game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. And in doing so, he made it about himself while also reminding everyone just how much of a fraud he can be when given the chance to speak on just about anything regarding truth and merit.

Here’s part of what he said:

“I think the one thing that has really upset the fans is you cheat, you win a championship, there is no suspension, and then there’s no remorse. The last one I think is probably the worst one because people want to see remorse. They want a real, authentic apology. And they have not received that thus far.”

I mean, it doesn’t get more laughable than that coming from A-Rod. Remember when he finally apologized before spring training in 2015 after being suspended for a year? Was that apology remorseful? No, no it wasn’t. Instead, it was a five-paragraph letter that he wrote to fans (yuck). That letter makes the Astros’ pathetic attempts to apologize before spring training look like some of the most sincere apologies I’ve ever seen.

Included in A-Rod’s “remorseful” apology were these very special words (he later had this cringy “apology” at the ESPY’s in 2015):

To the Fans,

I take full responsibility for the mistakes that led to my suspension for the 2014 season. I regret that my actions made the situation worse than it needed to be. To Major League Baseball, the Yankees, the Steinbrenner family, the Players Association and you, the fans, I can only say I’m sorry.

I accept the fact that many of you will not believe my apology or anything that I say at this point. I understand why and that’s on me. It was gracious of the Yankees to offer me the use of Yankee Stadium for this apology, but I decided that next time I am in Yankee Stadium, I should be in pinstripes doing my job.

So remorseful, right? If you’ve seen the great documentary on A-Rod and the Steroid Era called “Screwball” then you know just how boldly A-Rod cheated, how strongly he attacked those that accused him of doing it, and how insincere he was throughout the whole process after he got caught.

Now he’s saying stuff like this during Tuesday’s broadcast and we’re supposed to commend him for it?

“I served the longest suspension in Major League Baseball history, it cost me well over $35 million, and you know what? I deserved that. And as a result, I came back. I owned it after acting like a buffoon for a long time.”

No thank you.

A-Rod did serve a long suspension and he did lose over $35 million, which nobody should feel bad about considering how much money he made off the game and how he blatantly cheated throughout the years.

But now it feels like the only ones who have been punished for A-Rod’s cheating is us, the fans, who have to listen to him call games, because I can’t imagine many people enjoy listening to him babble on and on and on. It feels like he has two fans – an executive at ESPN and an executive at Fox Sports who think America wants more A-Rod in our lives.

But here’s the thing – we don’t want more A-Rod in our lives. At all. His broadcasts are painful to listen to. Just look at Twitter on Sunday nights this season and you’ll quickly see that A-Rod is far from beloved as an analyst.

The A-Rod Resurrection Tour, meanwhile, continues to march on. I’m sure he drove home from Tuesday’s game patting himself on the back for really putting himself out there in ripping the Astros. I’m sure he sees Tuesday as a win for Team A-Rod.

But yeah, I’m not buying it at all.

Tuesday’s biggest winner: Shaq’s hairline.

Shaquille O’Neal lost a friendly wager with Dwyane Wade and had to grow out his hair so everyone could see his hairline… and man does he look different/incredible. NBA fans, of course, had lots of jokes about Shaq’s new look.

Quick hits: Grading Broncos-Jags trade… Reggie Miller mocks Knicks… What should Redskins do?… And more!

– Our Steven Ruiz will be grading all the big NFL deals that happen over the offseason, including Thursday’s trade between the Broncos and Jaguars.

– Reggie Miller playfully mocked the Knicks over their treatment of Spike Lee.

– What should the Washington Redskins do with the No. 2 pick? We ranked three different options.

– “Snacks” is the hero we all need right now.

– If you’re looking for a great true-crime podcast to binge, check out the entire first season our podcast called “The Sneak.” It’s awesome, and I’m not just saying that because my boss, Nate Scott, put about 9 million hours into creating it.

This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.