Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has come in for a lot of criticism over the past couple of days, and I think that’s too bad. I admit that I’m not exactly up on the details of the controversy, since I’ve spent the last month concentrating on seeing the ball good, and taking it one day at a time, which (to be fair) is my job, and which has worked out pretty good, I think.
But I met the Attorney General several times, back when I was with the Rangers, and he always seemed like a good guy, a friendly guy, very pleasant and agreeable. After the game on several occasions, I’d get a call from Mr. Hicks inviting me to the owner’s box, and there he would be, sitting with the President, and Mr. Hicks and sometimes Condoleeza Rice. The President and Mr. Gonzales were usually on the way to or from one of his summer vacations in Crawford, and they’d stop by the Ballpark when they could, as guests of Mr. Hicks.
The President was always in a good mood when he was at the Ballpark, even after a Rangers loss, talking about all the good times he had as an owner of the club, and you could see that Mr. Gonzales felt the same way, even though he didn’t talk much. It’s funny, he always struck me as kind of a shy and quiet guy, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for him when I happened to catch a bit of his recent appearance at Congress on the TV in the weight room. (Ever since he went on the DL, Mussina spends pretty much every minute rehabbing while watching C-SPAN.) Really, I can barely remember one thing he said to me… he mostly just smiled and nodded at what the President was saying, but in a very friendly way.
It’s funny, one thing I do remember… I’ve met a lot of Hispanic politicians and political figures over the years, and when they speak to me, they almost always make a point of speaking in Spanish. Which is fine. Obviously, I’m perfectly comfortable speaking Spanish or English. But the Attorney General was the only Hispanic political person I can recall meeting who pretty much spoke only English to me. Again, really, he didn’t say more than ten words to me, but that stuck with me. And to be honest, I kind of respected that. A lot of Hispanic politicians try to make a point of being mi hermano, you know? Which I totally understand. I mean, that’s politics. But not Mr. Gonzales. It was like he wasn’t trying to impress anybody. He just seemed content to sit there and be a nice, friendly guy.
So like I said, I felt kind of bad for him, sitting there and trying to answer those questions from the Congress. And even though I don’t really follow the news, it’s hard not to notice that the press has been coming down kind of hard on him, which I totally understand. I’ve been there. It’s hard to do your job when everyone’s trying to kick you when you’re down. But the media’s always like that, always trying to manufacture a story, whether it’s me, or the Attorney General, or those poor soldiers stuck in that Abu Gharib mess. Sometimes it’s all I can do to just say, “Hey, buddy, just go rake your mud somewhere else, OK? I’m just doing my best over here.”
So I want to echo the President’s words and say that Attorney General Gonzales has my full confidence, and I’m sure he’s doing everything he can to be the best Attorney General he can be, which is all anyone can ask of him. I’m pretty sure those Congressmen and guys on the news have never been under the kind of day-to-day pressure that Mr. Gonzales is, and I think they could stand to go a lot easier on him. Like I said, I’ve been there. When I was going through my slump last year, you heard all sorts of people saying I should be traded, that I was washed up, and all sorts of other stuff like that. But had any of those talk radio guys or newspaper writers actually stood in the batter’s box against guys like Johan Santana and Roy Halladay and Curt Schilling? No way. And as much as I tried to make that clear, and that I was doing the best I could, it was like no one wanted to hear it or believe it.
Honestly, I think that’s what’s going on here. I think Mr. Gonzales is probably a nice guy who hit a patch of bad luck, like a pitcher who got tagged with a loss because some of the guys made some tough errors behind him. That’s a rough place to be, whether you’re the pitcher, or the guy who made the errors, or just one of the fans, or the Attorney General, or whatever. It’s just a tough situation. Running the country is like being part of a ballclub… you win or lose as a team, and it’s never just one guy’s fault.
So I believe in the Attorney General, and I think the best thing for this country would be for everyone to just back off a little, and give him some room to answer his critics, kind of like I’ve been able to do. I hope that for once, the media can just get over whatever grudges they’re holding and help bring America together. After all, I wasn’t a Yankee on September 11, 2001, but I know about the pain and heartbreak New York went through that day, and nothing means more to me than knowing that every one of my record-setting home runs for the month of April has helped to heal this city from the scars of that terrible day.
So to borrow a saying from my good friend Manny Ramirez, I think we’ve all got to just let Attorney General Gonzales be Attorney General Gonzales, and give him some “head space.” I know there’s no real off-season in politics. But maybe they can work something out where Mr. Gonzales can just take a few months off, do a little training, give him a chance to read up on some laws or something and come back in better shape than before. I think if everyone in the press and in the Congress could just cool off for a while, they’d see that Mr. Gonzales is actually a pretty terrific Attorney General and a nice guy who’s got feelings too. And then Mr. Gonzales can come back rested and focused, and win a lot of cases or arrest some bad guys or fire a bunch of prosecutors or do whatever being a good Attorney General is all about.
I know that there are already a couple of great players who go by the nickname “A-Gonz,” like the Reds’ Alex Gonzales and the Padres’ Adrian Gonzales, both of whom I consider to be fantastic players and really good friends. But I think it’d be a really nice gesture if they could maybe give up their nicknames for a little while and let the Attorney General be known as “A-Gonz.” Because he’s earned it, and he could use a little pick-me-up right now. And like Alex and Adrian know, there’s nothing that helps an A-Gonz more than knowing that A-Rod is pulling for you and considers you a good friend.
Alex Rodriguez has donated the maximum $2,300 to the primary campaign of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.