Yesterday, Joe Girardi discussed Selena Roberts' new book about Alex Rodriguez, which is due to release today. He made several good points about the lives of athletes off the field.

From the New York Daily News's Anthony McCarron:

"I don't want this Alex thing to be a target," an emotional Girardi said. "I have some issues with it. It's interesting that the book (release) date got moved up. And I get tired of answering these questions. It's just ... I don't understand why someone would write a book like this anyway. Some people might not care to hear that, but I don't understand it.

"I have three small kids and there are things in my life that I probably wish I could have a re-do on and I wouldn't necessarily want those dragged through the mud.

"I think sometimes that, you know, things are written about that none of us are proud of. There are things in my life I'm not proud of. I wouldn't want my kids to have to deal with that. I tell my kids that Daddy makes mistakes and I apologize for them. I say, 'Daddy's not perfect.' But it's not necessarily something that I'd want them to read about all the time and to be the focus. This man wants to be a father, too."

The Daily News reported some details of the book last week and the release date was moved up to Monday. Girardi was unhappy about what he perceived as tidbits about Rodriguez's personal life and said he worried about Rodriguez's two young daughters dealing with fallout.

...

As to why she wrote the book, Roberts said, "I think Alex is a complicated, fascinating personality and I thought he was a good book subject. And I think what I've done - if you read the book in full - it's not an excoriation. It's an explanation concerning just who is Alex Rodriguez as the greatest and richest player in the game."

The portions of the book that have been released certainly don't paint Rodriguez in a good light, as a baseball player or as a human. None of us want our dirty laundry to be aired out, and I'm betting Rodriguez is no exception.

As right Girardi is that Rodriguez deserves some sort of privacy, sports writers will continue to pound out these types of books. It's the nature of the media and the nature of sports writers. Buyers are going to love this book because of its voyeuristic view of Rodriguez's life.

The only cure is for athletes to live clean lives: Don't do anything you'd want anybody else to find out about. Rodriguez certainly hasn't been doing that. It's a shame he hasn't, but it's also a shame that people feel it's necessary to write about it.

As a side note, when's the book about Girardi coming out? From his quote, it sounds like some enterprising reporter might have some stuff to dig up.

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