PRELIMINARILY, “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez” does not promise a long shelf life.
“A little slow, to be honest,” said the security guard at the front door of Borders on Park Avenue, 10 feet from where Selena Roberts’ book on the Yankees star went on sale yesterday next to a book on Andrew Jackson. In our half-hour there, Old Hickory drew one browser and A-Rod none.
It was our fourth and final stop of 2½ hours killed perusing “A-Rod,” Monica Seles’ “Getting A Grip” and a Cloris Leachman biography while waiting for hordes that never appeared.
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Store managers and corporate spokespersons at Barnes & Noble and Borders were not revealing sales figures. At 5 p.m., Amazon.com was recording A-Rod as the 61st highest seller of the day, tops in baseball but not exactly “Marley and Me.””You want a book like this to be in the top 10 or 25 or so,” said Sara Nelson, former editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly, “Sixty is good but not surprising and not extraordinary.”
Must be some people out there who think like Joe Girardi.
“I have no intention to buy,” said Eddie Morr, a telecom engineer for Quest and the only “A-Rod” leafer spotted in our hour spent at the Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue. “This is curiosity.
“I think [Roberts] is money grabbing. Anything she says is not going to change my opinion. I like him and just want him to come back and do well.”
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If pitch-tipping, further revelations of sustained steroid use, dalliances with strippers and strained relationships with teammates couldn’t turn this guy onto the book and off of Rodriguez, could anything?
“Well, he can keep not hitting in the playoffs,” Morr said. “Then my patience is going to run out. Admittedly, there are a few times I booed him.”
A woman at the Barnes & Noble on Fifth, who said she was from the Netherlands, knew nothing about baseball but was curious who this A-Rod was. She wasn’t buying, either, but at long last, into the store charged Lanette Mannisto, human resource manager and a woman on a lunch break and a mission. She grabbed the top copy of A-Rod off the display and went directly to the cashier.
“Wanted to see what else [Roberts] has to say, not so much the strippers and the Madonna stuff but the tipping of pitches and HGH,” she said. “This isn’t like Jason Giambi. There seems to be more and more. [Rodriguez] isn’t very likable to begin with, the way he carries himself, kissing himself in the mirror, so full of himself.
“People had so much hope in him. He’s fallen. I feel like the last person to believe in is Derek Jeter. God forbid something should come out about him.”