A-Rod's Background Points to Troubled Path

Judgment Day for Alex Rodriguez has arrived. Major League Baseball hit the Yankees slugger with a 211-game suspension that will keep him out the rest of this season and through 2014.  

Rodriguez was one of 13 players suspended by league officials Monday as part of its investigation into performance enhancing drugs peddled through the Florida-based anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis.

The suspension goes into affect Thursday, but the 38-year-old is expected to appeal the decision.

New York Times Contributing Sports Columnist George Vecsey wrote about how Rodriguez’s background and what it may have to do with his current situation. Vecsey calls Rodriguez’s abandonment by his father when he was nine years old “the central part of his personality.”

“He doesn’t seem to be able to make connections that more social people do,” Vecsey said. “He doesn’t really know how to act.”

To hear WNYC's Amy Eddings interview Vecsey, click the audio link above.