A-Rod listed the best hitters he's ever seen and a few have something in common

Did you know that Alex Rodriguez is versatile? He’s not just a former baseball player and Sunday Night Baseball cohost. He can also host a morning show! A-Rod stepped in for two hours on Friday to help host ESPN’s morning show “Get Up!”, and he did a pretty good job.

Well, for the most part. At one point, he was asked to name the top five hitters he’s ever seen, i.e. the top five hitters who played while he played. So no Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams. And A-Rod’s list was decent, but a few of the guys he picked have something in common. See if you can figure it out!

First off, he named six hitters and not five, so automatic list fail. But secondly, as the tweet says, three of those five guys have either tested positive for PEDs, or have admitted to using them. David Ortiz never publicly tested positive or admitted to using PEDs, but a positive test from 2003 was leaked in 2009, though the results were supposed to stay confidential. Manny Ramirez tested positive in 2009 and 2011. And Barry Bonds was even charged with perjury for lying about taking steroids. Those charges were eventually dropped, and Bonds admitted he had taken PEDs. All of that is pretty funny considering A-Rod himself also used PEDs.

A-Rod might have an unconscious bias (or maybe a conscious one), but there’s no one on that list who doesn’t belong, so we can cut him a little slack. He played his entire career in the American League, and 12 of his 22 seasons in the game were spent with the New York Yankees. He played the Boston Red Sox a LOT, so you can kind of understand the inclusion of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.

But there are a few hitters he definitely saw at various points, even incidentally, that also belong on that list. Let’s see what the internet has to say, shall we?

Tony Gwynn was not on that list! Tony Gwynn was almost certainly the best pure hitter of that generation. There’s also Miguel Cabrera, Jim Thome, the list goes on and on. That era in baseball is full of really great hitters. If you ask five people that same question, you’d probably get five different lists. A-Rod’s list obviously is just his opinion — but it’s pretty funny that his list is a little heavy on the PED users. Actually, maybe this is the funniest thing of all.

Admit it — A-Rod putting himself at No. 1 on a list of the best hitters he’s ever seen would be a very A-Rod thing to do.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter at @lizroscher.

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