The impression I came away with from reading "The Education of Alex Rodriguez" was not so much that he's a narcissist (cf. Donald Trump, Kanye West) as that he just has low intelligence. I don't mean that in a flippant "Man, what an idiot! How could he act that way?" sense; I just mean literally he seems to have a lower IQ than all the people around him, and he's just trying to follow everyone's advice because he knows they're smarter than he is. That's actually the same thing I've heard about Shoeless Joe. I don't think either of them is particularly heroic, or even brave, and the word tragic is overused, but I think for both men their situation is sad and is more understandable in light of appreciating what it would be like to be in the spotlight and being constantly worried that everyone is on the verge of recognizing that you have this embarrassing flaw. So what do you do? You latch on to the people around you and say the things they tell you to say or the things you've heard them say (This is why he only speaks in cliches. He lacks the aptitude to conceive of anything clever to say on his own.) and act the way they tell you to act ("Hey, Alex, why don't you kiss that mirror? That would make a great picture.") or the way you've seen them act.
There's a reason that in the more serious case of the death penalty there is an IQ cutoff (70 here in Florida). A-Rod's clearly not in that range, but I'd be surprised if his IQ was above 85. That's not particularly unusual; it just means he's in the bottom sixth of the population. I don't see anything untoward about expecting people who in fact are smarter to be able to act smarter. I don't think A-Rod is a bad person. He's a great baseball player, he cheated, he was punished, and he's doing the right things now. I agree with the sentiment of allowing someone to move on with his life after he has done his time.
The answer to the original question is yes.
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