I’m No Fan of A-Rod, But…
Nope, I am not now, nor have I ever been a fan of Alex Rodriguez. And for previously publicized reasons of my own, but I do not hesitate to say:
Alex Rodriguez is one of the best baseball players I, or you, have ever seen play the game. Unless you just hate the guy or don’t get baseball, there’s no argument to be had. Was it the right thing to dabble in Performance Enhancing Drugs, (PEDs) from 2001 – 2003? (as he has confessed). That’s debatable. Was it the wrong thing? Probably.
I’m not one to judge the sincerity of an apology from someone I do not personally know, but I’ll say this for A-Rod, his coming-clean party was the first time, outside of injury, that I felt an athlete gave a legitimate response as to why they did what they did. As I took it, Rodriguez told ESPN’s Peter Gammons, when asked why he took PEDs, and I’m paraphrasing here: “I just signed a ten year, 252 million dollar deal. Dude, that’s the biggest contract ever ! You don’t think I felt the pressure to be the best baseball player in history.” By no means am I advocating the use of steroids, PEDs, HGH and/or any other banned substance. But it’s time to move on. What has happened has happened, and you know what, it all counts !
You cannot undo the history of baseball just because you don’t like it. How many era’s of baseball have we seen ? The “dead ball” era, low pitcher’s mounds, high pitchers mounds, and back again. The “amphetamine” era. You can go on and on about how this era was better than that one. That’s one of the many beauties, and root of many a baseball argument. Now we can add, the “steroid “era, and let the arguments commence.
The simple fact of the matter is, it happened. Every home run, every base hit, every strike-out, it all happened and you can’t go back and say that it didn’t. We don’t know when it started and we don’t know when it will end. And you most certainly cannot just erase some numbers.
You can fix the problem, which, like it or not, baseball is seemingly attempting to do. For all I care, if you get caught using one of these substances now, ban ‘em for life, that’s fine, but you cannot undo history. Baseball will survive, it always has.
One closing note: Before you start espousing your moral authority, do your homework, have a clue as to what it is you’re speaking or writing about, and then, count to ten, take a deep breath, and MOST importantly, take a good, long look in the mirror…
Posted: February 10th, 2009 under Scotts Thoughts.
Comments
Comment from Paul
Time February 10, 2009 at 2:51 pm
The Hall of Fame voters are going to have to make a decision about the steroid era. How will they ever know who did steroids or not. What if it’s found out newly elected R.Henderson has used steroids at one time? Can you ever feel safe any future nominee is steroid free. Baseball owners looked the other way and the union tried to put off testing for years. Put an * by thier names and let them in,records and all!
Comment from scott
Time February 10, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Thanks Joleen, not even Mrs. Blackwood agrees with me 100%. EVER…
SB
Comment from scott
Time February 11, 2009 at 3:35 am
Paul – Don’t know if I’m comfortable (satisfied) putting it in the hands of the HOF voters to determine what is right or wrong. I love you’re hypothetical about someone having already being voted in (Rickey Henderson) and then being “outed” for “using.” I’m of the belief that the Hall of Fame is already watered down with “really good” players, not players that were “GREAT!” My favorite example is the Mark McGwire debate. In my opinion, McGwire is NOT a Hall of Famer, not because of any alleged transgressions or dopey Congressional testimoney. He just simply was not a “GREAT” baseball player. As always, thanks for the responses…SB
Comment from Joleen
Time February 10, 2009 at 7:12 am
As usual I agree with you %100 percent. People should not speak about that which they do not know.