The news that A-Rod tested positive for steroids was an announcement that caught me off guard. While we have reached a point where its hard to be surprised by baseball players testing positive for steroids, I for some reason had developed this belief that A-Rod was one of the "clean" guys, to the same manner that many of us believe, and hope, that Derek Jeter himself is also clean.
At first I was surprised. Then as I thought more about it, I wasn't as surprised. I was, if anything, more disappointed with this news. I am someone that has a very strong opinion about the use of steroids and I have researched the topic as a thesis for one of my college courses. The thing that kills me about this also is when people say that steroids do not have effect on a players ability to play the game. Lets get the straight once and for all people. THESE GUYS ARE NOT RISKING THEIR HEALTH AND TAKING STEROIDS IF IT HAS NO BENEFIT TO THEM. Why would you take something that doesn't give you an edge. Hey lets just take steroids for the hell of it everyone, cause its the cool thing to do. Yea right.
This whole debate or discussion or whatever you call it has left me angry. It befuddles me how I hear people making excuses and justifications for the use of steroids. The biggest factor, one that I often hear people making, is that steroids weren't illegal to use in baseball until 2004 (or whatever year it as). This answer kills me because steroids have been ILLEGAL to possess in the United States since 1991. Hello people, it shouldn't matter if it was illegal in baseball or not; its against the law!
Regardless of it being the law or not, I am just sick of this A-Rod nonsense. I am sick of people making excuses for this guy, and all of these other players that have been caught using steroids. While I am glad A-Rod admitted using, well wait, he really never technically admitted to using steroids per se did he? He pulled another Giambi I suppose, in a more detailed manner than the ever vague Giambi was.
Lets just look at A-Rods so called "confession." This is based purely on my memory, so hopefully its as accurate as what I can recall.
1. The first minute or so he tells us that he is guilty of something. I don't recall him using the word steroid. But it appeared to be a big step. It was strange actually hearing this come from him though. It seems more real than reading it in a newspaper article.
2. As the interview progresses, it starts getting more interesting, and less believable. He starts mentioning the word "culture" about 12 times. He has also managed to call himself an idiot, stupid, and something else I cant recall. Ok, I agree, was stupid. We all make mistakes.
3. Now is where he starts to lose me. I really think Alex doubts our intelligence at times. Now hes claiming that the drugs he got were basically at a GNC. He is making insinuations that he had no clue what he was taking. That it was a variety of things and he was just giving what people were handing him. That statement to me is unbelievable. I can remember reading articles about how meticulous A-Rod is about what he eats and what goes into that body of his. That's strike one.
4. Strike two comes as he tries to tell us all that he was so "young and naive" and how he did it because he wanted to live up to his contract. First of all, Alex is no dummy, and he certainly wasn't young. The years he is claiming that he first began using steroids would place him around the age of 25 or so. Not nearly at a tender age of 18 or 19 when I would perhaps believe a young and impressionable player might succumb to the temptations of steroids without really knowing the consequence.
5. Do we all really buy that he started in 2001 and just suddenly stopped in 2003 when his neck began to hurt?
6. He goes on and on about how great it feels to finally be honest. Yet, to me it seems like a majority of this interview was lies. So much for honesty. Maybe he really tries to convince himself that he is being truthful, just like the interview he had with Katie Curic. I mean, just look at his comments about the Selena Roberts. He makes silly claims that he should know would be documented, and sets himself up again with more lies.
Are we all really this stupid? Or does he just hope we will be? I guess some people did fall for him. There is a point where we all do need to get over all this and move on. Its hard though as fans, especially if these players are guys that kids unfortunately look up to. In the end I blame Bud Selig and the players union who turned a blind eye. This was obviously prevalent for many years and all these people cared about was making money. Well, they got their money all right and I hope they are satisfied.
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2 comments:
The A-Rod Rod thing should be put the bed.
You did a very good job of listing reasons for us not to "Get over it", although I don't agree with all of your suppositions.
Being a lot older then you are, I have seen juiced; bats, balls and players, the one thing I found constant was; "If one was doing it, their were many many more doing the same".
There can be no excuses for what he did conversely, there can be forgiveness! He has been clean sense being a Yankee...that's what counts in my book.
Again, very good artical! Let's hope this blows over and we get back to winning our 27th WS.
Thanks Ranger. I agree, it needs to be put to bed and I think it could have ended sooner if he was more honest.
Forgiveness is key too like you said. he clearly was not the only guy to use steroids. A lot of these players are guilty and its not fair to single out one guy, or a handful of guys, when they clearly were not alone.
On that note, I cant wait for the season to start
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