Unless you have been living under a rock for the last week or you don't care about sports at all, you should be aware that Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees third baseman, is closing in on 600 home runs for his career. There are only 6 players with that many home runs in a career, so you would think this is a big deal...not so fast my friend.
A-Rod, ( or A-Roid ), as some of us affectionately refer to him, has been linked in the past to steroid use and his "somewhat" admission of using illegal substances early in his career seems to have all of a sudden earned him a free pass.
Well, just how many home runs did he hit while on the juice? Was it 100?, 200? or a lot more? Most pro athletes when they admit to wrongdoing, tend to undertsate the true scope of their transgressions. For example, Andy Pettitte claimed that he only used the juice one time when he was getting over an injury. One time Andy, really? Just one time? Just one little shot in the buttocks on one occasion? Does anyone really beleive that?
Just as Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and all the rest of the cheaters won't be looking at Hall of Fame status anytime soon, we can all bet that A-Rod will join that list for a good long time when he finally hangs the syringe up next to his glove.
Barry Bonds was villified for streroid use and he never failed a test for steroids. Why is A-Rod so special that he would think that we all should forgive him and act as though it never happened?
Besides his steroid use, A-Rod is a disaster waiting to happen, whether it's his flavor-of-the-month girlfriends, his GQ photo shoot, his loose tongue or his inability to stay under the radar.
Derek Jeter has dated at least a half dozen of the hottest women in the world according to Maxim's Top 100 list, yet we don't hear about it. He knows how to stay classy and keep private things just that, private. He does not have that " look at me" attitude all the time.
We all think that A-Rod has had it tough. That is so wrong. He did not grow up poor in a bad neighborhood. He did not have drug sales on the streets where he lived. He went to a preppy high school and hung out with preppy people. He always thought that he was above the rest and the arrogance continues today.
At games, Derek Jeter is always amenable to having photos taken with fans and signing balls, programs and hats. A-Rod just ignores whomever calls his name, forgetting that these are the people who pay his salary.
He was a loser in Seattle, a loser in Texas and a loser in New York until the Steinbrenner family went out and spent $230 million dollars to help surround him with enough talent to win.
I don't think for one second that he and some of these other maximum production guys are not still on some juice, whether it be HGH or something else that can't be tested for.
We'll never know what his stats would have looked like had he not been on the steroids. We do know that Bonds was a great player well before the steroid scandal hit. A-Rod would never make the Hall of Fame if I had a vote, right along with the other aforementioned cheaters. Hank Aaron will always be the home run champion in my mind, along with Ruth, Mays and Griffey.
A-Rod is the stiff of the week this week, but he's a stiff every week. No one is THAT important. This is a game, a game enjoyed by millions of hard-working people who come to admire excellence, not decadence and cheating.
No comments:
Post a Comment