THEY were out. That is what the Yankees will always regret. Fifteen months ago, they were out from Alex Rodriguez.
The Yankees initially said they were done with him. Oh, how they will regret not following their initial instincts.
Except now Rodriguez is going to be just another baseball mug shot alongside Bonds. Forget the celebration. With the revelation today by Sports Illustrated that Rodriguez tested positive in 2003 for two anabolic steroids, his chase becomes soiled. And, in the more immediate future, his association with the Yankees becomes more destructive -- and not just to him.
Let's face it, A-Rod is human Velcro. Everything negative sticks to him. He is a heat-seeking missile of controversy whether it is sabotaging his relationship with Derek Jeter or canoodling with Madonna. His ego demands overflow attention and his insecurity assures that he cannot handle it. And his stature assures that all of his problems will become the team's problems, placing a hurdle to success even larger than his abundant talent.
Sherman mentions a lot of things that are not related to steroids; Madonna, his friendship with Jeter, etc. And even though I've really never been a big A-Rod fan, I could look past that stuff because I always admired his talent. He's clearly one of the most talented ballplayers any of us have ever seen. What made that talent so special was that we all thought he was doing it the right way, without PEDs.Everything negative sticks to him. And he is a black hole as a person, sucking all life in a clubhouse through his needy, greedy character. The Yankees knew that when he was out. They stupidly let him back in.
Let the regret continue.
(Although I did have some doubts.)
But now with today's news that's overwith. As Sherman says, he's another Barry Bonds.
I think Sherman is right, there are probably a lot of people in those Yankees' offices kicking themselves today because they're stuck with A-Roid for another 9 seasons.
10 Comments:
If A-Rod wins a championship and plays well in the playoffs yankees and there fans will not regret signing him. He has obviously been clean since he has become a yankee due to the new testing.
I say release the other 103 players and you will see other big time players from other clubs on there too. I'm tired of the whole steroid issue.
This is honestly unreal. I am, for the first time when it comes to the steroid allegations, speechless. I can't explain my emotions. Out of all people I thought A-Rod was clean. I thought his HR Chase would be something great for baseball to get past this era, but now its just going to be tainted.
This is extremely disappointing. I guess the best thing A-Rod can do is admit he did it, how many years (honestly not lie and get caught later), and go out and have a huge year next year showing he didn't need roids.
Can we stop.. Like we didn't think he used before. All of us had an idea, we all thought well maybe. You want to know the truth.. how do we know more Yankee's didn't use roids..
Remember the year tino and Mark were leading the league in HR's - What if it came out our beloved Tino did them.. Andy did. What about Paul O'Neill.. You mean to tell me its not possible? what about Bernie Williams?
There was an time in Baseball where they all knew of someone doing it, they saw results.. and thought.. why not, there is no rule against it. A Rod has won an MVP's after that.. with testing.
Enough already.. the sports media is going to drain the life out of this season for us.
Somewhere Cashman is telling Hank "I told you so".
Not that Cashman knew Arod was doing roids. but he was willing to let him walk after 07.
The Yankees as an organization didn't go back on their word when they said "if you opt out we're not signing you". It was that clown Hank that over ruled Cashman. Who made the organization collectively look like idiots after saying if you opt out you're not back.
We don't know he's been clean as a Yankee. MLB doesn't test for HGH.
As a Yanks fan living in Boston, A-Rod has been THE single biggest topic of all Yankees-related conversations that I've had with Sox fans. They absolutely despise him, thought he was a preening phony who was always looking out for himself first. I have tried my best to defend him, but at this point I'm done.
I've never been a fan of A-Rod himself, but when he was traded to NY, he was part of the team. He became one of our guys, like the elderly relative that you think is a bit weird, but you accept because s/he is family. After the shenanigans of the opt-out last year, the fury of Sox fans reached an all time high and I kept on defending him. It was all Boras' idea, etc, etc... I didn't blame them in the least, as I thought it was a pretty classless move, but once he re-upped, he part of the team again. Again, one of our guys, worthy of the same type of defense as Jeter, Mo, or Posada.
I can't say I'm surprised or that I really even care if the allegations prove correct. I think that a wide majority of fans really don't care about steroids. But the continued black eye that A-Fraud brings to my favorite team has become indefensible.
The genuine excitement of spring training and the 2009 season has been sucked out of the air, knowing that I'll have to make half-assed attempts to defend him because he wears the colors of my hometown team. Forget that Cash and the Steinbrothers have made major improvements to the team, because the taint of A-Rod is going to haunt my team (and yours) for the next 9 years and that just plain old sucks.
- Brian
Cant really blame Hank if they knew A-Rod did steroids I'm sure they wouldn't have resigned him after he opted out. He just came off that mvp season. The Steinbrenner's are the best owners in sports I dont care if they ran over my cat, I cant get mad at them.
You're right anon. I don't blame anyone but A-Rod here. He's always been a player most people not named Jose Canseco considered clean.
And yes, the Steinbrenner's are the best in sports. I wouldn't want anything more from an owner.
Well, I've spent some time thinking about this, and maybe it's awful of me as a sports fan and awful of me as a Yankee fan, but I really just don't care that much. If I found this out about Jeter or Mattingly or Mo, I probably be more hurt about it.
In the end, the only thing I hope is that it's not a distraction.
It's kind of hard to fault players for things like this when it was such a big part of the culture of baseball at the time. That period (1995 - 2003) was facilitated by Bud Selig turning away from what was clearly becoming a problem. So many people swept things under the rug that it's not just the players that are to fault for this. Literally hundreds of people allowed this to happen.
That's not to say that a player who does this should be blameless, but at this point what can you do? You almost have to look past it now, as it's IN the past. What baseball needs to do is look forward and do everything they can to make sure that what happened back then doesn't happen again.
"The genuine excitement of spring training and the 2009 season has been sucked out of the air"
Brian,
This is how I feel too, and it's frustrating because I was really looking forward to this season.
Anon,
As you said, I would also be much more upset if this was Mo, Jeter, or Mattingly, but for the reasons mentioned above it still bothers me.
It will also likely be a major distraction to not only A-Roid, but to the new and old Yankees who have to answer questions about this everyday.
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