In baseball, we love our numbers. And we love our heroes. And that brings us to Alex Rodriguez, a man who has committed a crime he doesn't even understand:
A crime against the once-proud history of his sport.
A-Rod didn't commit that crime alone, of course. In many ways, he is just the latest, greatest face of a mass conspiracy that has now succeeded in obliterating the quality that used to separate baseball from the rest of the sporting jungle.
Once, the numbers of baseball used to mean something special and magical. And the men who compiled those numbers were transcendent figures in American life.
But not now. Not anymore.
Now we've arrived at this sad and tragic place where the players missing from the Hall of Fame will tower over the men who are actually in the Hall of Fame.
That's the crime here. Oh, it may not just be his crime. It's a crime shared by everyone who allowed the Steroid Era to exist and persist. But that doesn't make our man A-Rod any more innocent, either. No, in some ways it makes him even more guilty.It's completely unfair to blame A-Rod for what the entire steroid era has done to the history of the game. It's also unfair to give him any more blame than Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens or any other cheater.
He was a special player, with a special gift -- and an even more special opportunity: He was the man with the opportunity to reconnect baseball's once-indelible dotted line between past and present, between great-grandsons and great-grandfathers, between his home plate and your hometown.
And now he's squandered that gift, squandered that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
So weep not for what A-Rod has done to himself.
Weep for what he's done to his sport.
With that said, I can't completely disagree with what Stark is saying. A-Rod was going to be the savior, he was going to be the guy to restore tainted records, and by cheating he did give up any chance of saving the game's history.
16 Comments:
It starts with the MLB organization as a whole and their inability to test for steroids and have harsh punishment set in stone. Not for the sake of baseballs purity but for the high school kid who now hears about all these substances and thinks he needs them to go to the next level. I blame MLB for not looking out for the little leaguer. They knew, of course they knew but it was good for gate. Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio?
Such a sad day to be a yankeee fan :( http://www.fanzak.com/Cheater
stark has it all wrong this is selig the owners and the players association thinking they could skip through this with a one year get out of jail free ans a cover your ass pr anony test in 2003. but the ponzi scheme fell apart because the test was never really anony, and mlb let a known tainted superstar be built up as the savior and now its an even bigger disaster.
btw i think this mess has an interest parallel to the govt gifting trillions to banks thinking it will leapfrog the econ crisis without having to pay any price.
Just hypothetically, how much could A-Rod get in a trade? How much more would we have to add to A-Rod to get Kemp/Martin.
So u guys know, I knew he was going to do something stupid, but not this stupid.
You guys are all exactly right, while A-Rod has no one to blame but his attention seeking self, MLB and the players union are just as much to blame for it coming to this.
Bob Costas is absolutely right when he said yesterday that if baseball had introduced some program like the NFL's, while not perfect, it would have a least kept it from growing out of the fringe culture in the 80's- mid 90's, to over take a large percentage of star players now.
A-Rod may well have messed up, but he is the victim of a conspiracy by Selena Roberts and her sources, and that is a much bigger story than yet another baseball player doing 'roids.
It will be interesting to see if any of the media has the guts to pursue it.
Stark is a clown. There is no way to prove that A-Rod actually tested positive and you know that MLB won't confirm it since it was supposed to be anonymous. Baseball players have been using enhancements forever (amphetamines, etc.). Ty Cobb one of the worst racists and biggest jerks in sports history is in the hall of fame so spare me the holy pedestal of the hall of fame. The bottom line is that if A-Rod performs to his ability this will go away. By the way, anyone who thinks teams and players actually care what the fans think has a short memory, just look at the strikes and insane price increases. I don't think the fact A-Rod may have done steroids before it was illegal in MLB will prevent me from telling my new son what an amazing player he was/is. Stark clearly enjoys being dramatic but this article is over the top. Go Yanks!
Stark is pandering so he dosen't burn bridges with MLB by attacking the commissioner as well. Bud Selig should be taking just as much of a beating.
Selig had a list with names and lied to all of our faces. Instead of trying to fix the mess, he continued to prop up Barry Bonds and then A-Rod, all the while knowing it was smoke and mirrors.
Of course Major League Baseball, the owners, and the players association are to blame for the steroid era. But how can any of you overlook what A-Rod had the chance to accomplish if he had stayed clean?
And to those who want to continue to denounce this report, I think you're just trying to protect your player. It's the same thing Barry Bonds supporters have been saying for years, only to be proven wrong over and over again.
If the article was about David Ortiz you'd believe it.
What I find most interesting is the type of steroid that he allegedly tested positive for. It is a weak steroid that is not widely used in baseball because it has very little effect on the overall strength of an individual. It is mostly used by body builders to make them look more cut. Was this A-rod being to afraid to take the strong stuff or was he taking it for his own vanity to look better? In any case what I do find more freighting is that the individual rights of an American citizen have been thrown out the window to sell a magazine. The list was ceiled under a court order, was taken by feds with out a warrant, and now are being made public when they were suppose to be destroyed. I understand the importance of the 1st amendment but we still have to defend the rights of the individual. There is a major legal issue at stake here and it is not just A-rod at stake. There are 103 other ballplayers on that list 93 of which were suppose to be left out of all of this.
No rights have been taken away, this isn't a court of law, and he's not going to jail.
As far as the court order, did you have a problem when other reports were leaked like Bonds'?
I understand the legal issue here, but a) don't blame the magazine, blame whoever leaked the info, and b) I'm not going to feel sorry for a guy who has made over $500 million dollars because he didn't get away with cheating.
I did have a problem when the info was leaked on Bonds, and if he did cheat, which it looks like he did, I wouldn't want him to get away with it.
I don't blame the magazine I know it kinda sounds that way and I am sorry. As for rights being taken away that would be A-rods rights to privacy and the 104 players rights against illeagal search and seizure which as of right now is being decided by the 9th circuit in regards to this very situation. The Feds had a warrant for the 10 names in the BALCO case to get their testing info and they took everyones. That is a gross expanding of the limits on the warrant. As for the test themselves the players were promised that they will be left annonimus and the results would be destroyed. That did not happen. No matter how much someone made they still should have the peice of mind to know that when they are told they will remain annonimus they will, and they should be protected by the Consitution.
The him i was referring to in the first sentance was A-rod.
Fair enough, there is a major problem with all the leaks.
"The Feds had a warrant for the 10 names in the BALCO case to get their testing info and they took everyones. That is a gross expanding of the limits on the warrant."
True.
"As for the test themselves the players were promised that they will be left annonimus and the results would be destroyed. That did not happen."
True, the union is one of the many guilty parties in this mess.
"No matter how much someone made they still should have the peice of mind to know that when they are told they will remain annonimus they will, and they should be protected by the Consitution."
Yes, he deserves rights, I'm not saying he doesn't. I just personally can't feel sorry for him about something like this.
True, in the end he did bring it on himself.
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