As Alex Rodriguez worked his way back to the Majors following surgery on his right hip, and finally arrived, the Yankees third baseman received mostly encouragement and sympathy from his peers.Does this guy have an opinion on Manny Ramirez, or any of the other several hundred steroid users throughout the steroid era? What about his own teammate Gary Matthews Jr. Matthews was linked to HGH a few years back so I guess he should never get another all-star vote too. Right Joe?
Don't include Angels left-hander Joe Saunders in his support group.
In fact, Saunders would probably like for A-Rod's name to be recalled from ballots for the 2009 All-Star Game.
Following an offseason of steroid revelations and confessions, Saunders said he would not vote for Rodriguez, regardless of whatever compelling numbers he puts up.
As Saunders put it to the Los Angeles Times, "It's over for him."
Speaking following Saturday night's game against Kansas City, flush with his 1-0 victory over previously unbeaten sensation Zack Greinke, Saunders didn't buy that fans are greeting the returning Rodriguez with a "forgive-and-forget" attitude.
"I think the fans do care," Saunders said. "Pretty much everybody wants a game without cheating."
Personally, I don't care if he is or isn't an all-star. But if he puts up numbers he probably deserves to be there. Based on all recent tests he's clean now, and that should be all that matters.
What do you guys think?
8 Comments:
i agree pretty gutty thing to say until it is your own teammate then he has no guts.
Greg I made the same point yesterday over at my blog. Why is he just singling out Arod, why could he not say something like "Arod and Manny won't get my votes" why just single Arod out?
To me this guy has not earned the right to say anything, When Roy Oswalt exploded at Arod it was understandable, Saunders is a young gun who is still trying to find his spotlight.
I personally don't think that any of the players should say a friggin' word about anyone.
They are all complicate in this because none of them said a word about it when it was all happening. And I don't believe for a minute that any of them didn't know what was going on.
The MLB Players Union, which they are all a part of, made damn sure that everyone kept quiet.
So if you didn't open your mouth while it was going on, you are guilty by association.
As for singling out ARod, it take a gutless wuss not to aim the finger at all of them including his own teammates.
If you want to take a stand, don't make an ignorant lame one... jackass.
Guy has one good game in his entire life and all of the sudden he wants to change the rules?
A-Rod tested positive in 2003. What that has to do with the 2009 All Star ballot is beyond me.
Saunders simply stating the obvious here. You are not an all star when you are 3-15 on the season, jk.
The fact that people call Saunders a mediocre pitcher shows how we are so defensive of A-Rod, because Saunders is currently better than what we got in the rotation.
It doesn't matter if Saunders is a 10 year vet or a 1st day player in the big leagues, if he wants to voice his opinion about players cheating themselves, others and the game that's his right.
As far as his only talking about A-Rod, he was probably only asked about A-Rod and this is why he didn't bring anyone else into it. Or his words may have been taken out of context. We don't know what was asked and what was said.
Lastly, all of these guys that used PED's are cheats and are no different than what Pete Rose did. The only reason it's not in the rules for a life time ban for this is because back when all of the rules were made about baseball there was no such thing as PED's. If there were, we would be less a whole lot of cheaters in the game today.
Dick.
Kip,
I think what Pete Rose did wasn't as bad as doing steroids. He bet on his own team to win, to me that's not a crime. Had he bet on the other team, that would be a completely different story.
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