Saturday, February 7, 2009

The News on Arod

Well it would be hard for someone not to know what is going on with Alex Rodriguez right now. The news of his positive steroid test in 2003 has spread like a wildfire through the Internet, TV and radio. For those of you who somehow missed the story, you can check out the story at SI.

Now my initial reaction was probably the same as most Yankee fans. I was angry. Arod essential destroyed what little faith most baseball fans might have still had in the superstars left over from the steroid era. I was hoping that most of his statistics and ability came naturally and might have erased the stains of Bonds and Clemens.

But it looks like me and anyone else who had faith in him was wrong. Sure Arod had his issues, but none of them were cheating related. None of them were really going to harm the integrity of the game. Now that has all changed and what support Arod was getting from the Yankee fan base may have all but vanished for the time being. I say the time being, because like most fan bases who have controversial figures as an integral part of their team, they learn how to forgive when that player wins them games.

For me, I'm somewhat burned out with steroids. This was the final straw and what is most upsetting for me is that this will ruin baseball for me for the next nine years. Everything the Yankees do and everywhere they go this is going to follow them, overshadowing whatever they accomplish individually or as a team. As much talent as the Yanks have recruited this off-season it will be hard to imagine that they perform up to their ability while this distracts them. There isn't much the Yankees can do about Arod now as they have locked themselves into a Bonds-like situation until his contract runs out in 2017.

It's a dark day in Yankeeland and it will be a long time before the clouds lift away. At least Arod will be in the World Baseball Classic for the better part of Spring Training and Yankee Camp will have time to settle in and ready themselves before the Arod Circus rolls into town. As for me my anger has already subsided. All I can say right now is that I'm disappointed. Watching the Yankees with Arod in the lineup just wont be the same anymore.

4 comments:

Dennis said...

I think you are missing the point Pete.

All this proves, and more names are coming, is that the steroid era was, indeed, the steroid era. People can scapegoat Bonds and Clemens all they want, but the truth is that between 1986 and 2005 hundreds, probably thousands of Major League baseball players were on steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Every team had a Randomski, a McNamee, a doctor who was lose with the prescriptions, a manager who looked the other way.

Peter said...

I get that part about it but if you look back to when Bonds broke, everyone was looking at Arod's monster season and hoping that he would someday wash away Bonds' tainted record.

Yea I know that everyteam had plenty of people aiding and abetting this stuff, but he was a glimmer of hope that something clean came out of the steroid era.

Dennis said...

You say clean like it has any meaning.

"Legal" supplements such as Creatine and Andro have the same clinical affect as Steroids, and cortisone, a steroid, is accepted to the point that players are criticized for NOT taking a shot when they are injured.

The only people that really car about this and keep it going in the media are the crusty old dinosaurs that don't like anything that happened in baseball after 1960.

Dan said...

I just assume that everyone, including untouchables such as Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn took things. Pro sports has become so competative and the seasons so grueling that I'm sure many of the guys felt they had to take something just to survive. I don't care about something that happened 6 years ago that wasn't even against the rules at the time. That's like saying that Bob Gibson wasn't a good pitcher because he pitched on a higher pitching mound, and he owes all his success to that.