Those of you who know me know how much I hate the Yankees. Just the thought of Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neil, and Scott Brosius makes me sick. Alex Rodriguez was never my most despised Yankee, but I still never particularly liked him either. I think my first real distaste for him developed in 2004 after his Bronson Arroyo glove slapping incident in the ALCS. It was the perfect summation of a wimpy prima-donna panicing in the heat of the moment. However, today's news that A-Rod tested positive for steriods in 2003 saddened me. Not because of anything that this news does to him personally, but because of what it does for the game.
I recently posted about my thoughts on steroid use and the hall of fame here. While I think steroid use is wrong, to pretend as if the era never existed only exacerbates the ugliness of the time period. These players and their statistics need to be recognized for what they are and framed by the time period in which the players played the game.
Today's news on A-Rod simply shows that everyone that played baseball over the past three decades is guilty until proven innocent. Simply put, players' words don't matter anymore- they have lost their meaning. Player after player has looked us in the eye and blatantly lied. I am tired of going back and rehashing things that happened 6 years ago. I really just want to move on.
The bottom line is that A-Rod's failed steroid test took place in 2003, and really means nothing in terms of the validity of today's game. But if A-Rod is guilty, then everyone is guilty. If anything, this provides more proof that the hall of fame needs to recognize all of these guys as excellent baseball players, and let the fans decide for themselves in the public court of opinion whether or not they are actually good people. The hall of fame is a museum- a place to celebrate history. Today's events are historical, for better or for worse.
I don't like A-Rod, but I hope to see him enshrined in Cooperstown in the future.
2 comments:
Josh--I understand your reasoning. However, I am not at this point willing to assume guilt on the part of all ballplayers. I want the full list of players who have tested positive to be revealed. Then there will be no questions as to who took the drugs and who didn't. Perhaps we will be pleasantly surprised and see that many future Hall-of-Famers were not guilty. That way, we can keep the guilty ones (A-Rod, McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, etc.) out and induct those athletes who should be commended because of their natural athletic ability. With that being said, I respect your opinion and consider you to be a master of baseball knowledge.
That's a good point Scott. I am all for releasing all of these names. By letting them trickle out over the course of many years, we are making this drag out longer than it should. Let's expose everyone, get the truth out there, and move on.
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