Yes, Alex Rodriguez used steroids. No one should be surprised.For someone so interested in his image, Rodriguez could have denied the whole thing as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have, but ultimately A-Rod did the right thing. He told his fans that he made a mistake, he got caught up in what was the "culture" of the game (big admission by the game's biggest star, by the way) and he took steroids because of the pressure of having to live up to that enormous contract. I respect what I perceive is his honesty and I believe him.
At this point, a lot of baseball fans have become cynical and believe that many players were on something to either enhance their talent or make themselves heal quicker. Very few of those players have gotten caught or will get caught and what happens to those that do get caught is critical. A-Rod got caught and he fessed up, taking what I guess we can call the moral high ground. A-Rod has never been great at taking the moral high ground, notably opting out of his last contract during the World Series, but I think he handled this situation about as well as anyone could have. While I don't condone A-Rod's actions, I watched him on ESPN today hold himself and no one else accountable for his past failures. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Posts
3 comments:
I'm glad Rodriguez admitted to what he did. But I also don't think he had a choice. Rodriguez failed an MLB drug test, that much is certain. The others haven't (Bonds apparently just tested positive from a 2003 sample, even though the sample came back negative originally, which is sketchy since the government's had them for years).
I think McGwire and Clemens both used steroids, but both feel they don't need admit it on the notion that them using is simply someone else's account of what happened (McNamee or Canseco or McGwire's brother) instead of hard proof by failing a drug test. They're relying on (and it's not working) that tiny piece of doubt that might exist.
For A-Rod to deny using steroids after that positive test result would have been preposterous. Yes what he did is better than acting like Bonds and saying he thought he was using flaxseed oil, but Rodriguez was positive for an anabolic steroid, which I'm pretty sure only comes as a tablet or through an injection. Most often though as an injected liquid. I don't think he could say he thought he was getting booster shots or something.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
I think the true time of challenge and controversy was actually 2001 when A-Rod faced that "pressure" and had to decide if he wanted to cheat or not, not now.
Clemens, Bonds, Palmeiro, Giambi etc. gave a disgusting template of what happens when you deny and try to suspend reality.
Let's not give A-Rod too much credit. He "fessed up", but did he really? He had to do this interview in order to salvage his public image. He got to hand pick the interviewer no less. A real miraculous act would have been to come forward before the SI report. Would anyone actually do that? Maybe a few. But let's think about the situation he was in (that he put himself in) before lauding his "coming forward".
His hand was forced. No sympathy. Just glad this happened now so coverage on the unstained players isn't trumped during the season.
Unstained players? There aren't any. They're all guilty by association and will be forever. Let's be honest here. We don't care what players do until they get caught. As fans, we love watching home runs and enjoy "witnessing history" as records fall. When players get caught, though, that's when our perception of these players changes. By "admitting" to some sort of steroid use and vowing that he hasn't done it since, A-Rod probably is not being truthful again, but he is smart enough to realize that fans' perception of him will be better than Bonds or Clemens who continue to lie to this day. Maybe this even saves his Cooperstown chances?
Post a Comment