With the stunning news of Alex Rodriguez’s steroid use, Major League Baseball enters another dark age.
photo by Kevin Fleming
This past week Sports Illustrated announced that future hall-of-famer Alex Rodriguez, A-Rod, tested positive for an anabolic steroid and a growth hormone during the 2001 through 2003 Major League Baseball seasons, during which time he played for the Texas Rangers.
Rodriguez went public after the fact to say that he was, “…a stupid kid who wanted to prove that his quarter of a billion dollar contract was worth the money.” He went on to say that he has been clean ever since, and from those days went on to have the best seasons of his life, winning three MVP awards.
This release of information contradicted what the all-star said in a 2007 interview with Katie Curic, when we announced to the whole country that he had never taken, ingested, or was even tempted to take steroids throughout his historic carrier. Apparently, he lied.
The question that is circulating through the hearts and minds of baseball fans all across the country is, what will the reproductions be? Should he have an asterisk next to his all-time stats, or just the years when he was juiced? Will he get to continue playing baseball? Will he be in the Hall of Fame? Nobody knows the answers to these questions. As of now the Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig said they cant punish someone for something that they did five years ago. He went on to say, “What Alex did was wrong and he will have to live with the damage he has done to his name and reputation. While Alex deserves credit for publicly confronting the issue, there is no valid excuse for using such substances, and those who use them have shamed the game.”
The plain truth of the matter is that he cheated and he should be punished accordingly. He dishonored the game and he has to live with that for the rest of his career. He now can stand proud with the other members of the juiced era including Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rodger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa. The only difference between A Rod and Clemens and Bonds is that he won’t go to prison for it, unlike those guys who lied in front of a Grand Jury, thereby committing perjury.
The actions of Alex Rodriguez will haunt him forever, tainting any future record that he will or won’t break. It doesn’t matter if he was juiced early in his carrier and only did it for a small amount of time, he still cheated and, as Bud Selig said, he shamed the game. He shamed the game taking steroids while the other 99% of MLB players didn’t take any performance enhancing drugs. As a baseball player I know how grueling the game can be and how it wears on the body. This is what separates the high-level athletes from every one else. We put up with sore muscles and we find ways to keep playing. If everyone took steroids, we would all be the same and that’s why it’s cheating. It takes away from the natural hard work that the rest of us put in day in and day out without the help of any illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
In the end, the whole country now knows what the true colors are of A-Rod, regardless of his punishment or lack of punishment. Henceforth the nation knows him as a cheater and he has to live with that, which just might be penalty enough. So long to the days of A- Rod and a not-so-welcome to the days of A- Fraud.
