For those of you who don't already know, Alex Rodriguez took steroids from 2001-2003. He admitted as much two weeks ago after he was outed by a friend. Yesterday he held a press conference verifying his steroid use and apologizing for his behavior. I am proud of the way A-Rod approached this head on. But two questions always arise in the back of my mind. 1) If he hadn't been caught, when A-Rod have ever fessed up to his steroid use? 2) Does it really matter?
The answer to question number one is, "Absolutely not." Yesterday, when asked by a reporter whether or not he thought of himself as a cheater, A-Rod replied, "I don't know. That's not for me to decide." First of all, yes you were cheating. It was the easiest question on the list. A-Rod showed no penitence, so remorse for his decision. The closest thing he has said to remorse was that he was sorry he had shamed the game. There's not much in there about personal culpability or personal responsibility. If he hadn't been caught he never would have shared his steroid use.
Does it matter? Absolutely not. Do steroids provide an advantage in the game of baseball? Yes. Do steroid users have an unfair advantage? Absolutely: steroids present an unfair advantage for the steroid user, as they are bigger and stronger than the non-steroid users that they face. (Their balls are also smaller and their voices higher, but that is beside the point.) Most guys in baseball AREN'T using steroids. However, many of the big names in baseball DID use steroids at some point in their career: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Mark McGuire, Miguel Tijada... The biggest names in baseball were doing it. A-Rod simply joined the list. Plus, there are just as many pitchers doing steroids as batters. The bigger you get, the harder and faster you can fling the ball. A-Rod was blasting out steroid fueled pitches with his steroid propelled bat; maybe he was just leveling the playing field.
The real question in my mind is this: Why is Congress poking their nose into baseball at all? Aren't there bigger fish to fry? Our economy is in shambles, we just passed a MASSIVE (impotent) stimulus package, more investors on Wall Street are crooks, we are sending 17000 more troops to Afghanistan... Honestly, does the baseball controversy really matter at all?
According to President Obama it does. The Rodriguez controversy was mentioned in his first prime-time address of the American people. With so many other things to wrestle with it's amazing that we are focused on steroids in baseball.
Here's what I would really love to do: Walk into the Congressional hearing with a rock and place it on the arbitrator's desk. I would love to tell the Congressmen on the panel, "If any of you have never cheated to get to where you are, go ahead and throw the stone. But let's be honest... you took money for your campaign from shady investors looking for kickbacks and government contracts. You shamelessly add pork for pet projects into bills to fund education. You lie, cheat, and steal because it is "good" government. So shut the heck up about baseball players! If one of them goes to jail for lying, ALL OF YOU SHOULD GO TO. Bunch of stupid hypocrites."
Did A-Rod cheat? Absolutely. Did A-Rod cheat anymore than the executives on Wall Street, the petroleum profiteers who drove up the prices, the housing execs who sold houses for more than they were worth to people buying outside of their means? Did he cheat more than the Congressmen who are putting other baseball players on trial? Absolutely not. So... let's get down to some real work and leave sports alone.
2 comments:
Plus baseball is boring, even with juiced players it is still more boring than golf or curling. I might even choose to watch CSPAN coverage of the baseball inquiries instead of a baseball game.
Wouldn't it be awesome if senators juiced and baseball players gave kickbacks? That's what I want to see.
Laura, thanks for you comments. I still disagree with you on the economic stimulus. An economy is NOTHING without buying and spending. As for creating jobs: absolutely, it needs to be done. I don't see this economic bill creating very many in the grand scheme of things. Giving money to businesses to keep jobs or create jobs doesn't seem to work: ask GM and Chevy. They want another $21 billion dollars or they will cut a total of 21,000 jobs. But we just gave them billions to keep them afloat and keep people in work. Economic stimulus packages are supposed to stimulate the economy; show me how this one will do that. It's passing caused the DOW to DROP 300 points.
As for baseball... I think they all need to be held accountable. If they used steroids, then ABSOLUTELY... they cheated. No question. I think the whole lot should be tossed. But, that being said... Congress should keep their noses out of it. They have no right to get involved when there are more important problems.
As for athletes with bad behavior... Do we really choose people based on their ethics as our professional sports players? How can we take guys whose entire self-image is based on how awesome they are and expect them to behave well? I have few expectations when it comes to athletes. Should they be held responsible? Sure. Are they ever going to? Nope.
As for Barry... I still think he's a roider. And I think his record should stand, but I am glad he's not in baseball anymore. No offense. I feel the same way about everyone who is cheating.
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