We all knew A-Rod was going to pass Barry Bonds one day, just not in this manner.
His interview with Peter Gammons confirms exactly what I've thought about him since this Madonna thing came out. Rodriguez is dumb. Really dumb.
Here he is, hands down the most talented guy in the league, putting shit in his body given to him by meatheads in Texas. Here he is, role model for what's special about the game, and he's still taking steroids before a survey test done by the MLB for steroids.
But why are we surprised? This is the guy who dissed his best friend Jeter in a magazine article for no reason. This is the guy who turned down the offer from the ready-to-win Mets to take more money from the Rangers. The guy who gave both his kids the same middle name, Alexander. He has two daughters.
He cheated on his supermodel wife with a butch stripper. Then he cheated on her with a singer who is more used up than everyone else on TMZ combined. The guy who listened to Scott Boras and thought it was a great idea to opt out of his contract, and do so during Game 4 of the World Series.
He bought into Kabbalah.
He is an idiot.
For this reason, I take him at his word that he took steroids without knowing exactly what it is. Fuck, Palmiero probably asked Alex to try out his brand new syringe kit.
A-Rod is the type of guy who would reply to the Nigerian prince via email, or comply with the wallet inspector.
The interview was basically a cakewalk for Alex and I'd imagine that if and when he meets with the New York media, he's going to have to do a lot better. He didn't specifically say when he started, he didn't specifically say who turned him on to it. Those are things he's absolutely going to have to address going forward. If he's trying to go the Andy Pettitte route, which is probably his best course of action, he's going to need to be 100% honest.
By not mentioning who introduced him to steroids, Rodriguez leads me to believe it was another ballplayer and not somebody from the gym. He didn't want to throw another union guy under the bus.
I don't buy that he got the wakeup call when he got a strained neck, or whatever bullshit that was about. He got the wakeup call when they made steroid testing mandatory for everyone in 2004. He's not that stupid.
But I also do not buy the idea that they made him the player he is.
He played in Texas and posted numbers that fall in line with his career averages when you take park considerations into account (ie. Texas is a bandbox, and that had more to do with his homerun numbers than any drug he took.)
He posted higher OPS+ numbers before he left Seattle, and twice in his four years with the Yankees.
Look. He got the richest contract in baseball history before he took steroids. The steroids did not make him a great player. You're not the number 1 overall pick, let alone playing in the big leagues at 18, because you're taking steroids. He is a great, great player.
Like I said with Bonds, it's a shame he took steroids. I'd have loved to see his numbers stack up cleanly with the greats in history, but that's an impossibility now.
To those fucking morons who are saying the Yankees should cut him loose, shut the fuck up. First off, he didn't test positive for steroids today. He did in 2003, before he was with the Yankees, anonymously. The Yankees have no grounds to get out of the contract. And if they tried to push it, they'd be laughed out of court.
Even ignoring of all that, why in God's name would the Yankees want to get out of his contract? He is still in the prime of his career. This isn't a washed up Jason Giambi we're talking about here. This is the best hitter in the American League. After all that work they put into fixing the hole in the lineup by getting Teixeira, they're going to get rid of the guy who lead the league in SLG% last year?
The Yankees (like the other teams in baseball) don't give a shit about past steroid use, they care about production going forward. It's why Giambi got a contract in Oakland, Pettitte is still in pinstripes, and A-Rod is going to be an integral part to Yankee success the next nine seasons. At least.
2 comments:
Hey Tom, great post. Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents.
I think at this point, we unfortunately have to accept that there will never be any way to remove steroids from the discussion when looking at any numbers from the proclaimed 'Steroid Era'. Because while we can confirm now that A-rod was (by his own admission) taking a banned substance, we don't know how many other players, both on his team and in the league, were as well. People say he wouldn't have averaged 52 homers a year in Texas, whereas I point to the fact that many of the pitchers he them off of may well have been juicing too. Additionally, we don't know fully the effects of these PEDs. Its possible he was overbulked due to steroids and thus couldn't get around on some fastballs. And while neither of those excuses his use, it would also behoove us to remember that the league and union are also responsible for this mess. Both had a vested interest in looking the other way during this period; the 1998 Home Run Chase brought back many disillusioned fans after the strike, so clearly the offense was driving fans into the stands. When A-rod talked about how the culture was all loose back then, what he's saying, in a much more scripted manner, is that everyone was doing it, it was accepted as normal and no one thought they were doing anything wrong. So yeah, I do blame A-rod for taking PEDs. But I blame the whole sport. And I think at the end of the day, they just need to officially classify this period as "the steroid era", make sure the testing is tight going forward, and not keep people out of the hall for playing the game the way it was played at the time. Because the hall is about history. And like it or not, and I certainly don't, this IS a part of baseball's legacy now.
Absolutely agree.
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