Our nation's "pastime" has taken a severe beating this decade. The All Star Game fiasco, the Winter World Series, and, of course, the substance abuse scandals. The latter having done more damage to the reputation of the sport than the other two combined. Drug use famously sparked a debate in Congress about the state of Major League Baseball. Normally this wouldn't have been such a big deal but Congress probably should have devoted its resources to a couple of other things going on in the world.
The most recent superstar to take the tumble is Alex Rodriguez. It's been a pretty rough month for the guy. First Torre rips on him through a proxy in his tell all book. Now Sports Illustrated drops the bomb that he tested positive for steroids in 2003. Who knows if he's done them since then, but its safe to assume that he doesn't have the gumption to challenge the stricter drug testing policy put into place. But it was so long ago, why does it matter?
First, and most obvious, is that A-Rod's moniker has transformed into A-Fraud. His legacy of being the "pure one" is completely destroyed. I'm not sure many people like Rodriguez, but there's no question fans would rather live with his name at the top of the home run list. That was before the asterisk had been permanently tattooed to the back of his baseball card. ESPN had some interesting stats showing how every year outside of 2000-2003, Rodriguez never topped 40 home runs. Obviously the roiding gave him an advantage.
Second, this inevitably redefines what a superstar is. Is it possible to hit over 50 home runs a season? Without the aid of performance enhancing drugs? In the age of the raised mound and better pitchers? Albert Belle, Sammy Sosa, Brady Anderson, and Mark Mcgwire all did it. They were also all on something that is deemed illegal now. So the question becomes: what constitutes a superstar? Power hitting has become something associated with the lost generation of baseball from the 90s. Sure it is still revered but in the age of moneyball, renaissance talents like Hanley Ramirez, Curtis Granderson, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Grady Sizemore are going to take the place of the big bad power hitter of years past. The exposure of Rodriguez as a fake may very well catalyze a paradigm shift for what makes a star.
It is inherently unfair to retrospectively judge people for acting a certain way in the past that was condoned. But we do it. Especially in baseball. A-Rod truthfully did nothing wrong at the time he did it. If he were to get caught now, that's a different story. However, for some reason we have deemed to hold athletes to a different level than normal people. We can't be certain if drug use was condoned or even a part of baseball culture at the time.
Canseco states that about 80% of the players in the majors used some sort of performance enhancer. If this is true, then a young player such as Rodriguez, coming off signing the biggest contract in sports history, probably deserves a little reprieve from the strictest of scrutiny. I make no excuses for what he did, but given the culture at the time we should give the guy a break. His legacy is ruined and his image tarnished. He'll probably get booed a little extra everywhere he goes this season. Ultimately, he'll have to answer only to himself (and the Hall of Fame electors).
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I am disapointed because I wanted to believe in A-Rod. I wanted to believe that he did it the right way and would unseat Bonds and return the home run record to a pure player.
I also think its garbage that A-Rod was 1 of 103 players who tested positive and the only one thus far outed. I am especially interested in how many pitchers were on the list, and if any other iconic players were juicing.
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