All that being said, I don't even care if he does steroids or not. I kind of feel bad for him. For a couple reasons:
1. He is 1 of like 15% of the league. He is just the only one whose name when you hear it, you stop listening (or start listening, I am not sure). I am sure this is to due to his ridiculous contract and natural talent. Yes, A-rod might be with or without steroids the most naturally gifted ball player of this generation. Only, he doesn't deserve to be the only one called out when 103 other guys were doing the same exact thing.
2. Alex for all his talent clearly does not have the capacity mentally to handle all his gifts. I am sure all that cash softens the blow, but he can never reach his ultimate goals. A-rod is like Matt Damon in GOOD WILL HUNTING, before Robin Williams enlightens him. The only difference is that A-rod will never have a mentor like Sean Maguire. Scott Boras would be the MIT professor and you would have thought Joe Torre is Maguire. With that new book, it is clearly not the case. A-Rod's ego is like a gigantic balloons, it is so big, it can burst anytime.
So anyway baseball sucks. It is boring as all hell. It is back round noise. It is really only good live, or in October. I don't know how people in cities that have perpetually losing teams deal with it. I still watch baseball for some reason and probably always will.
The people who cover baseball are such hypocrites. They cover steroids almost as much as they covered Big Mac and Sammy in the magical summer of '98. Cal Ripken's streak got a little heat, but really that summer of of chasing Maris was when baseball got huge again. ESPN, FOX, Sports Illustrated and newspapers were so hot for homers they clearly over looked how these guys turned into mutants. Now all they want is to tear a superstar down. Regular Joes who fail a test get a tiny blurb. But a "face of the game" gets round the clock coverage. It is B.S. The same goes for the owners turning a blind eye to steroid use, while making money hand over fist But that has been beaten into the ground.
Are they going to cancel any games a known user was in? Not likely. They were official games. Therefore they are official stats. Therefore the numbers count. So if you write for a paper you get to use your moral authority deciding these guys legacies. If you don't find a wart during their career you get 5 more years to uncover something, anything to bring this guy down. The people that cover baseball seem to be looking for anything to besmirch any accomplishment. Damn you Greg Maddux! The people who write about baseball and vote for the Hall of Fame are like scorned high school dorks or failed film makers or musicians. They spend all their energy tearing down anyone who has accomplished what they always wanted.
Steroids were illegal, they likely shouldn't have been used. They most certainly and obviously were used. Old time ball players weren't the greatest group of fellows either. They were drunks, bigots, violent wife beaters and adulterers . They used some form of speed and/ or anything they could to get ahead. Just think of all the stuff they did back then that would get those guys thrown in jail now and certainly suspended from MLB. And it was all perfectly acceptable then. So I don't want to wake up tomorrow and read about Johnny Superstar and what he did wrong. I just want to watch some hammer-head swing club at some stuffed leather. They are human beings and they are good at what they do. Their salaries just like bankers, government officials and movie stars set them up nice for the future, but also afford them many more opportunities to screw up. Which in turn allows Judgy McWriterton to go over everything they have ever done with a fine tooth comb and magnifying glass and point and scream at the hint of a flaw.
Maybe, I don't hate baseball, maybe I should watch the game on mute, read a book and turn in my red Sox nation card.
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