Alex Alex Alex
DMZ · February 9, 2009 at 2:15 pm · Filed Under Mariners
I updated the previous post, but… so now he’s everywhere in the news, again, having admitted that he used banned substances after going over to the Rangers from 01-03. He previously has denied ever using anything. I don’t know why we’d particularly believe this limited admission any more than we should have believed previous denials. I’m sure in a couple days someone’s going to ask “hey, wait, then what happened when he moved to third and put on all that…” and we’ll be in for yet another round of attack-denial. But whatever.
M’s fans can take some small consolation that his time with the team is not currently tainted.
The only thing that could knock me for a loop right now would be if Cal Ripken Jr. tested positive.
And I agree with RoninX, more appalling to me than A-rod testing positive is that test results that were supposed to be anonymous have been leaked. There is no way names should ever have been linked to test samples and I hope the union uses this to smack down the owners.
Frankly, every time I see a player bulk up I just assume he/she is chemically enhanced. It keeps my disappointment level low.
[name-calling]
I’m with Gustafson, all the injuries are the best evidence that Griffey is clean.
I think one of the things ‘roids have done is skewed the age decline, Griffey is a reminder of what it normally looks like.
Clint Eastwood isn’t exactly the poster boy for integrity. He’s been a serial womanizer since he left “Rawhide”.
And he’d appoint Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman as deputy commissioners.
/tongue-in-cheek
——————–
IMO it’s foolish to believe Alex Rodriguez’ claim that he used steroids only while he was a Texas Ranger player. Why?
Scott Boras is still his agent.
Rodriguez can afford every masking agent and new-age designer steroid available.
Both Rodriguez and Boras have made it clear that accumulating record-breaking production numbers leading to HOF induction is the be-all and end-all of his career; and being a player on the most well-funded, well-publicized team in baseball is gravy for his HOF credentials.
He’d be stupid to STOP using PEDs once a member of that coveted team, and all it takes for Yankee fanboys to “forgive” him is a weak confession of the kind he just admitted, one that doesn’t impugn THEIR team, just the one no one but Rangers fans cares about.
Obviously Rodriguez and Boras took a risk in 2003, and it backfired on them; it’s all about damage control now.
The one thing both of them know is Rodriguez’ fragile psyche — that’s the only fly in the ointment, the only factor that could adversely affect Rodriguez’ future Yankee production numbers. If he trips over his shoelaces again, figuratively speaking, Yankee fans will let him have it, and won’t let up.
It goes without saying what OTHER teams’ fans are going to do to him this season, and hereafter.
I doubt our normally quiet, mild-mannered, polite Mariners fans will change THEIR attitude towards Rodriguez, either.
These steroid scandals are becoming tiresome. Now congress is pursuing Miguel Tejada?!?!? Please!
At least I don’t have to sit through ESPN telling me how horrible a person Barry Bonds is for about a week.
aaaaand I put in the earphones and a caller says this is reason one why they have to bring Griffey back, because he is now the only one who could be the clean HR hitter of all time.
I seem to recall a line in Bouton’s Ball Four to the extent that players would pretty much take anything that might help them.
Back then, it wasn’t steroids, but it was illegal drugs, and players ended up getting suspended. But certainly only some of the players were ever caught.
John Canzano at the Oregonian has an interesting perspective on this issue. I think this would help put the whole sordid era behind us.
Canzono’s plan, or something like it, has already been put forth here. Here is the response (if I can get the blockquote right)
I want to see all 103 names too, and we no doubt will eventually see them all, or at least all the ones that matter, unless the leaked is plugged. I find it difficult to believe that someone has some of the names but not all of them. But, MLB should never release the names. I think Selig should do everything in his power to find those responsible for the leak and shut them up.
I think Selig should do everything in his power to find those responsible for the leak and shut them up
I would be more than surprised if the leak came from the MLB offices. It’s most likely the feds that are leaking information. Do you think Selig has enough clout to seal off a leak coming from a governmental office? Neither do I.
The Numbers Guy from the Wall Street Journal analyzed ARod’s numbers during the Texas years and did not find a significant spike in power, or a “smoking gun.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/
That of course assumes that ARod only used steroids those three years.
I, like him, am a little skeptical.
I still think it’s amazing that Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter while on LSD.
Since they gave the guy who leaked the Bond info almost 3 years in Jail…..
The guy who leaked The Arod news obviously didnt care about spending 3 years in jail…..So I have no problem giving him 30.
Bonds lied (allegedly) …BUT the guy leaking the information….stole from the goverment, disobey a court ruling from a Superior Court Judge, broken over a dozen laws reguarding the information….
So why not the all out man-hunt for the person that leaked the info? He actually broke more laws than Bonds and Arod did together.
egreenlaw9 wrote, in response to the general sentiment expressed by many that the prevalence of PEDs over the last 10-20 years has destroyed their ability to find any meaning in accomplishments by players of this era:
I couldn’t agree with this more. Ultimately, relentlessly chasing down players who bought or tested positive for PEDs does NOTHING to prove that those you can’t catch were clean. The whole era was, and forever will be tainted because of this simple fact.
This DOESN’T mean, however, that none of these players should be elected to the Hall of Fame, or that we should disregard the accomplishments of all (or even many) of the players of this era.
EVERY era has its foibles, and reasons why the players of that era cannot be exactly compared to players from another era. The players of the 60s onward (maybe earlier) early were hopped up on greenies, and before 1969 hitters were pitched to from a mound that was anywhere from 5 to 10 inches higher than it is now. Players of the 50s and 40s played a game populated almost exclusively by Americans, and thanks to segregation, the pre-WWII crowd didn’t even have to face ALL the best of that even that limited group of people. The offensive explosion of the ’20s and 30s was brought about by rule changes that banned previously legal and popular pitches like the spitball and the shineball, and prohibited the use of a dirty and scuffed ball. This was also the era where MLB moved from the “dead ball” to the “live ball” and watched the game recover from its PREVIOUS “worst scandal ever” in much the same way MLB turned a blind eye to steroids because “chicks dig the long ball.” And before “the modern era,” in the 1800s – don’t even get me started. For a good portion of that era a foul ball wasn’t even a strike!
The point is, LOTS of things help to define an era and what a “great” performer in that era was. Performances across eras are not, and never were, directly comparable in the way people routinely claim they are, and the widespread use of PEDs has done nothing to change that for good or bad, except to help define an era.
All you can do is try to identify the great players of the era and give them their due. I’m sure some players will be penalized more than others for the perception that they are relatively more guilty than others, but honestly, it is way better to assume that NOBODY is innocent. Judge them against their peers, within their era, and stop pretending that the playing field across history has been even until we got to this point.
Sure, that is unfair to those who truly were innocent, but at the same time, they were all complicit (through their union) in trying to protect those who were guilty.
Which might very well happen anyway, since there’s lots of folks at the moment who don’t exactly have a ton of disposable cash lying around to spend on games.
Which in a way is too funny — not to mention probably far less dangerous than the cumulative effect of steroids over time.
I couldn’t agree with this more. Ultimately, relentlessly chasing down players who bought or tested positive for PEDs does NOTHING to prove that those you can’t catch were clean. The whole era was, and forever will be tainted because of this simple fact.
This DOESN’T mean, however, that none of these players should be elected to the Hall of Fame, or that we should disregard the accomplishments of all (or even many) of the players of this era.
Exactly what I was getting at earlier in this thread. Though I obviously wasn’t quite as well written as in his post.
I can’t think of any more obvious HoFer (in the REAL sense of the word, which has only slight resemblence to that ridiculous sideshow in Cooperstown) than ARod. And I am not really a fan of his, just an admirer of his level of play.
That said, has there ever been a great player who managed to produce a lamer public image? Such things can’t be helped, but still….
On the subject at hand, I feel no outrage and only some surprise/disappointment (his public persona, if true, would result in exactly the story that is unfolding).
But perhaps I would be more upset if most “professional sportswriters” were not so darn upset. Anything that makes their life hard is good, for baseball and the world, after all. Hopefully we will have videos of Daily News writers foaming at the mouth – literally.
I think the big issue that keeps the steriods scandal rolling is the MLB’s and the Player’s Union’s incessant strategy to try and pull the sheepskin over our eyes. First the attitude is steroids aren’t being used, then it’s just a few rogue players that are using it, then the issue snowballs so they call for a highly resisted and ineffective investigation (Mitchell Report). Clemens gets outed and thrown to the wolves and baseball hopes now that they’ve sacrificed some players they can put it behind them. Of course now with the Feds still smelling blood and leaks beginning to spring, we will continue to have a name lobbed at us every month or so. I went from being comforted in the fact that Arod would wipe alot of the dirty records off the books to hoping my heroes are among the clean (Edgar specifically). We have stories of the union tipping players off to when testing will happen and its no mystery the media wont drop the story. I bet if the union and commissioner would have just honestly addressed the issue we would be past this by now. Instead we get to spend more years wincing as our heroes fall and their HoF careers destroyed. This is getting to the point where my status as a major baseball fan is becoming seriously eroded.