Photo Credit: http://www.sportssafetyiq.com/2008/01/steroids-and-ki.html
On Saturday, Sports Illustrated ran an article about the highest paid Major League Baseball player, Alex Rodriguez, alleged steroid use. The information came from 2003 survey testing conducted by Major League Baseball. Rodriguez’s name was one of 104 who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Today Rodriguez sat down with ESPN’s Peter Gammons to settle the details.
Rodriguez says that he was “young, stupid and naïve” during his time with the Texas Rangers. From the sounds of it, A-Rod sounded genuinely sorry, and I think this is an excellent thing for a professional baseball player to do. Rather than having a great clip like Rafael Palmero’s finger pointing lie, A-Rod did the stand up thing and admitted his wrong-doing. Also, he makes a great point saying that he has played the best baseball of his career since he stopped the steroid use (2003).
Being one of the most highly touted names in not just baseball but professional sports, this move by Rodriguez will hopefully bring an end to the Canseco, McGuire, and Clemens trials. If these players really did use steroids, they would not lose as much respect if they admitted it. Now I know everyone knows I hate the Yankees but I really hope this opens up the privacy of steroid use in the MLB. Hopefully other players will admit to using it before as well. I really don’t care if they used it at one point or another. If they admit it then more power to them but I don’t think they should be blacklisted for it.
I only saw a brief excerpt of the interview, and you are right, he did seem sorry. That being said, the use of steroids in my opinion is shameful, especially in a sport like baseball, where a large portion of your fan base is little kids who look up to you. But I suppose the silver lining here is that A-Rod owned up to his mistake, which also is a good example to set, so let's hope he stays clean.
ReplyDeleteOn a semi-unrelated note, though, I do have one additional comment. While watching the President's news conference last night, Michael Fletcher from the Washington Post wasted his one question with President Obama on this story. He asked the President about his thoughts on A-Rod's admission, in the middle of a news conference that focused on the economy and foreign policy. Honestly, a political forum is no place to be discussing A-Rod's steroid use. The President and legislature have more important things to worry about than steroid use in MLB. I hope so, anyway.