Saturday, February 7, 2009

A-Rod A-Ruined?

With A-Rod's situation now out in the open, there are these possible courses of action for him to take:

1) Admit whatever allegations are true, even if they aren't. The Pettitte/Hamilton/Giambi route seems to be the most successful in terms of dealing with illicit substances, although it should be noted that Hamilton's situation was different.

2) Clam up and say nothing, which solves nothing.

3) Go the Clemens/Bonds/Palmeiro route and deny everything. This, I don't need to tell you, hasn't always worked very well.

However, whatever path Alex takes, there is one basic constant--rightly or wrongly, he'll never be considered a "clean" player again.

That clean break of Hank's record?

Gonna have to wait for someone else.

It sucks for everyone involved--Alex, the team, the fans, baseball as a whole.

For every argument that the anonymous names should have remained anonymous, there's the more powerful argument that Alex shouldn't have put himself in that situation in the first place.

We want to like A-Rod. We excused the stripper in Toronto incident, and then tried not to pay too much attention when he started banging Madonna and divorced from his wife, despite their two young daughters.

For everyone that argued 2006 and 2008 were subpar, we said, look at 2005 and 2007.

We welcomed him back after the op-out fiasco and only a few dared voice complaint when he signed on for ten years.

But this, this strikes at the very heart of the game. If it's true, we can't simply brush it aside, and neither can Alex.

While we hope that it's not true, unfortunately, in public perception he's already guilty (just check out that poll on ESPN.com)

You know, I have to think, for all the wishing we did that the Torre book wouldn't be a distraction during Spring Training, I think we may have to be just a little more careful about what we wish for...

2 comments:

  1. What a shame. Will this make his upcoming accomplishments seem less worthy? Does he make the Hall of Fame? Do we have to rename it The Hall of Those Who Didn't Get Caught?

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  2. I want to believe it's not true. But everyone, especially the media, has already judged Alex guilty without knowing all of the information or hearing his side. I am sure that if it were Derek Jeter accused, the NY media would say this can't be true. Better wait to talk to Derek, etc. Like with his income tax problem.

    Eric - I think you hit the nail on the head "The Hall of Those Who Didn't Get Caught". I think that there is a cloud on every player whether it was PEDs, amphetamines, etc. The game of baseball has got to be reeling.

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