MLB Commissioner Bud Selig released the following statement regarding A-Rod's steroid use:
On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am saddened by the revelations concerning Alex Rodriguez's use of performance-enhancing substances. While Alex deserves credit for publicly confronting the issue, there is no valid excuse for using such substances and those who use them have shamed the game.
What Alex did was wrong and he will have to live with the damage he has done to his name and reputation. His actions are also a reminder to everyone in baseball -- under our current drug program, if you are caught using steroids and/or amphetamines, you will be punished. Since 2005, every player who has tested positive for steroids has been suspended for as much as 50 games. Eradicating performance-enhancing substances from the game of baseball has been my first priority over the past decade and it is important to remember that these recent revelations relate to pre-program activity.
A-Rod shamed the game? Please, Bud, spare me. I'm really tired of baseball officials, fans, and columnists and their feigned indignity. Let's go back to 1998. McGwire and Sosa chased Maris; Juan-Gone chased Hack Wilson; the Yankees broke the regular season wins record; so on and so forth. It was the year that saved baseball from the consequences of the 1994 player strike. It was the year steroids saved baseball, everyone knew it then, and I'm tired of them pretending they're shocked about it now.
Baseball needed a year like 1998. It had struggled to get fans back to the parks since the player strike and 1998 put baseball back at the forefront of the American experience. I was in high school in 1998, and I remember joking with my friends about how all these players hitting all these home runs were on steroids. We all suspected McGwire of 'roids. But we didn't care. Neither did baseball. Those players gave us a hell of a show. Steroids gave us a hell of a show, and we all loved it. We loved the 'Chicks dig the long ball' commercials on ESPN before the 1999 season. We loved that any year someone might hit over 60 home runs. Baseball didn't ask, players didn't tell, fans didn't care.
Now, all of a sudden, these "cheaters" have ruined baseball. The truth is, not nearly as many of us would be paying nearly as much attention if these players hadn't shot up and delivered one of the greatest single seasons in baseball history. Baseball needed 1998, and it needed steroids, and I don't blame it for turning a blind eye. I think that it's good that they instituted testing once baseball was on a stronger footing, and they did wait until baseball was on a stronger footing. I just wish all these people would stop acting like they didn't embrace the steroids era with open arms and that all these players have done us all a great disservice. They didn't sell nuclear secrets. They just made baseball America's past-time again.
People may not want to accept that, but it doesn't change the fact that steroids more or less saved baseball. If your team has a new stadium, thank steroids. And stop pretending these guys ruined the game as though you didn't cheer them on with full, if not confirmed, knowledge of what they were doing behind clothes doors. If me and my 16 year old buddies new what was going on, so did everyone else. That includes Bud Selig, all these columnists screaming for A-Rod's head, and just about anyone at all involved with the sport of baseball in general. So please, enough with the feigned indignity. If you didn't raise the issue then, I don't want to hear about it now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
a nessicary evil kinda?
I dont know bout all that. Probably cause the pressures Arod is talking bout is something we cant really relate to. Everyone has pressures, but theres no steroid out there that can help you become a better accountant or whatever. The game has just change. Its evoved like everything else in this world. people are just trying to hold on to tradition and the old way of doing things. Hello, its not caled "americas favorite pasttime" for nothing! either way, a cheat is a cheat is a cheat. Its understabel how upset everyone can get, esspecialy when you think of the history of baseball, more specificly the yankees. This challenges all that and is insulting. but there definately a line of ridiculousness thats been cross with the coverage and how selective people are becomeing when it comes to ruining lives. where are the other 104 names??
I just feel that baseball embraced steroids when it was convenient, and then when baseball had reestablished its place in popular culture, they embarked on a witch hunt of all the guys they hyped up even though they knew what was going on. When it was good for baseball they turned a blind eye. Now, they act as though they were fooled by these players and are just innocent bystanders. It's nonsense. Baseball needed a year like 1998, but now it wants to hang everyone who gave them that year.
Word.
I Agree.
Alex shamed himself, but mlb, the union, players, and media should share the shame.
I see what your saying. especialy anonymous number 2. no one told a-rod to do the steroids but the enviornment was there. For some fans it doesnt get on that complicated of a level. We dont see the enviornment, we just see the finished product and are taken a back to learn of how it got there or more or less ignorant during the process. but for the commisioner, its his job to be aware of this, so the whole hypocracy really isnt a good look on him. This scandal is bringing alot of other issues to light up in here. the faith is being tested. Por Que!?
Bud Selig is fatter than those Wall Street Fat Cats.
I just hope A.J. makes it through the first day of drills without injuring himself.
Yeah, Bud Selig definetely doesn't have the right to be upset. He had to suspect something. Here you have Maris' homerun record that no player has been able to come near for close to 40 years, and then within a span of just a few years, 3 different players break it? C'mon Bud, you had to know something was up. Everyone knew what was up.
Not to mention, Sosa got in the race by hitting 20 jacks in the month of June. 20 HRs in one month. Think about that.
And I'm with you Cheshire, let's keep our fingers crossed.
YEAH!!!! I remember our local news in Cleveland always touting the fact that we were the only team to sell out after the 1994 strike - sure, we were pissed ab baseball, but it's because after years of nothing - we finally had a good team in SOMETHING and went to the playoffs/World Series for the first time in a gazillion years. But the rest of baseball was suffering - not selling out games, not even playoff games. This went on and was always a story until 1998. And then everybody EVERYWHERE cared about baseball again. Nobody did articles and comparisons on how McGuire was this skinny little guy for years and then he looked like a giant balloon head. That didn't come until later. It was like - "Team Sosa" and "Team McGuire" and everybody knew but nobody cared because their pockets were being filled. Even my city's reporters didn't do any local speculating because they would have been gone at the request of the MLB. These guys - other players, front office, owners, and Bud Selig can take their holier than thou attitude and shove it up their #$%$$#%#$#@!
And you too Roy Oswalt. ARod costing you money in your contract. PUL-EEZ!! You played the Rangers 7 times during that period. AND, as an MLB player - you knew people were juicing all across both leagues, so just SHUT THE EFF UP!!!
Tribegirl,
Big Mac was always a big dude. He just got cartoonishly large in 98.
I'm not really so sure steroids helped him all that much. If I'm not mistaken, he held the rookie record for slugging percentage until Ryan Braun broke it 2 seasons ago. Although, he did play with Jose Canseco so I'm probably an idiot.
Ahhh Fred - look at the pics. He may have been Jeter big. Which is big for regular folks, but little for MLB. Anyway, he was little ccompared to what he turned into compared to ARod who although now juiced for three years, didn't even grow until he moved to third, or Manny who has always been big, or Jeter who has always been little (for MLB, but big in real life). Anyway, you get my point.
I wonder if there is another sport out there as corrupt as baseball. Even in the early 1900's people were cheating in baseball. Players on the White Sox got banned from the game for throwing the world series.
This sport is in a world of hurt right now while Football and Basketball are as popular as ever.
Here is a great article showing the past and present of baseball and steroids
http://www.gotoguy.com/2009/02/09/baseballs-golden-showers/
Good Luck!
Post a Comment