Saturday’s news that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003 sent shockwaves through the sports world and may have delivered Major League Baseball its most devastating black eye yet. We are past arguing the fact that baseball is no longer America’s pastime. Now we are just hoping that the sport that we all grew up playing and watching doesn’t fall farther down mainstream society’s ladder of relevance.
The number of losers to come out of this story, of which we have only seen the tip of the iceberg, is astronomical. On the macro level, MLB will suffer to a great extent as two of its most prolific hitters of all-time and arguably the greatest pitcher of the past thirty years will forever be linked to performance enhancing drugs. I can’t count the number of times in the last few years in which a conversation about Barry Bonds didn’t end with a comment like, “It doesn’t matter. Pretty soon A-Rod will be the true homerun king and we can forget that Barry Bonds ever even existed.” Oh how we wish this was true. I guess the news is a little less devastating to me because, while Alex may not have been as big off a jerk as Barry, (and lets face it, Bonds was the number one jackass of all time) the Derek Jeter wannabe was not too warm and cuddly himself. Everyone admired his amazing bat but from the get go it was clear that he was in it for of course the money, which we all would have taken (10 years, $252 million) but the vanity in all of it as well. Even A-Rod’s former manager Joe Torre felt the need to throw his ex-third baseman under the bus. In his weak attempt to become a modern day Jim Bouton, Torre went out of his way to make Rodriguez look like a fool. The now Dodger manager hit on a number of hard hitting topics such as, Alex’s unwillingness to get his own coffee and the clubhouse nickname, “A-Fraud” that was tossed around by both players and coaches on a daily basis. Sorry to break it to you Joe but Selena Roberts and David Epstein of Sports Illustrated sort of stole your thunder this week. Good luck on that book signing tour in Southern California next week.
When you take a step back and look at the new “Big Three” in the MLB steroid saga, it would be difficult to find a less attractive threesome to hang out with. You know that game you play in which you name three famous people that you would like to have dinner with? How about picking three baseball stars you would least like to have a beer with? These guys would almost have to be one, two and three in no particular order. I would rather have a John Rocker type at the table. I wouldn’t agree with most of what came out of his mouth but I am sure the conversation would at least hold some sort of entertainment factor with not knowing what was going to be said next. And at the very least, we would get to hear somebody telling the truth. Refreshing.
Ironically, when it comes to a small winner in this tale, the news probably brought a slight smile to the enormous head of Barry “Don’t sit in my Barcalounger” Bonds. It of course doesn’t let him off of the hook but he is no longer the main villain in this sad but pathetically true steroids saga. If everyone cheated in the past twenty-five years do we throw all of the records out? Do we let them all stand with a pathetic little asterisk next to each name that has been tainted? Either way, when it comes to Mr. Bonds he no longer has to worry about his “records” being broken anytime soon by anyone that is or was clean.
In the end, once again the real losers are the fans. Baseball is not like football, where we just want to see the biggest, fastest and strongest men in the world bang heads for sixty minutes and then wait for them to do it all over again the following Sunday. We know that the freaks of nature in the NFL are juicing up and we simply don’t care. In baseball we do care. Baseball builds on itself and it has for generations. That is until now. The foundation is crumbling. History is being made and destroyed at the same time. The little trust that was there last week is now gone. When the other 103 names from MLB’s performance enhancing drugs survey list come out there should be no surprises. There should however continue to be anger, frustration and most importantly embarrassment.
Has cheating always gone on in baseball? Of course. But now it has reached a level that changes the game and the history of it as well. Maybe this is the sign of the times. A reflection of our society and what we have become. I guess its go big or go home. Literally.
“Baseball is a simple game. You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball.” And the fans count how many times and how well players do each of these three things. At least, that’s what we used to do.