I find baseball fascinating and don't really care about steroid use one bit. Numbers between eras are too different to compare irrespective of this, so I don't see it being that big of a deal. Ed O.
From a PR perspective, I think he played it as well as he could by admitting it today to Peter Gammons. Ed O.
I feel the same way. Besides, players have been taking amphetamines like candy (and openly) for decades, in the club house, so the outrage over steroids seems a bit trumped up.
The cover of the NY Post tomorrow is a picture of Rodriguez with the caption: "A-Hole". Pretty fitting.
I have to admit, I'm actually kind of surprised Arod came out this early and apologized. Yeah, his apology was a little wishy washy and contrived, but at least he admitted it and didn't lie about it and fight the allegations like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds.
hmm i wonder how a certain 30-year-old NBA superstar keeps playing at such a high level after 13 years of abuse
years back when the Mark McGuire andro story was breaking, I heard an interview with a scrub Giants outfielder named Armando Rios. He spoke broken english and wasn't the most polished guy in the ways of PR. When asked for his opinion on the scandal. Paraphrasing... he said "it's just part of the game. We're all doing everything we can to keep up. We're all taking something" A few years later it came out that he had testified to the Feds that he had been taking steroids. It's pretty obvious to me that this was a league wide trend for decades. The league's higher ups turned a purposeful blind eye and players did what they had to to keep up with the Jones. Ratings boomed as records fell. I don't give any one player the benefit of the doubt that they played clean in the steroid era as how should I know? I don't care whether ARod (or whoever) apologizes or not as I think he's just doing what he has to do to play the game... same as ever. To me the anger that some fans have towards individual players while understandable on some levels, seems misplaced. Ownership and the commissioner's office absolutely knew yet only payed lip service towards curbing it. They profited handsomely off of the boost in ratings that resulted from this league wide abuse and now are allowing individuals to be thrown under the bus as if they acted alone. STOMP
Honestly, I think fighting steroids in pro sports is a losing battle. The NFL has a testing system which has been much admired in the media and yet it seems pretty obvious that steroids are a big part of the NFL. Professional sports has become such a competitive endeavour with so much on the line that it seems pretty obvious to me that players are going to continually push the limits on what they can get out of their bodies. It's really not a question of "artifical" versus "natural"...players legally use all sorts of supplements, sometimes including ones that are much more dangerous than steroids (like ephedra, which was legal until a few players died in the last decade or so using it). It seems arbitrary to me where that line is drawn, and it's probably pretty arbitrary to the players and even those in charge of the game. MLB's mistake was not having a more thorough testing system to hide behind. Even if it didn't prevent steroids, at least the fans who are now outraged would have perceived baseball "trying" to stop it, which seems to be all those fans care about. I suspect that baseball will finally put in place a testing system deemed suitable by the part of society that cares about this, and then everyone will go back to doing what they want sans the outrage.
What they ought to do is make steroids legal, but only if administered by MLB, which would charge the players a significant amount of money (say, 1/2 their salary) in return for all the steroids they can handle. Anyone who doesn't buy from the league and tests positive gets banned. The new revenue stream can be used to lower ticket prices for those who want to see the circus freaks perform. barfo
I like that he came out and admitted it pretty much right away. I also like how he admitted he did it for 3 years, and he didn't just try and play it off that the one test he failed was the only time he did it.
??? by right away do you mean after the positive test results (which were supposed to be anonymous) were made public? He lied about taking steroids umpteen times over the years. In fact in an interview he did a couple years back with Katie Couric he used the same exact verbiage for why he didn't take them (that he was "too young and naive" to be aware what others were doing) when he finally confessed to taking them. color me jaded STOMP
Yeah, but I'm just glad he didn't claim he didn't take them. Or he didn't knowingly take them. Or any crap. He told the truth and did it right away after getting caught, and he didnt have to say he was taking them for 3 years. He could have just said it was that one time. But then again this is baseball, who gives a flying rats ass.
