A-Roid

This post has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Civil War. I apologize to those of you who come here exclusively for the Civil War content since you will be disappointed by this post. However, I feel the need to rant about this.

Alex “A-Roid” Rodriguez at least fessed up and admitted that he had made abundant use of illegal anabolic steroids from 2001-2003, which included one of his MVP seasons and a year when he hit a career high 57 homers. All of this calls into question the validity of any of his statistics and taints his entire career. And this from the golden boy who was supposed to lead the Yankees back to the promised land. A-Fraud’s propensity for choking in the post season is already well known. I will be curious to see how he responds to hearing the chants of “A-Roid” from the faithful at Fenway Park. The worst part about it is that somewhere, Jose Canseco is snickering and saying “I told you so,” for he’s been saying for several years that A-Roid was a juicer.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that now make four major juicers from the recent editions of the New York Yankees: Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, and now A-Roid? As if the Steinbrenner family has not done the game irreparable harm already, isn’t their real legacy now paying ridiculous salaries to juicers? There is simply no excuse and no justification for it or for them.

Is there any better possible reason for the imposition of a salary cap in major league baseball than what has happened this off-season with the Yankees? First, in a year when the economy is in the toilet, they spend $400 million on three free agents. And now, their golden boy–the guy with the largest contract in the history of baseball–has proved himself to be just another useless juicer.

It’s time that the rest of baseball impose a salary cap and rein in the Steinbrenners. Perhaps that way, some of the tremendous damage that they have done to the game might be undone.

I also believe that if Commissioner Selig had any cojones, he would declare that any player found to have cheated by using steroids is forever ineligible for admission to the Hall of Fame. That’s the best way I can think of to send a message to a guy like A-Roid, who desperately yearns for love and recognition, that cheating and juicing carries a large penalty. But Selig doesn’t have the stones to do it, meaning that guys like Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmiero, and now A-Roid will get into the Hall of Fame even though they cheated to get there. That’s not a good message to send kids, is it?