My Thoughts on A-Rod

As a Met fan it kills me to defend a Yankee but I have to do it. I wasn't surprised by Alex Rodriguez's admission that he used a banned substance in 2003. Oddly enough, it was in 2003 that a former co-worker (who I will not name because I am no longer in touch with him and don't have his permission to quote this story) told me a story about his days as a minor league ballplayer. He mentioned that one of his minor league teammates played high school baseball with A-Rod. (I don't recall if this person was a teammate or on a competing high school team in the same league.) He mentioned that the person has told him that as a junior, A-Rod was approached by a team's scout, who told him that he had the skills but needed to bulk up by 15-20 pounds to guarantee being the top overall draft pick. The scout arranged for A-Rod to acquire some illegal substance to add on the weight and, lo-and-behold, Alex Rodriguez becomes the first overall selection of the Seattle Mariners.

Now I'm not saying what A-Rod did was right. I'm just saying that there are many more layers to peel off this onion and we can't swing from calling him the player with the most integrity to the one with the least overnight. There is a large gray area here regardless of whether or not the story I recall above is true. (Remember, I'm getting this information third-hand so I can't verify its validity other than to say the co-worker telling me this story was a pretty reliable guy.)

Also, to all those people that think the records should be thrown out, I was saying this back when Bonds was chasing the home run title: "throw out the records only if you can prove that not a single pitcher that gave up a home run to Barry Bonds was juiced." Few people were with me before the Mitchell Report when I said the pitchers had more reason to use performance enhancing substances than hitters and the Mitchell Report proved me right. In a bizarre, twisted, and absurd way, the playing field was level for all those home runs hit by Bonds, A-Rod, and everyone else in major league baseball, just like all of Roger Clemens' strikeouts against clean hitters count as much as those against juiced hitters.