There's got to be something good in all this mess, doesn't there? A year after we had to go through the Roger Clemens act, the Alex Rodriguez circus came to town. What is with these baseball players who think that they can get away with anything, then lie their way out it? Four years after testing positive for steroids, Rodriguez is on national TV with Katie Couric telling her he had never taken steroids, had never considered it because he's always been so "dominant" on the field, and could only tsk-tsk about the use of steroids in his game. He even called himself "naive", like a virgin I guess. What has come out so far of A-Rod's interview tonight with ESPN (the love-me-some-athlete network) sounds like a real two-finger PR job, as in stick those fingers down your throat and heave.
Yes, he's very good but Rodriguez is not my kind of baseball player. Come to think of it, he, Bonds, and Clemens have something in common; all seem to be stathounds who think they are bigger than the game. But did we have to go through this steroid stuff again? Curt Schilling may be right. MLB should release the names of the other 103 players who failed the 2003 tests and get the pus out in one go. Now that one name is out, the others are sure to follow, albeit in dribs and drabs. Get them out and get over with it. Otherwise, we are going to have to wait for another generation of baseball players before the steroid era is put to rest. God knows what the PED's of choice will be in another generation.
Hats off to Jose Canseco, by no means an anti-steroid crusader. Everything that the vilified Canseco has said about steroid usage in baseball has been pretty much spot on. If not for him and his books, MLB might still be stumbling around for a drug policy. I mean, I saw Bud Selig in action this October in the rain in Philadelphia. The Players Association fought testing, the owners went for the money, and the players went with the flow. Sheesh.
Hats off, too, to MLBN, which went at this story head-on from the moment it broke Saturday morning. From what I saw of their coverage, it was excellent.
Mantra for the cynical and disgusted: pitchers and catchers on Saturday. Thank you, Ruben Amaro, Jr., for at least giving Phillies fans sunshine in this year 2009.
