Destruction of Baseball: A-Fraud & many others

As you all are aware of, Alex Rodriguez was using performance enhancing drugs (PED) in the 2001-2003 baseball seasons. On Monday, he broke out the truth by admitting to these allegations that were made this past weekend. If you look at A-Rod’s numbers throughout the years from his rookie year to right now, his number are all consistent. His numbers from the 2001-2003 are pretty much the same (.305 batting average, 52 home runs, from those three years with PED use total) that we would have seen any signs of him using PED’s. Ok, from the years in New York as a Yankee (2004-2008) his batting average is .302 with 42 home runs batted in. You can kind of see the difference a little bit, but nothing really too drastic. The point I’m trying to make is what an idiot he was by doing what he did in Texas. This guy made around 28 million with the Yankees this past year. Heck back then in 01-03, he was making around 20 mill. If you’re making that much dough, you don’t have too much to prove, but to stay consistent and play well. He needed to cheat in order to play a little better and by doing so he got burned this past weekend. You can play with fire, but sooner or later it’s gonna burn you.

Why would he take the PED in the first place? The guy’s numbers were pretty consistent and there really wasn’t a need for him to take these enhancers. He made a very bad decision on his part for what he did. Also I want to mention that in 2003, he won the American League MVP award and a Golden Glove Award (which should be taken away from him). Even on 60 minutes he admitted to Katie Couric, that he never used any performance enhancing drugs. What a liar.

So, now since A-Rod confessed on Monday to his drug use…everything should be forgotten. No! The MLB, in my opinion should take away his awards that he won while using the PED and give them to the person who was behind Alex. It’s the only fair thing to do. Beside the fact of records, I want to speak beyond the lines. There are many kids in high school and colleges around the world who look up to A-Rod. How do you think they feel? Before A-Rod admitted to using PED, there were many others that came before him. Those kids and people looked up to those players much like Alex too. Whenever one pro baseball player was found in mist of some drug use, it felt like someone was stabbing the hope of the kids around the world. These athletes that kids look up to are hurting their image and the sports image. They’re telling kids that they need to cheat in order to make it big in the pros. Kids all would love to be like A-Rod and be able to play in the MLB. What happens when a young kid takes the same route that A-Rod took to perform his best? What if Johnny can’t build muscle quickly in order to be the starting QB for his football team? What would Johnny do, would he take the A-Rod path or bust his chops in the weight room like my coached preached to me? It’s true what they say that kids follow what their role models do. It’s really a shame that this had to happen because A-Rod was the last shinning hope for baseball’s image. Baseball has now really been beyond a tainted sport now; it’s really a sport that has been destroyed by the corruption of these performance enhancing drugs.

Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt, believes that the guys who have used PED should have their own record books. “Their numbers shouldn’t count. They should have their own record book, and it shouldn’t count. All the guys before us they’re cheating them. These guys from the past are in the Hall of Fame, and these guys (who are on steroids) are breaking their records. It shouldn’t count. It’s not fair.” Oswalt also adds on by saying, “they can have their own record book and they can have their own records. They shouldn’t have it with guys that did it on natural talent that played the game right like I did.”I have to agree with where he stands. Why should these abusers be in the same books like Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken Jr., and Roberto Clemente? All those who have broken the rules are spitting at the names I’ve listed above. In my opinion, Barry Bonds home run that broke Hank Aaron’s record shouldn’t count. Hopefully one day, Major League Baseball will fix the mess that they have on their hands. Let’s now hope, that no one else that we don’t suspect becomes known to be a steroid user (ex: Derek Jeter, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedrioa, Chipper Jones…to name a few).