Two things right out of the gate with the story that A-Rod, A-fraud, Anabolic-Rod is the latest casualty of greed and selfish ambitions in the sports world. As the first reference below suggests it’s Christmas for Yankee haters understand that is error one. Concluding that those who dislike the Yankees stand to gain pleasure from this story misses the point. That most let such offenses slide is again the sad statement. Error two is that he should think of Yankees before himself due to a public relations nightmare. When will this nonsense be judged for what it is?
Athletes who use drugs in general is bad enough. But when performance enhancing drugs are used to alter the outcome of competitive sporting events the definition seldom used and focused on is fraud. It is the same with Barry Bonds and the home run record. If you cheat there is no record breaking event. The lame debate on whether the Barry Bonds’ record should stand or have an asterisk placed next to it in the record books is deranged.
Anyone who uses performance enhancing drugs in sports should be banned forever and have all evidence of their history in sport designated as the fraud it is.
As for what to do about these matters no one seems to care enough to see the obvious. Damage control or public relations or fixing the taint to rescue the bottom line is not the answer. Continuing to allow revelations of bad behavior to be corrected with a new coat of paint just makes matters worse. The new rule should be as it once was, one and done. If you violate laws or codes of conduct or rules of the game let the punishment fit the crime. Performance enhancing drug use should be one and done and records purged, end of story.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
If A-Rod Did Indeed Cheat, He Must Think Of Yankees Before Himself Or 2009 Will Be Public Relations Nightmare
Feb 7, 2009 3:30 pm US/Eastern
By JEFF CAPELLINI, WCBSTV.com Senior Sports Producer
NEW YORK (CBS) — The legend of “A-Fraud” grows
Joe Torre took a lot of heat last week over excerpts from his new book. Among the myriad of skeletons he exorcised from the Yankees closet, he said the idea that Alex Rodriguez may not be the most genuine soul in the world had always been a running joke inside the Yankees locker room.
Well, it looks now like A-Rod’s words and actions are going to have to be good for more than just his teammates. With Saturday’s bombshell CNN/SI report that Rodriguez tested positive for steroids back in 2003, he now finds himself in the unenviable position of having to choose his words carefully because if indeed failed that test what he says next will go a long way toward determining if the rest of baseball – and the sports world for that matter – will be as forgiving with him as they were with players like Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte.
by Mark Kriegel
Updated: February 7, 2009, 4:41 PM EST
Even by the standards of this tawdry, tabloid culture, a man who seeks solace in kaballah, Madonna and methenolone has hit some sort of imaginary trifecta.
I have taken pride and pleasure in my armchair analysis of Alex Rodriguez. He is all I could want in a subject: insecure, impressionable, narcissistic, and give the guy his due, above all, talented. That talent is now tainted, of course. And you can all but hear a certain tattooed celebrity boxer saying, I told you so…
Only A-Rod — lightning rod, it now occurs, would be a better nickname — could again elevate Jose Canseco to sage status.
Still, the news that Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003 — one of his several MVP seasons — is not to be greeted with a sense of hilarity. Rather, he has tampered with history.
Whatever else A-Rod was, or is, he represented a chance to rescue American sports’ most sacred individual record. No more, though.
by Tomer Talmy
Another dark day in the history of the Yankees, the greatest franchise in the history of team sports.
Since October of 2003, the Yankee ship has been sinking into the dark waters of the Hudson River. After losing the World Series in 2003 to the Marlins, it seemed like a great run in the Bronx was finally over. On February 15, 2004, the Rangers traded Rodriguez to the New York Yankees for second baseman Alfonso Soriano and it seemed like the Yankees were bound to make another run at the title in 2004.
Them, a new face showed up in town. The greatest talent to ever take the baseball field, and he went by the name of Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod was the best all around player in the game and he made the move from shortstop to third base just to fit the Yankee need in hope for a championship ring.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 11:03 pm and is filed under wordpress, conspiracy, disclosure, ethics, oversight, sports, Baseball, Big Pharma.
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February 8th, 2009 at 4:32 am
I haven’t really had very many nice thoughts about Alex Rodriguez since he left the Mariners to chase after money in Texas, and then decided to go after Yankee money. He was a first round draft pick for the Mariners and rose to fame with the team.
When he came back to play in Seattle for those other teams he was booed by the fans, and I had no problem understanding the attitude.
February 8th, 2009 at 4:35 am
As for banning people for life from various sports for cheating, I agree entirely. It makes more sense to ban a player that uses performance enhancing drugs from the game for life than it does to ban someone like Pete Rose for betting on the games.
If Pete Rose deserved the ban (I don’t recall, did he bet on games he participated in? If so, the ban was definitely justified.), so does Barry Bonds, A-Rod, and a whole slew of other players. We’ll never know how they would have played without the drugs.
February 8th, 2009 at 5:09 am
Some people are born with talent. Some people have to work especially hard to overcome any deficits in natural talent. Sport should be among other things a way to demonstrate that reaching goals can be achieved in either case. A showcase to exhibit admirable qualities in human beings not to allow the lesser qualities to tarnish what is good.
To celebrate the victory of the human spirit over obstacles or adversity in sport should reflect those values we believe to be honorable and worth possessing in all of life’s venues. To allow greed and selfish acts, to put it mildly, demeans the sport and encourages more of the same.
Throw the bums out!!