I got a lot on my mind.. so let's take a ride, will ya?
Imagine what it was like being in that Texas Rangers locker room in the mid 90s to 2000s. Were guys just walking around with needles coming out of their asses? People can say that the Yankees had a lot of steroid guys, but how about them cowboys in Texas? Canseco, Raffey, IRod, Juan Gone, Garry Matthews Jr and a certain 3rd baseman who now wears pinstripes. And oh by the way, if you are scoring at home, and it was a 5-3 (third base to first base put out), the guy receiving the throw across the diamond from ARod was the man who will be receiving that same toss from him this year, Mr Mark Teixeira.
Yup, I am about to present a theory, not an accusation but a theory or a wondering of wonders (that's a little song from Fiddler on the Roof for you musical fans at home). If ARod was caught up in this culture of the Steroid Rangers, and IRod was and Juan Gone was and Raffy was and Garry Matthews was and even little Randy Velarde was.. can we wonder how Mr Teixeira was able to exist in that culture with sticking a needle into his own record? HMMMM...
But I have yet to hear anyone bring this up. You think that the Yankees are wondering if they simply replaced one steroid user first baseman with another? I am. Just wondering...
SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD: It seems when it comes to steroids, sorry doesn't come to easy. It doesn't come easy from the players, it doesn't easy from the owners, and this pisses me off. Just in case you haven't read up on everything in that SI article, but the reason AROD even got caught is because Gene Orza of the players union was fighting the results of the tests so that they would be under the 5% that would mandate a testing policy. He was more concerned with trying to keep testing out of baseball and allowing the players to continue to cheat, and by doing this kept the test results alive and essentially got AROD into this moment.
It was written in the Post today and I emailed Gman and FTLT about it yesterday. AROD can be a hero here and completely change his image. I actually feel that he has an enormous opportunity here to completely change the game. If he comes out and says I'M SORRY. This was a terrible thing. I was completely wrong and not only that but the game has been wrong, the players union was wrong and I now want to stand in the front of this battle to keep the game clean. I will start my own program to teach kids about the dangers of steroids and I will submit to the very same testing done in the Olympics and believe that baseball should do the same thing.
You can't tell me that if he does something like that and continues to speak out that he doesn't have an opportunity to impact his image in a huge way and come out of this way better than it's looking at the moment.
FINALLY: To refute the earlier post or to answer the question.. Do We Care? My answer is strongly YES. This is a game about history. The records matter. The Hall of Fame matters. Hank Aaron matters. What he went through to get that record matters. It matters that Hank Aaron achieved the top of the home run list while receiving racist letters and words from the fans every single game. It matters that on the other hand Barry Bonds achieved the top of the home run list while receiving steroid injections before every game. THAT MATTERS.
So there it is. Call in today. This Tex thing needs to get talked about. Don't let Mike tell you it doesn't matter. Don't let people tell you Pujols is now the clean guy. Don't look at a record book that has Bonds on the top of the list and think it's real. It ain't real.
And don't think it doesn't matter. It matters. Honesty isn't some relic like wooden rackets or the Polo Grounds. Nope, it's here and real and it too matters.
And Now, A Note From Brian Powell
14 years ago
4 comments:
Mike is surprisingly generic in his open. He reprised his theme of 'this is the dawn of a new era'. A lot of people declared the Steroids era over after testing was instituted. But that hasn't really panned out.
But Mike thinks, or suggests, that is is time for A-Rod, the players, their union, etc to move baseball past this era. I agree with him, but that opinion is a little simplistic for a sports expert like him. Not to mention naive. You think the strongest union in all of America is all of sudden going to reverse course and show humility(and common sense)?
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!!!!!
Please would SOMEONE, ANYONE, tell this UNINFORMED, lazy hunk of waste
material that HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE IS NOT, NOT, NOT a steroid?
"we don't know if he's doing stuff now!! "There is no test for Hgh"
You might as well say:
"we don't know if he's doing stuff now......there's no test for ASPRIN!
Because hgh is as similar to fucking STEROIDS as it is to aspirin!!!! With years of being involved with the stuff, I know.
How could the supposedly #1 sports talk personality in NY NOT research and know even A LITTLE about steroids and HGH, so your freaking opinion is based on SOME SORT OF real knowledge!!!
God, he pisses me off. ANd I listen about 10 minutes a day!
Oh, and Mike.......ENOUGH, ENOUGH with that TOTAL PHONEY has been SPRINGSTEEN, already! The 80's called and they want their PSUEDO EVERYMAN rocker back!!! I can BARELY stand you talking sports, I PROJECTIVE VOMIT when I hear you talk about music, politics, money with your psuedo expertise......You slob.
I hate that I am going to come across as cynical but I just can't see how any of this gets sorted out. I mean, as GMan alluded to, this union is not going to break. It's shown it will bend but it's not going to give us the answers we need. The members are loyal, obviously, which is why we've not a real whistle blower. I expect that we never will. Without it, how can we know? If the players are essentially operating, or were operating inside a system that had no means to police what they were doing how can we condemn them for doing whatever possible to increase their value? If we don't know who played within the rules, how can we condemn those we know broke the rules? Even if the other 103 players are named, I will not be convinced that the other 600 players or so are clean. Will you? The whole era is defined by a factor that we cannot ever quantify.
In regards to A-Rod...Just heard the interview and he blew it, big time. I didn't believe a lick of what he said. Not one lick. In addition, I don't care how many drug tests he passes from now until the ned of his career. As long as there are ways to get around these tests, I will expect the players to do so. See, this is where we are. Why spend our time worrying when we'll literally never know.
Since the Yanks signed Arod, for a large part, because of the $$$ to be made from the home run chase, and they signed him basically during the PED era....
COuld they be so stupid as NOT to have a clause??
ANd if stupid sports illustrated can find out this info, the Yanks couldn't??
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