- J. Andrew Lockwood -
Senior Editor of The Bear Zone/ Sports Columnist
I’m still an Alex Rodriguez fan. Sure, he used steroids for three years from 2001-2003 when with the Texas Rangers. He was quite impressive during the span, if not his career, warranting the highest contract in MLB history (10 years - $252 million). He’ll most likely surpass Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron in a few years to become baseball’s all-time home run king. His current records, awards, statistics, and presence on the field are tremendous.
But Rodriguez will most likely live the rest of his baseball life in the shadow of a large asterisk from the ‘steroid era’ of the game he loves. No, I don’t approve of what he did to get an advantage, but I salute him for admitting his mistakes and moving on. In an interview with Peter Gammons last week, Rodriguez admitted his prior use of steroids for three seasons when in
For that reason I’m still a Rodriguez fan. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Somehow, A-Rod’s anonymous drug test leaked out to the wrong people and was plastered all over the media last week. In fact, Rodriguez was the only player out of the other 103 positive tests conducted by the MLB that same year to be called out. He’s a Yankee, he’s a suave guy, and he was supposedly baseball’s ‘clean player’ and the one to bring the sport out of a tarnished era.
In a Greek mythological sort of way, he was Achilles. It just so happened that we found out steroids was his heel. One could argue that Rodriguez should have been more forthright and come out about his usage during the huge juicing controversy a year or two ago. Why couldn’t he just admit that he used when the Mitchell Report was released?
The critics are plenty, but the truth is that few would willingly throw their career down the drain in order to feel vindicated. It’s the classical ‘ethical dilemma’ from business management class. The way he choose to deal with his problem was to do it behind doors. However, when he was called on the carpet, he admitted his fault. Unlike Roger Clemens or the muscled-up bashers of the late 1990’s, Rodriguez didn’t vehemently deny using…he was honest.
It’s always the best policy. Even if he did move on personally, he was honest about his past. That’s the only way professional sports will move forward in an age of synthetic growth hormones and chemicals that change the body. If we’re all honest with ourselves, we would do quite a bit to get an advantage in something meaningful to us. Take for instance schoolwork. We deprive ourselves of sleep, drink way too many Full Throttles and Monster Energy drinks, and shut ourselves in our rooms all to get ahead in a class or to make a certain grade. We’re in a sense hurting ourselves to get ahead.
Steroids in baseball is no different. At least Rodriguez is more honest with himself than a lot of us are. Maybe he used more than just those three season. Maybe he’s not all cracked up to be who he says he is. I understand why he did it though and I commend him for being honest with himself and the world. I’m not a Yankee fan, but I’ll root for Rodriguez…because at the end of the day, we all have asterisks hanging over our heads.
J. Andrew Lockwood is a free lance sports reporter for The Bear Zone, Mercer's Cluster Newspaper, and a broadcaster for ASun.TV
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