According to reports this morning from Sports Illustrated, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003. This was A-Rod's third and final season with the Texas Rangers, in which he won the first of his three MVP awards. Apparently, he was one of 104 players that failed random testing that year.I'm sure there are many A-Rod fans who are in shock right now and will deny the truthfulness of the story. That's their right, but FOUR independent sources told SI that he tested positive for two different steroids. I don't think a story of this magnitude would be released by a reputable news organizations like CNN and Sports Illustrated if it weren't fully researched. If one of the tabloids had reported this, I would dismiss it, but not from CNNSI.
The question now is what does this mean for A-Rod's career? Since Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's homerun record in 2007, baseball purists have been looking at the "clean" A-Rod to ultimately bring the record back to a legit player. Well, that's out the window now. He will still probably hit over 800 home runs, but it won't be the historic ride that many baseball fans were hoping for.
We now await how A-Rod will respond to this. According to WFAN in New York, A-Rod's first news conference is scheduled for Thursday. He's already lied in the past to using steroids. In December 2007, A-Rod told Katie Couric that he had never used steroids. A-Rod also denied Jose Canseco's claims that he used steroids. By the way, Canseco may be a louse, but everything he has said has been true. I don't think A-Rod will go the Roger Clemens route and deny it to the point of possible perjury charges. I also don't think he'll go the Andy Pettitte route and flat out admit it. I would be shocked if you don't hear, "you'll have to talk to the union", three-hundred times. It will be awhile before he find out the extent of this.
I wasn't convinced A-Rod was clean, but I was definitely leaning that way. His look hasn't changed like the looks of Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds did. They were tiny players who became HUGE! I guess with the advancement of technology, someone in a lab has developed steroids that don't grotesquely change your appearance. Therefore, I'm not sure anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt anymore. I guess I'll continue to give players like Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr. a pass, or small and finesse pitchers like Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux a pass. However, would I be shocked if those players were linked? No, not anymore.
Pat Morgan
Note: Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are probably dancing right now seeing a bigger name than them being tabbed for using steroids. On the flip side, Joe Torre is probably crying right now, because I'm sure this news will hurt his book sales. Does anyone care about the "A-Fraud" passages now?
4 comments:
I'll still take him on my fantasy team any day!
Why wasn't this announced back in 2003 when he was ON the steroids? I think waiting to talk about it is hurting all the stats and the "innocence" factor in baseball.
Maybe baseball fans (if there are any left) should either accept the steroid use so that baseball might be more exciting, or not accept it but accept the fact that baseball isn't as exciting as football.
I hope it comes out that he's on steroids right now and he gets his A-Roid booted!
Are you surprised by allegations that Alex Rodriguez used steroids in 2003?
Yes 8%
No 92%
right off cnn's website. funny and sad.
It was anonymous testing in 2003 which only a few people had the results to. It was done to see if 5% or more of the players were doing roids. They were and that started more testing with penalties. But when ARod failed, there was no penalty in baseball then for steroids. That's because the MLB Players Union is one of the strongest in the world. They think they are bigger than US law. Ridiculous.
And no one should be shocked. That poll is 92% realists and 8% saddened A-Rod fans, haha.
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