[Note: I know very few (read: probably none) of you are into sports, but indulge me.]
There's this cross-country race from New York to L.A and the grand prize is $280 million. You decide to enter. There's only one rule you MUST follow: You may not at any time drive faster than 65 mph during the race. You later find out from the rule makers that there are no police officers or radar detectors on the side of any roads or highways and that if by some chance you do get caught, there are no penalties. Knowing this information, how many of you out there WOULD NOT do everything you possibly can to increase your chances of winning the cash?
This is essentially the decision New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, who yesterday in an exclusive (and rather lengthy) interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons sorta kinda admitted to using "performance enhancers" for a time between 2001 to 2003, faced during his stint with the Texas Rangers.
If you missed the interview, you didn't miss much. Alex appeared contrite throughout, but was also carefully scripted. Despite being as human as I have ever seen him in his 10+ year career, he still seemed very aware of every word he spoke. All Rodriguez really said was that he didn't know what performance-enhancing substances he took and hasn’t taken anything since 2003. He never once used the word steroid.
A-Rod, who is (was?) widely considered the best player in baseball, will undoubtedly forever be lumped with Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, other famous baseball players who are either suspected of using or have admitted to steroid use. That's too bad for him, too. 48 hours ago he was a sure bet for the Hall of Fame. Now, he'll be one big asterisk for the rest of his life.
In the world where performance dictates incentives, I don't blame these players one bit for doing what they need to do to win, especially when the governing body doesn't have rules in place to stop it. Until 2004, Major League Baseball had no drug testing policy. It collected samples for survey purposes, but there were no penalties for a player testing positive for a banned substance. Football had it's issues in the 70's, but it cleaned up its steroid issues 20 years ago. Major League Baseball, which first initiated a complete banned substance testing program just six years ago should've been on top of this issue before now.
There's this cross-country race from New York to L.A and the grand prize is $280 million. You decide to enter. There's only one rule you MUST follow: You may not at any time drive faster than 65 mph during the race. You later find out from the rule makers that there are no police officers or radar detectors on the side of any roads or highways and that if by some chance you do get caught, there are no penalties. Knowing this information, how many of you out there WOULD NOT do everything you possibly can to increase your chances of winning the cash?
This is essentially the decision New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, who yesterday in an exclusive (and rather lengthy) interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons sorta kinda admitted to using "performance enhancers" for a time between 2001 to 2003, faced during his stint with the Texas Rangers.
If you missed the interview, you didn't miss much. Alex appeared contrite throughout, but was also carefully scripted. Despite being as human as I have ever seen him in his 10+ year career, he still seemed very aware of every word he spoke. All Rodriguez really said was that he didn't know what performance-enhancing substances he took and hasn’t taken anything since 2003. He never once used the word steroid.
A-Rod, who is (was?) widely considered the best player in baseball, will undoubtedly forever be lumped with Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, other famous baseball players who are either suspected of using or have admitted to steroid use. That's too bad for him, too. 48 hours ago he was a sure bet for the Hall of Fame. Now, he'll be one big asterisk for the rest of his life.
In the world where performance dictates incentives, I don't blame these players one bit for doing what they need to do to win, especially when the governing body doesn't have rules in place to stop it. Until 2004, Major League Baseball had no drug testing policy. It collected samples for survey purposes, but there were no penalties for a player testing positive for a banned substance. Football had it's issues in the 70's, but it cleaned up its steroid issues 20 years ago. Major League Baseball, which first initiated a complete banned substance testing program just six years ago should've been on top of this issue before now.
4 comments:
I'm a HUGE sports fan. Any gay man who isn't should have his head examined.
A typical A-Rod at bat is the equivalent to the finest soft-porn on the market. And don't even get me started on football....those tight white pants and you can see the jockstrap plain as day....WOOF !!! And who doesn't swoon when Kobe takes a shot and reveals those sexy, sweaty armpits ?
Steroids, shmeroids..... A-Rod can sit on my face ANY time he wants !
Damnit ! (oh, sorry Blaq, I'm creepin' up on your Trademark. Won't happen again LOL.)
^^LOL @ softporn. I've met A-Rod twice now and wasnt feeling him either time.
Now if he had been a football player I would be interested in this story.
*throws my green American Apparel draws at A-Rod and licks my lips*
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