A-Rod steps up to the plate
Every year around this time the grapefruit league and the cactus league are buzzing with anticipation. The teams that survived last years ups and downs of a long baseball season only to find themselves at home come October are basking in the sun talking about their dismal season past with a new found faith and hope that is promised by off season surgery to a key player or an acquisition of another player to firm up a team that just seemed to be missing one element that could propel them into the playoffs. That is what spring training is all about. At least that is the way it used to be until all this steroid stuff has been raising its head again.
Baseball just can’t seem to get away from it. There are all kinds of people talking crazy things like this could ruin the game forever. Back in 1998 when Mark McGuire was chasing that elusive 61 home run season record those same people were saying; “This is what baseball needs”. “This is exactly the thing that will bring the fans back after a cold hard slap in the face“. That cold slap was the 1994 season ending strike that never saw playoffs or a World Series.
But Mark McGuire was tearing it up all year long. The skinny kid that came up with the Oakland A’s in 1986 and played in 18 games while hitting 3 homeruns. The very next year, he played in 151 games and hit 49 homeruns. We saw him bulk up from the skinny kid, to becoming the other half of the bash brothers with teammate Jose Canseco.
Mark mcGuire in 1986
We saw how he bulked up and his numbers shot up. I am sure we all thought about it. We might have thought he did get real big real fast but that was just the training right? But all of a sudden he was going to single handedly save the game of baseball by breaking the all-time season homerun record.
........and in 1998
Those same people that crowned him the homerun king and the man that saved baseball are the same people that started accusing him of using steroids. Why do they accept things one minute and the next they are selling you down the river? Some things never change. They are doing the same thing to Michael Phelps. One day you are a king, the next you’re crap.
Alex Rodriguez hit a homerun his first at bat in the Yankees first exhibition game of the year. It almost really didn’t matter what he did. If he would have struck out or grounded out, the speculation would be that maybe he’s lost a step.The juice took another great talent and ruined his career and his life. Or would A-Rod be accused of not being able to take all the media hype, after all, he did go through a spit with his wife and the Madonna thing last year and now this. Too much. Too much to handle. He can’t even hit grapefruit league pitching. New York is too much for him. See? Some guys can’t handle the big city. Then there will be rumors of Alex wanting to go back to Seattle to reunite with Ken Griffey Jr. Geez! When does it end?
please come to seattle for 2009
While sitting in the diner with my son Joseph enjoying a nice early evening supper, Joe looked up at the television and nodded his head and asked me “Hey dad, does that guy do steroids too”? I looked up at the screen and saw what appeared to be the Houston Astros Lance Berkman talking on ESPN. I was then reminded that exhibition games were starting today and as much as I really didn’t care about the scores, I was more interested to hear Berkman talk about hitting and the upcoming season, and then I heard him mention steroids. I know I am sounding like I wish this stuff would go away. I might sound like a little kid whose hero has just been dragged through the mud and his image tarnished forever. But enough already. We all knew in the back of our minds that this stuff existed. We can not make it all go away. But we can not keep banging it around back and forth. Let’s just figure out who is guilty, and have them pay the price. The guilty players are the ones that can ruin the game, and the media doesn’t do much to help, and the fans are the one’s that end up paying the price. Enough. Just play friggin baseball.
