Did A-Rod "Shame the Game"?

[CityLawyer]

I have a little bit of different take on a lot of this. As some of you have posted, I agree that there is a lot of hypocrisy going on here. MLB did not care about any of this until it became a PR nightmare. But I will go one step further because ALL of the major league sports have been activily providing their athletes with performance enhancing drugs without any repercussions. They may not be in the form of steriods or hgh. Instead, they use pain killers, corisone or whatever it takes to put the players on the field in a condition to play.

There is a great scene in a movie called North Dallas Forty where a team cuts a player because he smoked marijuana. In his "exit" meeting he points out that the team used stronger stuff just to get him on the field. This is all about business and PR. Players are expensive pieces of equipment that that the teams will use until the used up and then throw them to the curb when it is convenient or they are no longer getting a retun on their investment.

[blogndogn]

oh Yes he did. role models baby! ok case closed your Honor. lets all use steroids then ???

[Lunatic Fringe]

I'm not suggesting making steroids legal.

To the contrary, I feel that there aught to be a no BS rule about using banned substances that is simple and easy to understand. Get caught, get out. Permanently. Forever.

My problem is with how quickly (read instantly) MLB threw its stars of the '90's under the bus. In my fevered mind, MLB is more responsible for the steroid problem than Bonds, Pettitte, Clemons, A-Rod, McGuire, Sosa (yet to be implicated but still obvious), Palmiero, Canseco, Giambi, Tejada, etc. MLB created an atmosphere for these guys to make top notch jack and get the glory too for at least 15 years. To single out these players and many others as well is wrong. I believe that MLB should climb down from it's stained Ivory Tower and at the very least take its share of the blame for messing with the sacred records of baseball.

I'd settle for Bud Selig's severed head with an apple jammed in his mouth, displayed on the end of a pike. That would make me happy.

[CityLawyer]

I am not saying that what A-Rod did is right or that he did not shame the game. What I am saying is that I hate the hypocrisy that MLB and other professional sports show by talking out of both sides of their mouth on the issue. Steriods were not an issue as far as the teams or the league was concerned for a long time. And in fact, it can be argued that the 1998 home run race, which was allegedly was fueled by steroid use, renewed national interest in the game. But as soon as it because a public relations problem, the league lets them spin in the wind and be held up to public ridicule and scorn. You can argue that it is deserved because of the conduct, and you might even be right, but you also have to look at the mixed messages that the league and the teams send out to the players and the public. It is ok use performance enhancing drugs, as long as they are OUR performance enhancing drugs because we have an investment in you and we want you on the field. And watch how teams will use this information to distance themselves from players who are no longer producing and have big money contracts as compared to players who still provide benefits to the team. You can bet your butt that if A-Rod was hitting .240 with 17 home runs a year that the Yankees would have tried to void the contract. What A-Rod did was wrong, what the league has done and continues to do is worse.

[GIMNEPIWO]

I'd settle for Bud Selig's severed head with an apple jammed in his mouth, displayed on the end of a pike. That would make me happy.

Could someone please cut, paste and edit these for me ... I'd like it for my new avatar ...

Pike.jpg (3.58 KiB) Viewed 3223 times

200px-Article_bud_selig.jpg (10.14 KiB) Viewed 3223 times

apple.jpg (1.68 KiB) Viewed 3221 times

[Lunatic Fringe]

Not exactly what I had in mind, but if Bud's head is severed I guess I could live with your interpretation.

[GIMNEPIWO]

Not exactly what I had in mind, but if Bud's head is severed I guess I could live with your interpretation.

I was using YOUR interpretation LF ... I always thought the expression was " head displayed on the end of a spike " not pike

[frito_burrito]

That kind of money and spot light doesnt only come with pressure from the team. It comes with double the pressure from the league and SELIG. Anyone who says they wouldnt have done whatever it takes to make them a stronger, faster, better player is either full of it or has never had the chance to be in that situation!!!! Oh and anyone who thinks Selig and the league wasnt aware of the steroid use is huffing gold paint!!!!!!

F MLB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Demonboy]

I'm in agreement with Lunatic Fringe.

Besides, at the end of the day I find preaching, moralizing, finger wagging, self important middle aged fat asses more irritating than the cheating athletes they're bitching about.

[anonlooker]

Not exactly what I had in mind, but if Bud's head is severed I guess I could live with your interpretation.

I was using YOUR interpretation LF ... I always thought the expression was " head displayed on the end of a spike " not pike

I prefer the pike... it connotes 'something fishy' is going on!