Sour Juice

So Alex Rodriguez allegedly tested positive for Steroids back in 2003. Oh Boy. This is gonna be annoying.

This has instantly become the #1 story of the Baseball season. Everything that A-Rod or the Yankees do will have this cloud over it. It will be discussed, argued, clucked about and fretted over by fans, journalists and analysts from coast to coast. I'm even writing a post about it. And all this chatter will amount to nothing except a big headache.

I was meaning to write a steroid related post, but for a different reason, so I figure I'll be efficient and just role two thoughts into a single post. After all, saving words is important in these trying economic times.

ESPN's Outside the Lines, a program whose existence is one of the few redeeming qualities of ESPN, recently did a story about the 1963 San Diego Chargers and how they were pioneers. Though not the good kind of pioneers, who deal with bears and dysentery and broken wagon axles. The '63 Chargers were probably the first professional team to make extensive use of steroids. And it wasn't a dirty little secret in the locker room, either: the team was given and told to take these pills during training camp. The OTL segment is outstanding and I wish I could embed the video, but instead I just have to make a link here and send you on your way to check it out.

Its really amazing, looking back, how little these guys (and their coaches) knew about steroids at the time. Its also amazing how much the game, and sports in general, have changed. No one lifted weights. No one questioned what coach said to do. Coach told you to live in the desert for week, and all you said was "yes sir". He says you gotta play hurt: "Yes sir". He tells you to take a mysterious pill with every meal: "Yes sir". The teams didn't know or care, the league didn't know or care. Hell, Sid Gilman is in the Hall of Fame!

Of course, nowadays we know a ton about steroids, and yet I think we are still pretty naive about it. Or at least we make ourselves naive about it, in order to avoid the cold hard truth that a lot of our favorite athletes are probably cheating. Sure, when a hated rival gets busted, we cluck our tongues and heckle and mock them and write them off forever as cheaters. When its our guy we can't rationalize or forget it fast enough. Its a totally natural and human reaction, which is not limited to steroids or to sports.

It reminds me of a story about Antebellum Plantation housewives, who could be counted on to know who the father was of every mulatto slave in the state, except of course those who lived on their own plantation. Lord only knows where those children came from.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to our latest hero to fall from grace: A-Rod. A-Rod (allegedly, of course) used steroids in 2003, and possibly other times as well.

What's weird about this is that A-Rod isn't really liked that much. In fact, I'd wager that he's one of the most disliked players in baseball. Even Yankee fans don't seem to like him very much. There's a handful of baseball fans who (until now, anyway) liked him, myself included. I happen to like A-Rod because I think he gets a terrible wrap and is perhaps the most under appreciated player in baseball. This is not to defend him or excuse his behavior, its just how I (used to) feel about the guy.

The weird thing about this is that, unlike guys like Big Mac, Bonds or Giambi who got obviously bigger and stronger, A-Rod didn't seem to change in size. Nor did his numbers improve dramatically in 2003. In fact, they were down quite a bit from the prior season, as were his 2004 numbers. His slugging percentage dropped from .623 to .600 and then too .510 before rebounding in 2005 to .620. His Home Run totals dropped from 57 to 47 and then to 36 before going back to 48 in 2005. His power numbers have fluctuated throughout his career and there seems to be no definite trend either before or after 2003.

My guess, assuming that he was only using in 2003, was that A-Rod was using Steroids to try and recover from some lingering injury, and it took until 2005 for him to really get right again. Or maybe he was just a head case for those two years (he does admit to seeing 5 therapists). Either way, its odd.

For many years he's been, quite literally, the best baseball player in the whole world, and yet he's hated by so many. Most of this dislike is a combination of his being a Yankee, his enormous contract, and the perception that he isn't "clutch", a mostly meaningless (and fairly incorrect, in this case) distinction. Throw in the messy divorce and the fact that he's dated Madonna and you have a surefire recipe for loathing. And now steroids are the topper on the A-rod hate sundae.

The one thing that A-Rod did have going for him was that he was on pace to take back the title of Home Run King from perhaps the only player more universally hated than A-Rod himself: Barry Bonds. Whatever his other attributes or whether or not he ever won a World Series, A-Rod had this one chance at redemption and to be remembered in a positive light. To restore some dignity and pride back to what was once the most hollowed record in sports.

And now that's gone.

In a sad sense, this couldn't be more appropriate. Steroids have been hiding in plain sight in sports, especially baseball, for too long. The Home Run Chase with Sosa and Big Mac. Barry Bonds breaking almost every HR record. Rogers Clemens seeming immortality. Eric Gagne, Jason Giambi, dozens of others named and unnamed. The Mitchell Report.

A-Rod was a big hope for Baseball to right the ship and put steroids behind it, but I guess it was too good to be true, which is totally fitting.