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Simple question, yet confusing on so many different levels.The optimist in me wants to believe A-Rod. I want to believe that A-Rod only took steroids from 2001-2003, that it was just a stupid mistake, that he was just young and stupid, that he is truly sorry for lying to the American people on national TV, and that he had no idea what steroids did to him.
But for some reason, I don't.
Maybe it was the lack of conclusive answers from A-Rod. Maybe it was the culmination of all the lies from A-Rod in the past (Couric interview, Selena Roberts stalked me!). For some reason, I did not walk away from yesterday's interview believing that A-Rod had completely solved this steroid issue. If anything, I think A-Rod might have opened up a new Pandora's box of questions because of his continually vague answers.
Here is what bothers me most: How could A-Rod put "stuff" into his body when he had no idea of the side effects or benefits? For a professional athlete, that just seems ridiculous and well beyond stupid.
So I ask you, the people, do you believe Alex Rodriguez? Did yesterday's interview satisfy all your concerns and questions?
Feel free to leave your responses in the comments section.
5 comments:
I just don't think there is any way that someone as "hard working" as A-Rod who "takes such great care of himself" would take some back alley steroid from the DR without consulting a real specialist. The admission seems too calculated, and he hits the same talking points over and over... "young", "naive", "pressure". Andy Pettitte didn't hire a PR firm before his press conference last year.
I'm fine with the major stuff, but the small details make it pretty obvious that he's not tell the whole truth.
My answer is that I don't believe it and that I don't frankly care anymore. I want him and the media to just talking and obsessing about it. I used to care about this issue deeply and I still want some sense of closure, but its clear that that will not come, so I've chose to just try and ignore anything steroid-related. I just go on assuming that significant percentage of players used and let that be. In fact, I have two hopes: one that eventually we will be able to determine that it was a very high number, so that at least I can feel that the playing field among the players playing at the time was pretty even, and second that someday we can account for use of steroids statistically they way we can account for park effects and such. I'm probably dreaming on both counts.
Jay: Excellent points. Very well said.
If A-Rod is serious that he had no idea about what he was taking, then he is much dumber than we all thought.
I'm also not a fan of the pr consulting, but then again, if I was in his shoes, that's exactly the route I would have taken.
Anon,
I want to ignore steroids, really I do. I'm sick of the topic.
But this won't go away. Not by a long shot. This will continue to be the main focus of baseball and the media for the next decade or so until all of the players in this generation have retired and are no longer eligible for the hall of fame.
And yes, that does make me sick to my stomach.
As for the statistics, maybe we can hire Nate Silver to come up with some conversion method to calculate the effects of steroids...I don't that's too far fetched!
thanks for the great comments guys
Absolutly not...Of course he knew what he was doing ...His only mistake is playing his fans for fools....goodbye to the FIRST BALLOT election to HOF
Ross: I agree that A-Rod is no longer a first ballot hall of famer, but do you think he can still get into the hall? I'd say no, but it'll be interesting to see how many people wind up voting for him.
Billy: It's too bad that there are no tests out there for HGH. I've heard that they are developing one, but nothing is out there yet. Who knows the real effect of these drugs on the players, their bodies, their performance, or their health...but someone could make quite a pretty penny if they figure this out!
thanks for the great comments guys
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