As each day goes by, Jose Canseco seems less and less insane. It appears that virtually every reference that he has made about a player's use of steroids is later uncovered as accurate.
The latest victim is Alex Rodriguez, ironically the inevitable heir to Barry Bonds' home run throne. On pace to enter the 600 home run club somewhere around late April in 2010, A-Rod will inch closer to the most coveted record in all of baseball.
It is fitting that Alex is dating the 'Material Girl', because his obsession with statistics and lust for attention and money has driven him as far as to inject himself with performance enhancers. Apparently his fixation on becoming the greatest player to ever live has pushed him toward cheating to reach his goal.
In an interview with Katie Couric on 60 Minutes (displayed above), Alex vehemently denies ever using or being tempted to use performance enhancing substances.
In an acting job as believable as Rafael Palmeiro, A-Rod pretends that he never felt the need to turn to steroids in order to get a leg up in a sport he already dominated.
Alex went on to defend Barry Bonds, who may or may not have supplied him with the source of his newest vice. He claims that the true home run record holder is Barry Bonds, and seemed to dismiss the concept of an asterisk being placed next to Bonds' accomplishments.
As if his tenure in the Bronx did not already experience enough choppy seas, A-Rod has now added a black eye to his entire career. The clouds of suspicion that have hovered over the game's best player have finally rained down the evidence needed to seal his fate.
Fans who desperately want to like Alex have been given another reason to turn their backs on him. Those who secretly, or even publicly, hoped only failure for him have another reason to celebrate.
News like this truly makes you appreciate the ghosts of Yankee past. Superstars like Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle never used performance enhancers, although the availability and variety of such substances was scarce.
In fact, they did everything in their power to impede their performance. Drinking and all night partying resulted in Mantle seeing three balls coming out of the pitcher's hand; he simply tried his best to hit the one in the middle.
Alex will have a lot to answer for in the months leading up to opening day. His inability to cope with the day to day pressures of New York will only be further magnified.
The only thing that can save him now is a World Series MVP award. After all, winning makes even the biggest dissenters come on board. Ask Eli Manning.
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it seems to be all about competition, winning at all costs, so it's hard to blame players that shoot up;
ReplyDeleteis their job to be sports stars or is it to "play the game?"