But he tested positive for using anabolic steroids in 2003, and then he admitted to it in an interview.
My question is this: Who Cares?
Seriously. It is almost undeniable that steroids saved baseball. Sure, some of you might be saying that steroids are everything that's wrong with baseball, but let's take a look at the evidence. The 1994 strike more or less killed the love of the game for all but the most hardy baseball fans. Gone were the recreational baseball fan. The strike drove them away.
When baseball returned a year later, the fairweather fans stayed away. Opening games saw the few fans that actually went to the games booing and throwing debris onto the fields in response the what the working American saw as violent greed displayed by players and owners. Baseball suffered from low ratings and angry fans.
All of that changed in 1998 when two jacked up men slugged it out in an effort to break the greatest single season record in baseball: Roger Maris's 62 home runs. That's right, Sammy Sosa, a formerly scrawny outfielder with moderate power and Mark McGwire, a guy with arms the size of tree trunks, battled it out in an amazing season long race to 62. Now, if you think that those guys were NOT on some kind of performance enhancing drugs, then I don't even know how to respond to you.
The homerun race brought fans back to baseball in droves. It regained its status as America's Pasttime, and little kids again wanted to make it to the bigs. All thanks to steroids.
So A-Rod, arguably the best player ever, definitely the highest paid player ever, used steroids. Honestly, if you were paid $250,000,000 to play a game, wouldn't you do all that you possibly could to enhance your perfomance? I certainly would. Yeah, they're not good for you and no, you're not setting a good example for kids, but you're not paid to live until you're 90 or teach little kids how to act, you're paid to play the game to the best of your ability, win games, and earn money for the owners. Hell, A-Rod was one of only 100+ players that were named in the most recent steroids report.
Steroids, whether you like it or not, are a part of the game. It's a game that men are paid millions of dollars to play, all for the enjoyment of fans. The fans want the players to play the best that they can, and steroids help that. Yeah, this is a slippery slope because kids will want to use steroids to make it big, but I'm looking past that at the moment.
I accept the use of steroids in baseball. I do not care that A-Rod used and I won't care until I believe owners, players, and the MLB care.
