Why Jayson Stark Is Wrong About Alex Rodriguez and Steroids

In baseball, we love our numbers. And we love our heroes. And that brings us to Alex Rodriguez, a man who has committed a crime he doesn't even understand:

A crime against the once-proud history of his sport.

A-Rod didn't commit that crime alone, of course. In many ways, he is just the latest, greatest face of a mass conspiracy that has now succeeded in obliterating the quality that used to separate baseball from the rest of the sporting jungle.

Ahem.

Implying that Major League Baseball has always been a cut above other professional sports leagues in terms of integrity and morality is a complete farce. Stark knows this as well as anyone.

This is a league that for half its history excluded minorities from stepping onto the field, and up until 1975 deprived players of rightful free agency.

The game has a proud tradition of cheaters that are regularly celebrated by historians and fans alike—from New York Giants Manager John McGraw watering down the base paths at the Polo Grounds and encouraging his players to slide with their spikes in the air, to Gaylord Perry, who made a career out of doctoring balls through any means possible.

From the way Stark makes it sound, Major League Baseball has had a squeaky clean record until now. Before Bonds, A-Rod, and the rest of the juicers ruined the national pastime forever, the league and everyone involved in it's existence was flawless.

I'd recommend that those of you who embrace such a notion watch Ken Burns' Baseball and make your own decision. You might re-consider your position.

Once, the numbers of baseball used to mean something special and magical. And the men who compiled those numbers were transcendent figures in American life.

I hear ya Starky.  Men like Ty Cobb—who's love for a good fight led him to stab a night's watchmen trying to break up a scuffle, and Babe Ruth—who's cravings for booze and food made him a model of human health, are the kind of people we want our kids looking up to.

But not now. Not anymore.

Translation: A league that once was based upon a tradition of excellence and integrity has now been corrupted forever.

Perhaps Stark is right; the proud traditions that Kennesaw Mountain Landis and Cap Anson stood for have since been desecrated.  Major League Baseball may have been characterized by bigotry and discrimination at the turn of the century, but bye golly, at least there were no roids!

Now we've arrived at this sad and tragic place where the players missing from the Hall of Fame will tower over the men who are actually in the Hall of Fame.

I'm willing to bet right now that Alex Rodriguez will join that Cooperstown missing-persons list -- no matter how many home runs he hits, no matter how he chooses to spin Selena Roberts and David Epstein's impeccably reported story on SI.com.

So long as Stalinist voters mark their ballots based on personal sentiments rather than the accomplishments of a player, I'm sure that will be the case.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?