A-Rod's Error Proves Costly For The Fabric Of Baseball

Disappointed.

Saturday was one of the most surreal days of my sports life. What was supposed to be a relatively light day of interning at 1050 ESPN Radio in New York City turned into a hectic, emotional experience as the landscape of baseball changed dramatically in an instant. I am, of course, referring to the news that Alex Rodriguez was one of 104 baseball players that tested positive for steroids in 2003.

The leak came Saturday morning via an article on SI.com. Immediately, this became the story of 2009 so far, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. With all the possible reactions this story is sure to have, let me break down some I have found so far.

It does not matter that A-Rod was the only player mentioned in this report. There are reportedly 104 players listed in the document from which A-Rod’s name was extracted. The reality is, no player is bigger than Alex Rodriguez. The closest active hitter with a realistic chance (almost guarantee) at breaking the all-time home run record is Alex, so any other player would have been secondary. Had everyone been listed publicly, Rodriguez would still be the top story.

Surprisingly, the sentiment amongst the majority of Yankee fans that I have heard from has been more disappointment than anger. Baseball fans are hurt. This is a big blow to the sport that many of us live and breathe (maybe nobody more than myself), and to see the actual realization that someone as big as A-Rod has officially cheated makes us feel deceived and possibly mad at our own naivety.

The bright side of this story is that it seems Rodriguez can never get out of his own way, and usually draws the criticism of many Yankee fans. Today, that appeared to be different. While there were the usual detractors, a shocking amount of people came to Alex’s defense, explaining how “everyone uses steroids” and how disappointed fans are in the wake of this unfortunate situation.

The remainder of Yankee fans simply decided that maybe this will be the parting straw with A-Rod, and now they can both go their separate ways. Regardless, the A-Rod bashing was impressively put on hold.

For what it’s worth Alex Rodriguez must come clean and admit to everything. Alex is often criticized for being standoffish or too fragile, but in this case, showing his human side would be doing him a huge favor. Just a simple apology and admission would suffice, but he really should stand up and tell everyone that he will answer any question truthfully, assuming it will not indict any other player.

America is a forgiving nation, and to have a rare occasion where an athlete comes off as genuine and wholehearted is just too much for this nation to pass up. Full disclosure and sincerity by Alex would be thoroughly appreciated. As for him not coming clean before, he actually had a good reason not to.

Admitting to something that should have been kept a secret would actually make the league (and obviously himself) look bad. Assuming he stopped taking steroids when it actually became illegal (after 2003), it would have done him more damage to bring up a stupid action rather than deny it. Obviously now things have changed.

Above all, my personal feeling is that of despair. Had the report simply stated that “104 players tested positive for steroids in 2003”, baseball fans would simply accept this as a typical situation we have come to understand.

It seems as if, in a valiant attempt to maintain the sanctity of the sport that we hold so dear to our hearts, we subconsciously assume that these players musthave been 104 of the worst players in the league. It was almost inconceivable that it could be anyone of stature in MLB.

Maybe our mind was tricked by the Mitchell Report, where dozens of names were released, and the only one we cared about was Roger Clemens, who was obviously on his way out of the league. This new information that a current (and someone who is sure to be around for a while) superstar is a cheater has delivered a devastating blow to the sport of baseball.

As fans, we are now torn, and can go one of two ways. We can decide that baseball is simply littered with steroids. This option is, quite frankly, terrible but it still allows fans to be naïve in the hope that maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem. The second option is that we actually hope for more big names to come out.

This means that we will feel some satisfaction as fans knowing that the playing field is leveled, and the entire era is officially tainted. There really is no right answer. I am a Yankee fan first, a baseball fan second, and an A-Rod fan third. The truth is, there is no way around it: we all lost.

Mario Mergola is the co-creator and writer of The Digital Blitz.