A-Rod has admitted 3 years of steroid use beginning in 2001 when he signed his then record $252MM deal with the Texas Rangers.
According to A-Rod: “When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day,”
PRESSURE: You can handle it or you cannot. You crave it or hate it. As evidenced by this quote and A-Rod's horrid postseason numbers clearly A-Rod cannot handle it. Can't you please retire? I'm still waiting for the being raised by a single parent excuse. Shouldn't you just let your natural abilities, the same natural abilities that got you your absurd deal, take over? It's not like that being criticized for failing to live up to your contract would have any impact on your facked-up psyche anyways.
Way to screw up your career, buddy. You get no sympathy from me. Not with your current lifetime baseball earnings of $198,416,252 (which doesn't take into account your 9 remaining guaranteed near $30MM seasons).
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I have a lot more respect for A-Rod than I did a few hours ago when I assumed he would completely deny this. Find me another player that has owned up to what they took by admitting to more than what they are accused of.
ReplyDeleteIf Yankees fans can forgive and forget with Giambi, who apologized for something and Pettitte who claims he took HGH once because of injury, then it would be extremely hypocritical not to give Alex a second chance.
What Alex did was wrong and he cheated, but a $252 million contract and the weight of being called one of the greatest players ever is quite a bit of pressure for a 25 year old. I am in no way condoning what he took or his answers that he didn’t know exactly what he took but can understand why he tried PED’s especially when it was more or less part of the baseball culture.
As long as he continues to handle this the way he is and hits 300+ home runs over the next nine years I will be behind our third baseman.
No doubt I will still support the guy as a Yankee, but will not sympathize with him if doesn't get into the Hall.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, he made the choice to take whatever he took and has to live with the consequences.
ReplyDeleteI would argue if anyone that has been accused of taking PED's gets in then he must as well.
I think many many players took some type of PED at one time or another (except David Ortiz or anyone else on the Red Sox of course).
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the HOF, for me it comes down to this and I know it is subsective as fuck. Could you have put up HOF numbers without PED or did you put up HOF numbers before using.
For example, I feel Arod, Roger, and Bonds are HOFers regardless. Mark McGuire is clearly not because he would have been a mediocre player without them. i realize PED help out if terms of getting hurt and ruining your chances (see: Don Mattingly) but if you go that route Derek Jeter will be the only person in the steriod era to make it (and possibly me for being the greatest fan to walk the face of this planet.)