In Other Words: A-Rod and 'The Legacy' - Part One

Rodriguez Takes His Case to the People – Keeps Mum in Hearings

"I know that I am in a position where I have to earn my trust back. And over time, I am confident that, at the end of my career, people will see this for what it is -- a stupid mistake and a lesson learned for a guy with a lot of baseball to play.” - Alex Rodriguez, during 2009 press conference where he admitted to using PEDs from 2001-03.

JAN 14^th, 2014-Well, well, well.

Everyone's favorite Yankees third baseman is in the news, again. Shockingly, the current situation does not show him in a good light.

Let's take a look back at 2009, when Rodriguez found himself in a similar situation: A-Rod was dealing with the accusation (which he vehemently denied) that he had used PEDs during the 2001-03 seasons while a Texas Ranger. After a great many assertions from both the accused and the accusers, Rodriguez finally came clean (or, at least, as clean as he could be):

"As I discussed with Peter Gammons, in the years 2001, '02 and '03, I experimented with a banned substance that eventually triggered a positive test.”

As he put it initially in an admission that was rather late in coming, he 'experimented' with a banned substance. He doesn't just come out and say 'yes, I purposely used what I knew to be an illegal, banned substance', nor does he state what the aforementioned substance happened to be. More on that, later.

What he does say, however, is every bit as interesting:

"Going back to 2001, my cousin started telling me about a substance that you could purchased over the counter in the DR [Dominican Republic]. In the streets, it's known as 'boli' or 'bole.' It was his understanding that it would give me a dramatic energy boost and [was] otherwise harmless. My cousin and I, one more ignorant than the other, decided it was a good idea to start taking it. My cousin would administer it to me, but neither of us knew how to use it properly, providing just how ignorant we both were.”

In this part of the statement, it seems pretty obvious that he's trying to paint a picture of two naïve young men who were using a substance they didn't fully understand. I guess it's just hard for me to swallow; if I were a pro athlete making 25 mil a year (or more), I think I'd want to know every detail about every 'substance' that went into my body. But I guess that's just me.

Anyway, it almost seems like Rodriguez wants the public to believe that he might not have known just how serious was the situation in which he put himself. But then comes this gem:

“It was pretty evident we didn't know what we were doing.”

To whom, exactly? Moving on:

"I stopped taking it for several reasons: In 2003, I had a serious neck injury and it scared me half to death. I was scared for my career and truly my career after baseball -- my life out of baseball. Secondly, after our voluntary test, all the players voted for a Major League Drug Policy. At that time it became evident to me how serious this all was (emphasis added) . And I decided to stop then. Since that time, I've been tested regularly. I've taken urine tests consistent with Major League Baseball and blood tests for the World Baseball Classic. Before walking in here today, I took a test as part of my physical, and I will take another blood test next week for the Classic.”

“'At that time'”, he is quick to acknowledge, “'it became evident to me how serious this all was.”. So it was only then that you realized just how serious things had become?

He's asking us to believe that he was, essentially, led down this path by an outside influence. The blame lies somewhat more heavily on those who were involved in convincing him to take these substances, right?

And by the way, what was it that he took? Rodriguez says that the street name for the substance is 'boli'. T.J. Quinn of ESPN wrote an analysis of that statement on February 25^th, 2009:

“'If boli refers to Primobolan (a brand name for methenolone), it can't be purchased over the counter in the Dominican Republic (emphasis added). So how did they get it? The black market?'”

I think the emphasis is, in this particular statement, especially important. It seems to me that critics of PED use seem more often to focus on the potential benefit these drugs offer to the players who use them. The fact that obtaining said drugs without a prescription or by methods which don't involve being under a doctor's care is glossed over in favor of shining the spotlight on stats and records.

A transcript of A-Rods news conference was posted on MLB.com on Feb 17^th, 2009. Rodriguez gives a curious response to one question posed to him by the MLB reporter in which he was asked why he stopped using PEDs (supposedly) when he came to the Yankees in 2004:

“'I keep going back to -- I entered the game when I was 18. For a lot of people, if I had a son I would definitely recommend going to college and having an opportunity to grow up. And I didn't. I felt like I said in my statement that after I had my neck injury and after I realized MLB was implementing tests that this was serious business. It was time to grow up. Since, I've realized that I didn't need any of it.'”

Ah, so now we have the reason A-Rod used PEDs: immaturity. In essence, he suggests that entering pro ball as a teenager somehow inhibited his ability to grow into a mature, responsible adult. I don't even know how to respond to that.

He goes on to blame his PED use on being 'young and stupid', which is a point I'm not even going to attempt to refute. He most definitely was, in some ways, young and stupid for being involved with what he himself tells us was something he didn't fully understand. He even says that he didn't KNOW that the substance in question was steroids:

"'I didn't think they were steroids at the time. Again, that's part of being young and stupid. It was over the counter...

OK, that's a lie. If it WAS Primobolan, then it most definitely was not over the counter. But I digress:

“'...it was pretty basic and it was really amateur hour. It was two guys, we couldn't go outside, who couldn't ask anyone, didn't want to ask anyone. We went outside team doctors, team trainers. It was two guys doing a very amateur and immature thing. We probably didn't even take it right. Like I said in my statement, we used to do it about two times a month...'”

To me, this is a veiled attempt at suggesting that he shouldn't be held fully accountable because he was too ignorant to know how to take the drug that (again, I say) he readily admitted to not understanding fully. Moving further on:

“'I don't even know if that is proper. So when this gentleman asked me about how it affected us -- I'm not sure we even did it right to affect us in the right way. All these years, I never thought I did anything that was wrong.'”

In other words, he wants us to believe that what he DID take, in the way he took it, wasn't enough to cast doubt upon his statistics. Are we kids, or what?

A-Rod wants us to believe that he was seeing the professional sports world through the eyes of a child; that he, as I said previously:

1. Didn't know what he was taking
2. Didn't know it was wrong, and
3. Didn't even know if he was taking it properly

Does anyone else find this hilarious? I've been told that I have a quirky sense of humor, but I think it's a laugh riot.

I could go on and on with the farcical sideshow that was Alex Rodriguez in 2009, but I don't see the need. I mentioned all of these statements to set the groundwork for analyzing his most recent attempt at defending his naivete.

It gets even more hilarious from here.

(To Be Continued...)

NEWS FLASH: Josh Hamilton Is Human, After All

"I think he's got that tiger by the tail. If him and I could be together, it would be awesome because we get along so well. And if I thought that was the case that he would be in some sort of danger, I'd really reconsider."-Michael Dean Chadwick, Josh Hamilton's father-in-law, after declining the position of accountability partner for Hamilton. 

FEB 3rd, 2012-Addiction is a curious issue. 

Among all conditions which are classified as diseases or disorders, addiction is arguably the most controversial. Some folks don't consider it a disease at all, but a choice. Others would disagree, citing genetic markers as proof. 

Regardless of what you may think, the prevailing evidence suggests that it's a mix of both. There may be tendencies in the addict to drink or use drugs, but the decision to do so still lies with the individual. Some tendencies may be stronger than others. And many addicts manage to hide their addiction from friends and family; some even lead relatively normal lives in spite of drugs or alcohol. Most can, at the very least, keep their names and faces off of the front page, even if they're caught. 

Rangers CF Josh Hamilton, however, is not quite so lucky. 

According to Foul Territory, a sports blog written for the Dallas Star-Telegram:

"KTVT/Channel 11 reported Thursday that second baseman Ian Kinsler was seen with Hamilton at Sherlock’s Pub in North Dallas. A source, though, said that Kinsler went there only after receiving a call from Hamilton."

Also, from Drew Silva of NBC Sports' Hardball Talk:

UPDATE, 11:27 PM: Fraley has more details: The incident happened at Sherlock’s Pub & Grill in Dallas and Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler showed up at one point in an attempt to drag Hamilton home. Yikes.

UPDATE, 11:38 PM: From beat writer Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Sources say Ian Kinsler received a call from Josh Hamilton and went to bar out of concern.” Double yikes.

It would be hard for me to add anything to the hundreds of news articles and blog entries that have already sprung up on the Net about this incident, but I would like to mention one particular issue: Josh Hamilton is forever linked to the accidental, tragic death of a fan, Shannon Stone. 

Everyone knows the story: Hamilton throws a ball to Stone, a Brownwood area firefighter. Stone reaches for the ball and falls over a railing, twenty feet, to the concrete below. While he was conscious and responsive when EMS arrived, according to Oakland pitcher Brad Ziegler, who stated that he heard Stone say "please check on my son up there", he went into cardiac arrest and died in transit. 

This incident occurred less than a year after another fan (Tyler Morris; coincidentally, also a firefighter) fell 35 feet over a railing, suffering skull, foot and ankle fractures but ultimately surviving the fall. While Hamilton wasn't connected in any way with that accident, he was most certainly connected with Stone's fall, and I'm guessing he carries that with him every single day of his life. 

There's no question in my mind that Hamilton bears no responsibility in Stone's death, but do you really think that makes it any easier for him to cope with the memory of watching a man fall over a railing, one which was supposedly part of team president Nolan Ryan's "safety review" after the Morris incident, and ultimately die as a result of his injuries? Would it be any easier for you? For my own part, I can say that I'd NEVER be able to put that sort of memory out of my mind. I'm not even a drinker, and I'm guessing that a nightmare like that would drive me to it. 

Hamilton, on the other hand, is a recovering addict. There's a reason that the word "recovering" is consistently used in relation to the label "addict": it's because recovery is a day-by-day process, and it must be approached that way. It's a human disease, suffered by flawed human beings, and some days are easier than others. Most addicts don't have the pressure of potentially reliving standing by while another man suffers a mortal wound right in front of them, performing in front of tens of thousands of people 162 times a year (not counting the millions watching on TV or listening on radio), and having their every move scrutinized, criticized or condemned. Oh, and wondering if, while enduring this hurricane of emotion and the constant pressure that comes with it, they just might injure themselves in a way that could bring their career to a screeching halt. That, my friend, is quite a load to bear. 

Oh, and by the way...then he gets to pick that emotional scab by catching the first pitch of Game 1 of the ALCS, thrown by none other than Cooper Stone, son of the deceased. 

There is no doubt in my mind that Josh carries that burden, and for the most part, carries it well. He's an imperfect man, and like many Christians he's doing his best to reach perfection, something he knows he'll never come close to accomplishing. Sometimes, he's going to fail horribly. Monday night was one of those times. That shouldn't change how we look at him any more than how we look at our friends or family when they let us down. Regardless of how or why he was in that bar, he made a mistake: he relapsed. And it sure didn't take long for some writers to condemn him for what, as far as we know, is only the second time since his return to professional baseball that he's had anything to do with drugs or alcohol. Sadly, it is all but completely certain that this will affect the way many fans, as well as Rangers management, look at their star center fielder. But it shouldn't. It's a fact of life: some people would rather curse the darkness than light a candle. 

In the grand scheme of things, and when taken in comparison with what he's overcome in his journey through life, this is only one night, one failure. And that's all it should be. 

But when it comes down to it, I'm guessing that there will still be a large contingent of doubters out there who will be waiting on pins and needles for Josh Hamilton to show us once more just how human he is. From the looks of it, there's plenty to find regarding his previously (highly-publicized) relapse, and lots of people with a lot of time on their hands and a lot of venom on their keyboard. That's just sad. And frankly, pathetic. 

When it's all said and done, when the whole story finally comes to light, the end result could be costly. Not that he made such an egregious error in judgment, but that this one error could cost him more than just zeroes in his next contract. It could cost him the faith and understanding of thousands of fans, fans who may be too quick to take into account his flaws and his weaknesses because they're either unable or unwilling to see past his baseball ability. 

And that's the real shame of it. 

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/foul_territory/2012/02/sources-josh-hamilton-relapsed-with-alcohol.html#storylink=cpy