Yes
I was in a conversation earlier this week with a friend, a baseball purist, and the conversation turned into an argument when the topic of whether or not Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez should be in the MLB Hall of Fame.
At some point he compared A-Rod to banned baseball legend Pete Rose, implying he believed three years worth of steroid use and his negative image is equal to years of betting on the game.
Based off the “facts” given by my friend and other Rodriguez bashers, A-Rod should not be allowed anywhere near Cooperstown, N.Y. without paying general admission.
That argument is ridiculous.
Even though a player’s public image is almost as important as career statistics for some writers and voters, it should not be as big of a factor as it has become over the years.
Just look at the Hall of Fame as it stands now: it consists of alcoholics, drug users, cheaters and bigots.
But if you are unfaithful to your wife and considered a jerk, you apparently have no shot of joining baseball’s highest fraternity.
Now, image aside, let’s take a look at A-Rod’s career stats.
The biggest argument is that steroids helped Rodriguez’s performance and stats more than any other area of his game. If you break up A-Rod’s stats into career however, steroid period and non-steroid period, A-Rod has been amazingly consistent.
He has hit .306 during his 15-year career, .305 during his years using steroids and .306 in 12 clean seasons. Remarkably, he may have had a better average if he had never used steroids.
The only areas where it seems steroids have helped him are home runs and slugging percentage. From 2001 to 2003, A-Rod has averaged 52 round trippers a year and a slugging percentage of .615.
If you take out all of Rodriguez’s stats and awards from his stint as a Texas Ranger, he has accumulated 1,835 hits, 397 homers and 1,211 RBIs. If that were the case, baseball would be about to celebrate many A-Rod milestones in 2009.
Did A-Rod lie? Yes. Did he cheat? Yes. Does he deserve to be left out of Cooperstown? No.
Rodriguez won’t be a first ballot selection, but he will be getting the call into baseball immortality.
-Jono Greco is a journalism sophomore.
No
Cheater? Check. Liar? Check. Fraud? Judging by his recent interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons, Alex Rodriguez is certainly that as well.
While watching the nearly 30 minute interview, I gave my DVR a workout, reviewing several incredible segments in which A-Rod issued some of the most farcical responses in recent memory.
I must include a couple of the gems from the Gammons interview.
The simple fact that Rodriguez claims to not know what he was putting in his body is bogus, and an insult to the intelligence of any self-respecting human being. Not to mention the fact that Rodriguez claims that at age 21 he had never even heard of the idea of taking any performance enhancing substance. That’s clearly ludicrous.
But did he come clean? Sort of.
He admitted to using an illegal substance between 2001-2003, but only after the information regarding his positive test was leaked.
Lest we forget, in a December 2007 interview which aired on 60 Minutes, Rodriguez flat-out denied using performance enhancing drugs at any point in his career. Only upon the realization that he was officially caught did A-Rod finally admit it. Bravo, Alex.
A-Rod is on-field greatness. Barring injury, he will assume the position of Major League Baseball’s home run king. To understand his true place in history, however, we need only look at some other sluggers currently mired in a similar cloud due to their regrettable past.
While Mark McGwire is not an all-around talent like Alex Rodriguez, he is one of the most prolific home run hitters of all time, and was part of perhaps the most memorable summer in baseball history.
Although McGwire has never tested positive for steroids, the speculation that he did contributed to the slugger receiving just under 25 percent support his first time on the ballot, and even less support in this year’s vote. A player must receive 75 percent of the vote to be admitted in to the Hall of Fame.
And then there is Roger Clemens. In case you ‘misremember’ the aura of Mr. Clemens prior to last year’s congressional hearings, let me remind you.
The seven-time Cy Young winner was a media darling; a golden boy who could do no wrong. Oh, how the tables have turned on The Rocket. Recent polls of HOF voters show support is low for Clemens, who will be eligible for consideration in 2013.
The same story is true for Sammy Sosa, the man who has apparently found multiple avenues in his quest to cheat the game of baseball. Sosa, you will remember, forgot how to speak English when questioned on Capitol Hill.
Slammin’ Sammy, however, has never tested positive for steroids, and was not named in the Mitchell Report. The speculation of steroid use may be enough to derail Sosa’s HOF candidacy, as only 20 percent of voters surveyed by ESPN in late 2007 said they would vote to induct Sosa upon eligibility.
Can we really believe Rodriguez when he says that he quit using steroids after the 2003 season? After all, he was not truthful about 2001-2003 until he had to be. Even so, the relatively small time span in which A-Rod admits to having used performance enhancers will be enough to keep him out of the Hall.
-Jarrod Yost is a journalism sophomore.
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krymsonking 3 years, 3 months ago
It'll all work out in the end because God hates the Yankees.