More Positives In New York City

Word travels quickly. When the word is about a Hall of Famer who has a great chance to break the all-time home run record set by Barry Bonds, then it travels even faster. Four Sports Illustrated sources announced and confirmed that Alex Rodriguez, the 2003 AL MVP winner, tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003. The reason the news is just coming out now is because the results were supposed to be disclosed and the players who were tested were supposed to have remained anonymous.
In 2003, there were no penalties in place for testing positive for steroids. The reason for the random testing was to see if Major League Baseball would impose penalties and random testing for the 2004 season. So although Rodriguez did not break any rules, he still used the steroids.

Rodriguez was questioned about the testing and he didn’t have much to say: “You’ll have to talk to the union. I’m not saying anything.”

This is incredibly sad for all of baseball for one main reason—Rodriguez was supposed to be the face of baseball who remained clean throughout all the turmoil of stars testing positive for steroids. He was the one who was supposed to break Barry Bonds’ home run record and do it in a 100% clean and natural way. This positive test breaks all hope of that happening. Although there were no penalties in place in the 2003 season for testing positive, the fact that he still used them at one point in his career trumps the fact that hasn’t tested positive since 2003.

I know that these allegations are serious regardless of rules in place. But I am going to be one of the few who defend him. Even if the allegations turn out to be true, as morally wrong as using steroids is, he did it in a time when it wasn’t illegal in baseball. It wasn’t promoted, but players could use them and risk the fact of getting caught. The reason I defend A-Rod is because once he was tested in 2003, he has never tested positive since. He was clean throughout the Mitchell Report and remains that way today. No positive tests since ’03 confirms this. So although people will look down on him in a way that is justifiable, he scrapped the drugs once they became illegal. Is that not enough for a player to do? Not to mention, when he tested positive in 2003, he hit 47 home runs and 118 RBIs. He has had better seasons since then (most notably 2007 when he hit 54 home runs and drove in 156) while he has remained clean. In a time where getting caught with steroids resulted in harsh penalties, and the Mitchell Report spelling doom to more and more players, A-Rod remained clean and put up stronger numbers.

So what will it take for more people to understand what A-Rod did? It may never come to the point where people truly forgive him for what he did, but it should be stated that the accusations may not be true. If the news is just coming out now—6 years later—how reliable can it be?

I am by no means promoting steroid use in any sport, but I am saying that I understand (but not agree with) where Rodriguez was coming from and I’m glad he quit when he did. Whether or not other people feel the same way is not mine or Alex’s problem. He knows what he did, and he knows that he stopped when it became illegal. That should be good enough for people to understand and forgive him for what he did even if they don’t agree with his decision.