Bud Selig has been desperately trying to rewrite history; attempting to paint himself--not as the commissioner than allowed steroids to become entrenched in the sport--but as the man that saved the game from it. In the minds of the public, ridding baseball of Barry Bonds was to purge MLB of its anabolic menace.
Indeed, as Craig Calcaterra pointed out so eloquently in his chapter in the Hardball Times Annual, the Mitchell Report was designed to serve as the demarcation point of the “steroid era” and the happy fiction that the game was drug free could now proceed. All that was needed was a few more Alex Rodriguez quality seasons and 762 would fall to a clean player and all would be well with the world.
They all lived happily ever after as the saying goes.
Well, Bonds is gone and even had he played in 2008--unless he enjoyed a season for the ages--chances are good he’d be gainfully unemployed by now however A-Rod has a lot of years left in him; Selig’s sentence has just been extended and his true legacy will live on.
As the Yankee third baseman continues his march toward history, every ball that clears the fence will be another painful reminder of all he failed to do in his lust for profits.
Probably the most disturbing question I have regarding this particular aspect of this saga is this: was Selig aware that Rodriguez flunked that particular test?
If he was cognizant of it, then it has to be asked why he allowed Rodriguez to be touted as the heir to the home run crown? Granted, he could hardly blab the news that A-Rod’s test came up dirty but it does imply that he hoped that the result would never become public knowledge in which case he was knowingly promoting one “fraud” as king over another.
Of course, there would be money to be made off Rodriguez’s chase and that’s all that matters--it’s the same reason that Rafael Palmeiro was allowed to notch his 3000 hit before the stanozolol hit the fan…first cash the checks then let the truth come out.
How typically Selig.
Anyway, the feces based unstable weather system has already begun in the media regarding A-Rod with the usual hysterical, ill informed bleating that characterizes these things. A tip of the cap certainly needs to be made in the direction of Jay Mariotti who mangled the truth in his haste to unleash the venom:
he led the American League with 47 home runs and a .600 slugging percentage and was named Most Valuable Player, setting him up for a blockbuster $252-million contract with the New York Yankees.
Uh no, he received that contract from the Rangers--they later traded him to the Yankees; A-Rod later opted out of that contract and inked a new deal with the Bronx Bombers for 10 years/$275 million.
That, my friends, is the main reason for the vitriol that will be spilling out in the coming months from both the media and the fans.
It’s not about steroids, or cheating, or the home run crown--this is part of Rodriguez’s ongoing penance for the number of the beast circa the 21 century: 252.
He still has not been forgiven for failing to turn down Tom Hicks now infamous quarter billion dollar offer of January 2001. Granted, he does have to shoulder a bit of the blame himself in that he double-talked himself into a corner with such statements as:
“I've always said to everybody that Seattle is my first choice” and “But if you tell me, am I willing to take `X' amount less and win a championship, absolutely. I would defer money, I would take a lot less money. Trust me, there's no one that wants a ring in a worse way than I do.”
Of course we know he went to Texas coming off a last place finish. In his defense, the Rangers brain trust showed A-Rod the talent coming up through the pipeline, which Rodriguez said played a large factor in his decision. However when he requested a trade from the Rangers he stated: “I would have never gone to Texas if they had told me, ‘Alex, it's going to be you and 24 kids.’ Never. For no amount of money.”
However while he was with Texas, Rodriguez commented about his free agency tour “I wanted to be a Met. I've always wanted to be a Met, I've been a Met fan since I was a kid. And I would've played there for less money and less years and they know that.” The Mets were obviously interested in A-Rod as well, so why didn’t this deal come off?
He capped it all off by saying “it wasn’t about the money” only to turn around and say that it was for Esquire Magazine:
"He [Mike Lupica] kills me on national TV ... On The Sports Reporters. I would like to ask that guy, What would you do if you had this guarantee? He's barkin', 'You wanna win? Seattle gave you a winner.' So what? I made a business decision. An economic decision. It was simple." (bolding and italics mine)
Toss in the fact that all of this was engineered by one that is considered as big a baseball villain as Bonds--Scott Boras--and Rodriguez became a marked man and 252 was his scarlet letter--everything that has happened since that has caused the media to dump on him can be traced back to “the contract.”
252 gave way to 275 but make no mistake, Alex Rodriguez is still paying for accepting the money and the revelations about his positive steroid test is just another manifestation if it. Had he stayed in Seattle, or even gone to an organization that didn’t finish dead last the year before and left a little money on the table (let’s face it; the prevailing wisdom--thanks to Scott Boras‘ priming the pump of popular opinion--was that he’d get at least ten years $200 million when he became a free agent) in order to do so and while there’d be some weeping and gnashing of teeth regarding it, it would be nothing like what we’re in for in the coming months.
It may well have been the costliest contract (for a player) ever signed.
Best Regards
John
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