The Bigger Problem

I can't help but look at this whole situation with Alex Rodriguez and think, maybe it's not his fault.  Maybe, it's ours.  

Not for doing steroids.  No, that's certainly his fault.  Not for the "pressure" to do steroids, because I don't buy any of that garbage.  No one had a gun to his head, he decided to ruin his legacy, not us. 

What I mean to say is, maybe it's our fault for even taking him (and other celebrities and athletes, for that matter) so seriously.  What makes Alex Rodriguez a role model?  The fact that he can hit a baseball a long way, the fact that he can range to his left and has a cannon for an arm?  I understand how society is set up, and that as a guy in the public eye, making as much money as he does, there are expectations people like he and Michael Phelps need to live up to.  But, maybe that's the problem.

We seem to be constantly in shock and surprise when our favorite athletes and musicians and actors/actresses get caught for doing the wrong things.  Whether it's domestic abuse, or cheating in the sport they play in, or drug possession, or saying racist things, these guys aren't perfect.  In fact, they're just like us.  Some of them are good guys, some aren't.  Some you'd be friends with, others you'd never want to even talk to.  So why, because they play basketball or can rap or play a guitar should that elevate them so?

I happen to be a fairly fortunate sports fan.  Growing up, my favorite player was David Robinson, whose only crime was that he was a bit too religious early on in his career.  Following Robinson, I idolized Tim Duncan and Warrick Dunn and Derek Jeter, all players that have (thus far, fingers crossed) stayed far away from negative press and quite in the positive realm.  That's just one person's experience.

Yet, there has to be at least one Albert Belle fan out there.  One Vince Coleman fan.  One Rae Carruth fan.  One Notorious B.I.G. fan (guilty).  Point is, we've all liked celebrities that we may not have liked personally.

But, that's OK and that's how it should be.  What we pay to see is what they do in between the lines, on the CDs, in the movies.  That should be it.

Don't you think it's a bit odd that even President Obama commented about A-Rod?  Or that the government seems to be knee deep in this whole investigation?  Shouldn't we have more pressing issues to concern ourselves with (ahem, government)?

In no way am I excusing A-Rod of what he did.  It bothers me to no end, as a Yankee fan and as an idealistic fan of baseball.  But, if I stopped rooting for players or musicians based on what they did in their personal lives, I'd really be at a loss.  I couldn't listen to any Kanye West songs, three quarters of the NFL and NBA I'd have to ignore.  It would be awful. 

Would it be great if every player was like Tim Duncan (OK, more exciting than TD, but you get the point)?  Sure.  But, that ain't the way it goes.  

Some are jerks, some are not.  If anything, this whole episode should prove that we need to stop putting these athletes and stars on such pedestals.  All they seem to do is let us down.  

Baseball Is Fine, Steroids or Not

Of all the talk over the past 48 hours about A-Roid and his positive steroid test in 2003, there's one thing that I just don't understand: this notion that somehow this news will deter people from watching baseball or that the steroid era will cause people to stop following baseball.

That's never going to happen. People will continue to watch baseball, just as they always have.

The steroid problem in baseball is bad. There's no question of that. And there's no question that this most recent era of baseball has had more villains than heroes. But baseball will survive, just like every sport survives scandal and scrutiny. People love sports, and they're not going to stop watching them just because controversy and scandal surrounds it.

Think about all the problems in sports just over the last few years. An NBA referee was caught fixing games for the betting line. Ron Artest jumped into the crowd in Detroit and brawled with fans. Countless NFL players have been arrested on criminal charges. One of the game's biggest stars in Michael Vick, went to jail for criminal dogfighting. Somehow basketball and football have survived.

And in the past: college basketball survived a point shaving scandal. Baseball has survived many players corking bats, applying too much pine tar to bats and hats, and most importantly, Pete Rose's admission that he bet on the game. Football has survived having players at the scene of murder and actually committing murder (Rae Carruth). And hockey, basketball, and baseball have all had lockouts over the last twenty years that have either shortened or cancelled full seasons. All these leagues, of course, have survived.

So let's all stop claiming that somehow baseball will lose fans due to the steroid scandal over the last ten years. The only "fans" the game will lose are people that aren't truly baseball fans to begin with.

Sports have survived many difficult scandals and many PR nightmares as bad or worse than this. The integrity of every sport has been question at some point or another, but fans continue to watch the games and enjoy them with the same passion despite the games' pitfalls.

Sports fans love the games they love because they are live entertainment that helps us escape our everyday lives. As long as they continue to serve as just that, no matter what the problem, we'll all keep coming back.

No matter who else gets named for taking steroids over the last few years in baseball, whether the names are as big as A-Roid's or not, we'll all be back on opening day, loving every minute of it. Baseball is fine, steroids or not.