I was really surprised to realize that I felt a great deal of sympathy for him.
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| Earlier this week |
Sure, he cheated. But so did hundreds of other ballplayers, many of whom undoubtedly got away with it. Barry Bonds sits at the top of the home run list and he cheated too. Rafael Palmeiro cheated and the fact that he was one of only five players ever to top both 500 home runs and 3,000 hits is all but forgotten.
Sammy Sosa hit more than 60 home runs three different times and played with a joy everyone loved. Whatever happened to him?
Yep, he cheated. But do you ever wonder why three guys who were arguably the three best players in the game -- Rodriguez, Bonds and Roger Clemens -- all felt the need to cheat? Ken Griffey Jr. didn't, and he was elected to the Hall of Fame this year with the highest percentage of votes ever.
That'll never happen for the steroid guys. They'll eventually get in, but it will be years down the road and they'll just barely reach the 75 percent threshold. A-Rod will forever hear the name A-Roid from those who dislike him, and people will always wonder what his numbers would have been like if he hadn't cheated.
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| So long, farewell ... |
He didn't cheat in 1996. He was 20 when the season started, and he hit .358 to win the American League batting title.
Two years later he hit 42 home runs and stole 46 bases.
And he kept getting better. If he had played 30 years earlier, he might have spent his entire career in Seattle and finished his career as a beloved hero. Instead he went to Texas for the biggest contract ever and then on to New York for the biggest stage of all and an even bigger contract.
Actually, he never had the big steroid numbers. Bonds had never hit 50 home runs in a season before hitting 73 in 2001. Rodriguez hit more than 40 three times by the time he was 25 and then hit 52 and 57 the next two years.
I only saw him play once in person. It was a 1997 weekday afternoon game in Boston, the only time I've been to Fenway Park. The goofy thing is that I was so wrapped up in Fenway that I wasn't paying much attention to the game.
It wouldn't have bothered me if A-Rod had reached 700 home runs ... or 715 ... or 756 ... or even if he had topped Bonds with 763. Once Bonds beat Aaron, there was nothing special about the list.
There was one funny thing for me. Both the single-season record holder, Roger Maris with 61, and the career leader, Aaron with 755, were guys I had the pleasure of sitting alone with and watching minor league games in 1982 and 1983.
They were both real guys.
Different times, but I guarantee it was more thrilling to sit and talk with either of them than it would have been with Barry Bonds.
A-Rod, I'm not sure.
But I know I don't really dislike him, and I was happy to see him rip an RBI double to right center field in his first time up Friday night.
Good on you, man.
