Alex Rodriguez has admitted to taking steroids. A-Rod was supposed to be the clean saviour who would wash the bad taste out of our mouths left by Barry Bonds. A-Rod is a jerk, but we hoped he was a jerk who didn't use performance enhancing drugs.
It turns out he's a jerk who did use performance enhancing drugs. Throw him in the pile with Bonds, Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens. Here's what I wrote last year in Erasing an Era.
A life long baseball fan, I've never seen a pitcher as good as Rocket Roger Clemens. When it comes to offensive prowess, I've never seen a hitter as good as Barry Bonds. As far as I'm concerned, you can take a big ol' eraser and scrub the marvellous careers of both men from the record book.
In a sense, an entire era has now been erased. I'm sure both Clemens and Bonds were stellar before they took performance enhancing drugs, but a little juice spill ruins the entire meal. The steroids era, as it will be called by future generations, has claimed the greatest the game has to offer.
Many will shrug their shoulders and look forward. I can't help but look back, at what was and what wasn't, and wonder how the hell I'll ever know the difference. Does it matter? Yes, and if you're asking that question, you're not a fan of baseball.
I have more questions than answers. Where does it end? When did it begin? Now what?
I never worried that George Bell might be on the juice. It never crossed my mind that Tony Fernandez could be drugging. Dave Stieb had a nasty slider, but he didn't cheat.
Life used to be simpler. Today, every player is a suspect, and nothing is as it seems. It's innocence indicted.
Thanks, A-Rod.
