Pinstripe Press
By Robin Vinci at August 2, 2024 | 9:00 am | Print
Despite being 7 games behind in the division, not all is lost for the Yankees. The return of Derek Jeter, without any new injuries, seemed to sparked the Bronx Bombers.
Whether this can continue waits to be seen, but I once again have hope.
The big news this week is Alex Rodriguez and his steroid charges. What will he face?
I’ve always been in favor of giving guys a second chance. But, this seems to be too much.
Back in the day of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, no one checked steroids and it was not considered illegal.
Now, it is and everyone knows the rules. To do it once is forgivable. More than that is just ridiculous.
Rodriguez shouldn’t get special treatment and his career should be over.
I have to say I feel sorry for the guy. He had so much potential and so much was expected of him, it was hard to live up to. When he played badly everyone was on his case.
He must have felt the only way to give people what they wanted was using steroids.
In my opinion, he is a head case. He over-thought and over-worried. If he just played to his full potential, it would have been okay. He may not have been as great as everyone thought, but he wouldn’t be facing a lifetime suspension and losing millions of dollars.
The other argument heard this week is what is worse, doing steroids or gambling on baseball? In my opinion it is steroids.
What Pete Rose did was wrong and as a manager he deserved to be banned. But, what he did as a player was amazing and it is a shame it is affected. I was never a Rose fan, but his play on the field was outstanding. I consider him one of the best ever. I would rather see him in the Hall of Fame than ARod or McGwire.
I think eventually all will be in the Hall of Fame, but not in the way each had hoped for. Each should have an asterisk with an explanation of what they did wrong.
You can’t act as though these players never existed.
Barry Bonds owns the home run record, but it was not done cleanly. It needs to be noted that he hit the most home runs out of everyone using steroids.
The same goes with pitchers. Roger Clemens was amazing, but if he was a known user it needs to be mentioned.
We will never know who used what and when. But, stats that go from someone hitting 13 home runs a year and then jumps to 45 the next year are suspicious.
I want to see players learn from this and not see these mistakes made over again from new young stars like Ryan Braun.
