It seems that integrity isn’t in high supply these days in baseball.
The steroid saga has tarnished the sport for the last decade, and Alex Rodriguez became the new poster boy for the soiled era Tuesday with his stoic, yet insincere explanation of his wrongdoings at a Yankees press conference.
A Sports Illustrated report, released more than a week ago, shocked the nation when it revealed that Rodriguez had used steroids during his brief stay with the Texas Rangers. Everyone assumed that he was one of the only clean players in the sport, but his confession to wrongdoing may have been the biggest black mark ever on the sport. He easily was the highest paid player in Major League Baseball at the time, and he now joins the all-time home run leader (Barry Bonds) as a steroid era casualty. Other famous names include Mark McGwire (single-season home run king), Roger Clemens (one of the greatest pitchers of his generation), Jose Canseco (just an idiot) and Rafael Palmeiro (Viagra spokesman, need I say more?).
If you’re Bud Selig, MLB commissioner, how could you possibly defend your sport? Almost all of the greatest players of the era have confessed to cheating, and there are surely more on the list. (Derek Jeter, anyone?) It sounds like baseball is going the way of professional cycling, where players seemingly shoot up while in the middle of the peloton.
But who am I to trash baseball? To be honest, the NFL has just as many problems policing itself. Football seems to have a bigger problem with players breaking the state law, rather than the rules of the game.
Nobody will ever forget the Michael Vick saga. And what’s crazy is that they might let him back in the game. Pacman Jones has been given at least a hundred chances and has blown them all, and Terrell Owens needs to be arrested just so that we don’t have to witness another painfully embarrassing endzone dance.
The Bengals’ Chris Henry pulled the best stunt when he was thrown in the slammer four times in a seven-month period in 2006. Former University of Texas running back and current Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams slipped off to India before he got in trouble for smoking pot.
The NBA isn’t spotless either. The Portland Trailblazers recently shed their satirical nickname, the Portland Jailblazers, after a string of players got in trouble with the law a few years ago.
Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Gilbert Arenas, Rasheed Wallace, Ron Artest and Jerry Stackhouse are all current players who have been on the wrong side of the justice system.
Where are the role models in sports?
It seems that, while there are plenty of players who have kept their noses clean, they don’t get any attention. Where are the players who spend Saturdays volunteering at the children’s hospital, instead of making it rain at the club?
Does anyone ever notice that the championship teams in the NBA (Boston Celtics) and NFL (Pittsburgh Steelers) have the least amount of team discipline problems. Their players don’t get arrested or steal attention in the media.
They simply do what’s right, and they should start getting attention for that.
