Unlike Timothy Egan in his "Outpost" blog "Young and Stupid" I don't see what's the fuss and anger about what Rodriguez did.
[AR] “I was young, I was stupid, I was naive.”Whoooaaa, A-Rod. Stop the tape. For the record, he was pumped up on steroids and other drugs from ages 26 through 28, while the highest-paid player in baseball, with a 10-year, $252 million contract.
He was a man in full, but wants us to think of him as a boy. He was a corporation unto himself, a very calculated one at that. He cheated to get an edge. Then he lied about it.
But if nothing else, the A-Rod ‘roid admission this week — after he famously looked Katie Couric in the eye in 2007 and denied ever taking drugs to help him perform — gives us a chance to parse the oldest of lame excuses: young and stupid.
The best-known contemporary example is George W. Bush, who explained away spending nearly half his adult life in a stupor of alcoholic and self-indulgent excess by saying: “When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible.”
After that, no reporter dared to ask about allegations of cocaine use, or try to get him to explain his arrest for driving while intoxicated.
But Bush-the-life-story could have been a great teaching tool, or at least the start of a national debate on the young-and-stupid excuse and its consequences.
Comparing him to George W Bush who hid his drug use--alcohol and cocaine--from the American public is way overboard. GWB continues, even after he left office, to in any way acknowledge his condition; i.e. "My name is George and I'm an alcoholic/substance abuser (addict)".
That no one from the press/media "dared to ask..." is the media's issue. They certainly had adequate access to him and could have raised the issue any number of times, either directly or through investigative reporting. That they didn't is a great disservice to America and because of the position of the President, by extension to the entire world.
A-Rod is a professional ball player and not the President of the US. Being an idol or proposed "role model" doesn't require him to be either paragon of virtue or even "nice." His contract requires him to preform his duty on the baseball field. If he's drunk or otherwise incapacitated, he's liable to be benched, fired/released or removed quite easily. See Micheal Vick and his awful behavior. See also many of the old time baseball players like Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb. The latter two, had the fortune of playing and living in a different era which wasn't as transparent (for good and for bad) as today.
The same can't be said for a President. Alcohol abuse, among other personal issues, disqualified John Tower from becoming the Secretary of Defense for George H.W. Bush (he was replaced by Dick Cheney). Somehow, for a position of far greater responsibility it was ignored. Also important to note is the impeachment process is far more time consuming and complicated than merely firing an employee.
The Henry Hyde comment,
The height of absurdity for the y&s excuse had to be Henry Hyde, the late silver-maned congressman who stood in judgment of Bill Clinton while chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. When it came out that the ever-pious Hyde had carried on a four-year affair with a married woman, he called it “a youthful indiscretion.”
Except Hyde was 45 years old, a married father of four, while engaging in this act of tender-age passion.
is well taken. However, here, too I see other parallels. J Edgar Hoover's homophobic image was a reaction to his closet homosexuality--which here too, was conveniently covered up until his death.
Lastly, you write:
A-Rod will likely face no legal consequences, nothing from the the toothless barons of baseball. Phelps took his hit for recreation. Rodriguez did his drug to cheat the game and himself. He lied about it. And then he blamed it all on his age and pressure to perform because of his oversized contract.
So, yes, while Rodriguez behavior is deplorable and maybe worse than Micheal Phelps "bong" incident, your reaction is over the top.
That Rodriguez "cheated the game", is not that newsworthy. Forgive me for being cynical, sports are full of cheaters. The object of the game is to win the game any way you can--just don't get caught. In comparison to some of the other "druggies", he has come clean (or at least cleaner) by (a) publicly acknowledging his stupidity (the same can't be said for Bonds, Clemens and others) and (b) stopping to cheat on his own.
So, while I doubt the whole truth is out either about A-Rod/Fraud or the entire steroid era in Major League Baseball, and I agree that the Commissioner (and the other leaders in baseball) will do nothing--meaningful or otherwise--to clear up the situation, I am satisfied with what's transpired over the last week or so. If Rodriguez stays clean and is pro-active in wiping away the stain of steroids/ performance enhancing drugs in sports and especially in youth sports while maintaining his star-ness, I believe he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame. (I'll even accept an asterisk or note about his past behavior on his plaque.)
For a different perspective, see Doug Glanville's guest op-ed in Monday's, 9.Feb, New York Times.
No comments:
Post a Comment