A-Fraud: Baseball Post Heroes

I have been a lifelong lover and avid follower of the national pastime since around the time I received my first baseball card, an Alex Rodriguez rookie card, about 13 years ago. In a sport in which it has now become common knowledge that the majority of the best players over the past decade and a half were under the influence of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), A-Rod was the one player who kept me interested in the sport. Unlike other prominent sports, baseball does not have a consensus "greatest of all time" (basketball has Michael Jordan, hockey has Wayne Gretzky). A-Rod was going to be the one to settle the debate. He was the player we were going to be able to look back on and say that, at least statistically speaking, he was the greatest player ever. More importantly, we would be able to look back and say to ourselves that even in an era when everyone else seemed to be doing it wrong, he did it right.

Alex Rodriguez was baseball's last vestige of hope. Now that he has admitted to using PED's for a three-year period in the prime of his career, that hope has vanished faster than a plume of infield dirt.

In December 2007, the Yankees signed Rodriguez to a 10-year, $275 million contract extension. The idea behind the large sum, which would keep him in pinstripes until age 42, was that the Yankees would be able to boast, assuming he kept pace with his own statistics, the best Major League Baseball player of all time. The Yankees would be able to add yet another legend to the legacy of the most storied franchise in sports.

Now, not only will this fiasco be a huge drain on the Yankees, who will have to deal with tens of millions of dollars in negative public relations backlash, but any milestones that A-Rod sets, or has set already, are effectively meaningless. With all the positive hype that had been surrounding the Yankees this off-season, including the signings of megastar free agents CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett and the opening of a new $1.6 billion stadium, this incident has managed to single-handedly suck the life out of Yankee pride.

Steroids do not make you into a fantastic baseball player. It is true that many of the all-stars I have grown up watching played, or are still playing, under the aid of performance enhancing drugs. But many borderline players with mediocre statistics have also tested positive. While A-Rod put up huge numbers (presumably) before he started taking steroids, he did put up a 57-home run, MVP-award-winning season while doping. We all know A-Rod is a fantastic baseball player. That is indisputable. What is less sure is whether or not his career as a whole is tainted.

I think it's time to reconsider what we think a "hero" should be in major league baseball. Alex Rodriguez is the most successful active player in baseball as far as career statistics are concerned. After him, Ken Griffey Jr. and Manny Ramirez are arguably the next two most accomplished players. Griffey has always been loved by baseball fans since he made his debut as a 19 year old in 1989, and his skinny build has few people questioning his use of PEDs. And, as much of an irritant as Manny Ramirez can be (he recently turned down a one-year contract worth $25 million at age 36), you have to admire him because, even now, he too remains above the accusations of PED usage. It is still very possible, however, given the current state of Major League Baseball, that these two have done something we don't know about. Perhaps Major League Baseball has no more heroes.

I cannot predict what is going to happen this season. I went to a Giants-Mets game a few years ago in which Barry Bonds was harangued a good amount during each at-bat. But baseball watchers, for the most part, knew in the back of their minds for years that the inflated Bonds was likely using PEDs.

For A-Rod, this has come as a total shock. I find it hard to believe that he has more than a handful of fans supporting him right now, at home or on the road. He has ruined the hopes of millions of baseball players and fans around the world, and he deserves whatever he has coming to him.

In a soon to be released book, former Yankee manager Joe Torre notes that many players referred to Rodriguez as A-Fraud, for his inability to perform and his phoniness in the clubhouse. But now, for more unfortunate reasons, the nickname has taken on a whole new meaning.