Chipper: steroid cloud will follow A-Rod

a-rod, at 21, hit 36 homers in '96, well before the alleged start of the steroid rage. his numbers thereafter were not out of whack for a man with his skills. hard to see where "steroid use" has been a factor for him, imo. 8) 8)

 

True....but somebody did ask the question and he hasn't really answered it.

Is it unfair? Absolutely. But it's the reality. This will not go away until Rodriguez says that he has not used steroids. Even then, it might not disappear. Thank the guys who did cheat for creating the current climate.

We're not feathers in the wind, but we can't stick our heads in the sand, either.

It's like the George Steinbrenner story. The reporter used unethical means to get close to Steinbrenner. No doubt. But that isn't really the story. The story is whether or not the owner of the most powerful sports franchise in the United States has lost it or not. It is sad and unfair, but people want to know. Hide behind the ethical discussion all you want, but the information matters to the readers a hell of a lot more than how we acquire it.

 

Right, but the point remains that an athlete who uses steroids isn't necessarily big. The first major-league steroid suspension was given to 5-foot-8, 155-pound Alex Sanchez who had six home runs in five seasons and was known primarily for his ability to bunt and run.

So outofplace, it sounds like you're saying that a journalist's sense of ethics must go out the window because someone else or some other publication leads the way? Why don't we just make the NYPost the national newspaper and be done with it, then?

It's up to every individual journalist to act ethically and responsibly. The steroids zealots have already marginalized themselves and I'm happy not to be one of them.

 

Sorry, she lost me in the beginning when she tried to compare what soldiers do to athletes.

Oh, and Canseco never said A-Rod did steroids. He said he's not like he portrays himself to be. I think it has more to do with his philandering than anything else. Not Mr. Clean Cut. Not exactly news since there have been stories about Mr. & Mrs. A-Rod going to swinger clubs and A-Rod out with a stripper.

 

And that is what I wish today's media would understand. What New York's players did in the 1950s and 1960s was 10 times worse than A-Rod dallying around with a stripper.

 

Jenkins made a great point about how we've decided to hold athletes to a higher moral standard than our military. FYI, most anecdotal evidence suggests that amphetamines became popular in baseball (probably a lot of sports) when players returned from WWII and Korea.

 

So Chipper hit about a 500-foot home run today. Should the first question to him be "have you ever taken steroids?"

 

Yes, because "that's the way it is."
I love -- L-O-V-E -- the argument that the accusation "will follow" A-Rod until he denies it, then it will stop, unless, of course, it doesn't.
Wonderful, Journalism as spray paint.
I, for one, have more lateral movement now that I've jettisoned my professional conscience.

 

Sorry, I guess I see combat and playing sports (where you'd like everyone to be on an even playing field) as slightly apples and oranges. I did not find it to be a great point.

 

If A-Rod says, "no, I didn't use" I'm sure everyone will believe him and then we can all put it to rest. Just like all of the speculation stopped when drug-testing was introduced. Right.

Truth is that the zealots' "everyone's guilty" pronouncements are just the collective overreactions of a noisy subsection of sports writers who probably felt most embarrassed by not having a clue about the topic 10 years ago when they should have been reporting about it.

It's understandable, though. Imagine how would you feel if you'd written a book called "Summer of '98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America." You'd feel like a fool, right? The key is to admit your mistake gracefully in the beginning rather than going overboard in the opposite direction and tossing your ethics aside to try and make up for it.

 

Whatchoo talkin' about, Willis?

 

Of course, she wasn't comparing combat to playing professional sports. Too bad she lost you and too bad that you couldn't understand a great column.