The view from the MLB Cheap Seats this week, takes a look at the legacy Alex Rodriguez will leave on this game. Friday night he hit his 660th home run, which tied him with the great Willie Mays. This comes after just about a month back in the game, following his year-long suspension from MLB for his role in the Biogenesis PED scandal.
MLB Cheap Seats – The Steroid Era and A Rod’s Legacy
Baseball purists loathe “A Rod”, and who can blame them. A career that has been defined by great numbers, and great controversy. The 10 year, $250 million contract he signed, early on, began the polarization of the man, and two PED scandals nailed home the hatred.
Two questions always come to the forefront: How could someone so gifted, throw it away by cheating? Was he ever that good to begin with, or a product of steroids?
Average Joes will never embrace a fraud, and a rich one at that. The ‘every-man’ takes great pride in doing it the right way, even though he or she may not do so in their life. They want their athletes to be role models, not the status quo. There is another side to this, though.
I tend to put myself somewhere in the middle. There a facets of the game that should remain sacred. Keep the DH, ban the pitch clock and bring back the play-at-the-plate.
As far as PED use is concerned, a more logical view is needed.
The fans’ and MLB’s hypocrisy of condemning the steroid era is absurd. The game’s popularity was at an all-time high in the late ’90s as McGwire, Sosa and Bonds were crushing pitches over the wall and records into oblivion. We licked our chops as our athletes foamed at the mouth. We cheered them and raved, until a mirror was placed in front of all of us. Now, we’re supposed to condemn all, according to MLB and the media that covers.
Whether you like Rodriguez’s personality, or not, is not the issue. Nobody was testing the players for years. Nobody was clamoring for tests either. And nobody remembers that until congress called for steeper action, this was all water ignored under the bridge.
Rodriguez will continue to climb up the all-time home run ladder, and maybe even pass the all-time home run leader Barry Bonds. With each blast, fans all around will cringe. In the end it won’t matter.
As time goes on, even without the asterisk that most want placed in the record books, fans will remember the steroid era for what it was: a dark period of baseball that we hope to soon forget. Just like the 1919 Black Sox, the steroid era will be that part of the baseball family that we don’t talk about at reunions and holidays.
Regardless, it is a part of the history and legacy of the old pass-time. When we look back on Rodriguez’s legacy, it will be glossed over like Bonds and McGwire. If someone asks you today or years from now, what are the historical MLB numbers to aspire to:
Most home runs in a seson is 61 by Roger Maris in 1961, the greatest hitter of all time is Babe Ruth and 755 home runs by Hammerin’ Hank Aaron is still the record!
