Arod to retire on Friday f-ing yankees couldn't let him finish the season with Tex? I'm teary eyed, greatest right handed hitter I've ever seen.
Does all of the steroid controversy (I almost wrote "steroid allegation) affect how you view him?
He wasn't the only one, but was certainly made the face of the steroids era and my feeling is no I don't blame/criticize anyone else for doing what everyone else was doing. It is pretty amazing how much he gets killed, but we have forgiven Pettitte or forget about the Bartolo Colon's of the world (who is still playing). There is even love for Manny and he's one suspension away from banned from baseball forever, not that he's playing anymore. Even David Ortiz has had allegations, here allegation, which is the same as Arod and Bonds who never failed any PED tests. There were a lot of names on the Mitchell report and guys are implicated all over the place, Bagwell and Biggio seemed to be on that list, and Biggio seemed like wasn't the size/shape/power and should have been first ballot and was not. Piazza too.
My view is that if these guys were all doing it then why should I arbitrarily hate someone? I feel like people are inconsistent because of personal bias, this guy is arrogant, plays for the Yankees, and everyone hates him (trendy) so I hate him too. Without the consistency of looking at the times and others who were doing it. In Pedro's book he talked about how Schilling took toeing the rubber from him and that's what caused the bloody sock and that he was getting all kinds of injections, pain not steroid to get through it. It seems really heroic and the performance was, but it certainly took some performance enhancing, or at least allowed him to perform by getting an edge from a younger player. Everyone in the game is looking for that edge and Pedro's trick gave it to Schilling and pain injections got him through it.
I've always played around with this theory, we take the top 5 pitching and hitting prospect out of the draft now and put them all on steroids. Will every single one of them become Bonds and Clemens? The answer is no, because I imagine lots of guys were juicing in the 90s and while we got seriously inflated numbers, the great performers/athletes continued to be great and the others were mostly pedestrian. I see a guy like Brady Anderson who all of a sudden hits 50 bombs in a season when he never even hit 30. It was 1996, that is a seriously suspect year considering Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire were building up to their magical seasons a few years later.
So, no I'm not bothered by it, Arod was undoubtedly one of the greatest players that have come through, last year was pretty amazing for an old man and 2009 doesn't happen without his bat.
Yes, Ichiro is great isn't he, the way he approaches the game with such respect and dedication is something the younger generation should emulate. Such an amazing player.
(edit) BTW Matt good to see you around again, nice to have baseball people to chat with. Condolences about your father, I cannot imagine the depth of that pain, but glad to know he's no longer suffering and that he left behind a good legacy in you.