She’s got a particular resolve

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All right, I know I said I wasn’t going to write about Alex Rodriguez unless he got into a fight with Derek Jeter at camp, but I changed my mind. My blog, my rules. Indulge me while I rant because if I don’t, I think I’m going to explode.

I was doing research for this entry and, as usually happens when I go web surfing, found things totally unrelated to what I wanted to write, but interesting to me nonetheless.

Tonight, this headline caught my attention: “Yankees Lining Up to Attend Rodriguez News Conference“. I’m not sure what I expected to read. But what I DID read just reinforces why PED users in Major League Baseball will never really be shown to be doing the wrong thing. Someone needs to explain to me how we can use ARod as an example of what you shouldn’t do. He cheated, he excelled at what he did because he cheated, he got caught cheating, fessed up after the fact and is now being treated like a hero.

Mark Teixeira:

“I’m going to open my arms for Alex and be there for him. He’s not on an island. A lot of people think this is going to tear the team apart. I think it’s going to bring the team together.”

Because the team that cheats together stays together? I find it interesting to note that Teixeira was on the Texas Rangers in 2003.

Joe Girardi:

“Guys are just rallying behind Alex on their own. This is what they’re choosing to do, and I think it’s a wonderful thing. It’s not something that we’re banging on the drums saying, ‘Let’s have some support.’ Anyone that wants to go can go. It is their option.”

Hell, even Big Papi backed him. Pardon my cynicism, but rallying behind a cheater is the same as the guys who knew he was cheating and didn’t say anything. Please show me how Alex has had to “pay” for doing the wrong thing? He hasn’t. He cheated, he lied, he got caught and then admitted to it all and he hasn’t had to do anything to make up for this but let Peter Gammons throw him softball questions on ESPN.

Girardi also doesn’t think that Slappy needs to “answer every detail”. Why should he? Why shouldn’t he just be allowed to give half-assed answers and feign ignorance for what he did? Larry Johnson needs to draw a cartoon with Girardi’s head in the sand since that seems to be where it is anyway. Oh, and at the end of that piece I linked, Mark Teixeira wants to make sure that everyone knows he’d never do steroids because his mother would kill him. Well, he’s sold me. I totally believe he’s clean now. Not that I really think he isn’t clean, but I’m at the point, now, where if you’re going to stand up next to a cheater and defend him, I’m going to suspect you of either cheating or having cheated. Enough is enough. Unless current players are going to sack up and honestly come out against PEDs, I’m not taking anyone like Teixeira seriously.

Which is a bit in conflict with my complaining that no players have opened their mouths up (to this point). But what’s done is done. Sure I wish players had actually had the guts to stand up to the players who were using back when it was more relevant but I’ll take players having the balls to come out now and denounce these guys.

Jamie Moyer and Roy Oswalt are two players who have finally stood up. At least they’re saying something and it’s specific to Slappy. Although Oswalt is walking a fine line since he’s buying the “I didn’t use them I only bought them” line from Miguel Tejada. I suppose part of the problem is no player wants to rat out a fellow teammate. I understand this in theory, but if these players really DO want the game cleaned up, they’re going to have to “man” up (as so many claim ARod has) and do the right thing.

Truth is, I’m just sick to death of this whole thing. I don’t want to spend the entire season complaining about ARod and how he’s being treated, but it’s absolutely ridiculous that he’s being touted as some wonderful human being for “coming clean” when all he did was admit to very little after Selena Roberts outed him. I’m more interested right now in what Selena Roberts has to say after the press conference. I have a feeling what she says will be much more interesting that whatever bull Slappy shares with us.

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