But as he approaches his 500th home run at not even age 32, it’s obvious to me that barring serious injury, he’s bound to make moot any controversy over whether Barry Bonds legitimately broke Hank Aaron’s record.
I hate the whole Bonds controversy. Many people wish he would just stop playing before he breaks the record so they don’t have to pretend to acknowledge him; others defend him to the hilt as he’d never been caught cheating by any sort of baseball authority. I’m sure everyone wished we could all just look at the numbers and not feel like there was any doubt about what it meant that one was higher than the other.
Well, I say let’s be pro-active now. Given current trends, A-Rod will break the record, whether you will then consider it to still legitimately be Aaron’s or whether you will then consider it to legitimately be Bonds’s. Let’s make no one doubt that he lays legitimate claim to it, or if by some crazy chance he is cheating, let’s call it out before he gets too close.
After all, who wants to be wishing for something as absurd as a paid professional baseball player to lay down his bat when on the cusp of breaking a record - a second time?
Presumably he is being tested and has come back clean so far. But Bonds has never been caught for steroids either, and Rodriguez could have access to all the same ‘undetectable’ chemicals if he wanted to. It’d be a PR gesture and not actually do anything.
What Marley23 said. There’s plenty of testing in baseball, and even more substances that they can’t test for. I’d really like to know the percentage of athletes doping - no doubt it goes far beyond the handful of media scapegoats, but I think many people would be very surprised to find out that the backup catcher hitting a buck-ninety is also ‘enhancing’ his performance.
IIRC they have been testing for steroids since 2002 (I think there needed to be cause for testing at that point) . A policy with actual teeth wasn’t put in place until 2005. A-Rod is being tested, as much as any other player. Bonds is suspected of taking substances long before it was against the rules of baseball. I have never even heard of any speculation about Rodriguez. Bonds went from being a slender fast player to the monster he is today. It made people think.
I guess that’s true to a point, but I guess as a fan, it would just feel nice to see everyone believe again. It would be sweet to have an untainted recent record. I’d hate to imagine the Hall of Fame lacking both the all-time hits leader and he all-time home run leader.
Well, until then, I guess there’s Cal Ripken for purity.
Cal used Bennies. By the new standards he and even Mickey Mantle are not clean. The Goal Posts move all the time.
Back to A-Rod, I think he might be less hated when he screws the Yanks over and opts out of his contract at the end of the year. Boris is shooting for a $30 million per year contract for him.
If he stays healthy, he will beat Bonds. Of course, most of us once thought Griffey was likely to be the slugger that would break Aaron’s record.
Isn’t part of the reason there is a controversy about Barry Bonds the fact that he suddenly started hitting a lot of home runs? More than he ever had? Alex Rodriguez has been pretty consistent in his numbers, it just happens that his numbers are really really good .
I don’t think his numbers will be questioned based on him taking drugs. And I personally can not figure out why he is disliked, sure he makes a lot of money, but isn’t that the point in a capitalist country?
He makes a lot of money*, he has managed to put his foot in his mouth many times and now plays for the Yankees, the most disliked[sup]2[/sup] team in American sports.
Jim
Largest contract in Baseball History, thus causing much Jealousy
[sup]2[/sup] More Jealousy of course[sup]3[/sup].
[sup]3[/sup] Heck, I am a Yankee Fan, and I barely like the guy.
That’s because he showed disrespect to Derek Jeter, and while Rodriguez has put up better numbers, it’s become obvious that he is nowhere near the leader Jeter is. If people just looking at stat sheets would listen to all the other Yankees talk, they’d learn what Jeter means to the club as a whole. He offers something intangible that Rodriguez doesn’t.
It will take a combination of time and people putting their heads partway back in the sand for that to happen. A-Rod has never been a target of real suspicion because he’s been pegged for greatness his whole career and has been consistently outstanding (despite what some Yankee fans say). But he’s still a baseball player and at this point people know baseball players cheat just about whenever they can.
It’d be great, but you have to realize that the last few years have changed the way people feel about baseball and homers in particular.
That is mostly it for me, but there is also something about the way A-Rod carries himself in interviews that sets me and many others off. He comes off like a phony politician. I love his play, but those comments about Jeter all those years ago, will probably always color my perception of him. Still miles better than Bonds however.
I agree, the Home Run records have lost their magic. Too many over 60 now, too much taint and way to many in the 500 club. A-Rod is on pace for 65 this year, this would be the AL record. It is being completely drowned out by the shared revulsion of Bonds breaking Aaron’s Hallowed record.
I think deep down inside, many if not most baseball fans are still hoping that something, somehow, ends Bond’s career before he breaks the record.
Human Growth Serum is better and far more difficult to test for. The players are way ahead of baseball which really does not want to find out how many use. Offense puts fans in the seats.
Circular reasoning is why Rodriguez is hated and Jeter is loved. Jeter happened to be the shortstop on the championship teams, thus he is a champion and a leader. There is little doubt that the Yankees would have had just as much success if A-Rod had been their shortstop those years. Probably more actually.
A-Rod is ten times the player that Jeter is, and I’m a big Yankee and Jeter fan. But Jeter showed me that he isn’t really a true leader when he never gave mention to moving to 3rd base when A-Rod joined the team. A-Rod was a much better shortstop than Jeter. By all rights, jeter should have moved to 3rd base. Who knows how many championships that might have cost us? Also, Jeter’s natural jealousy of A-Rod prevented him from helping A-Rod adjust to NY and the NY press. Jeter, as captain, had a duty to support his new teammate. He didn’t.
The one thing that Jeter has had over A-Rod is his ability to come through in the clutch. But the batter who bat after Jeter are a primary reason for this. Pitchers can’t pitch around Jeter because a more dangerous hitter follows him. This is what A-Rod was referring to when, years ago, he said that pitchers didn’t fear Jeter. He was absolutely correct.
He’s a leader, but he’s diminished himself in my eyes in the last couple of years. I know he’s the captain and he clearly takes a lot of pride in being shortstop for the Yankees, but he should have moved to third. He has a strong arm and not that much range, and Rodriguez is a better shortstop. And Jeter has been petty in letting him twist in the wind over those magazine comments.
I’m hoping for a selective meteor strike. If that fails to happen, then I am going to be rooting for A-Rod to break the new record as soon as possible, so Bonds is reduced to irrelevancy during his lifetime.
Over the long haul Jeter hasn’t really been any better in the clutch than he normally is, which of course is true of all players. He’s a career .318 hitter, whose career playoff average is .314.
Jeter is a great player because he’s a great player. There’s no need to make up all this nonsense about “clutch” and “intangibles” to justify giving him credit. He should have won the MVP Award last year based simply on the objective evidence.
As to the issue between them, it’s a complete irrelevance and has nothing to do with their performance on the field. Since A-Rod joined the Yankees both he and Jeter have played exceptionally well and been the backbone of three straight first place teams; that they’ve run into some bad luck in the playoffs is largely chance.
