Rodriguez being unfairly treated

Today (Feb 9, 2009), Alex Rodriguez, the face of Major League Baseball came clean with ESPN's Peter Gammons and admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs during his time with the Texas Rangers between 2001 and 2003. The one guy who was supposed to lead MLB through and PAST the Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and steroid era of the sport is now a culprit of the same laws we so wanted him not to be a part of.

It doesn't bother me.

It bothers me that Rodriguez used the drugs in the first place, because no one should advocate the use of illegal or banned substances. However, he is one of 104 people who tested positive during that "anonymous and confidential" test during 2003. 103 other colleagues of his tested positive, not just Rodriguez, Bonds, and Clemens. Out of the other 103 guys who tested positive, how many do you think pitched against Rodriguez? How many do you think made throws across the infield to prevent him from running out an infield single? How many hit a line-drive at him that he couldn't quite handle at short stop?

My point is simple: He wasn't the only one at that point in time taking these supplements. It's not commendable that he used these drugs. But the way he is handing the situation is what I hope everyone looks at. If a guy who hit .243 with 15 home runs and 63 RBI's tested, and then came clean by admitting his use, he would be forgiven. Why not the same for A-Rod?

Are we going to punish one of the greatest players of all-time, because he is just that?

This is a guy who hit .358 at the age of 20 in 1996 and finished second in MVP voting in the American league. And a guy who has played exceptional baseball since up-to and through 2008, including the last five years in which he has been tested for performance enhancing drugs and tested clean each time.

What gets to me the most is that people are honestly letting this get in the way of the fact that Alex Rodriguez has been and always will be one of the best to play the game.

• Year Age Average HR's RBI's Team
  1996 20 .358 36 123 SEA
  1997 21 .300 23 84 SEA
  1998 22 .310 42 124 SEA
  1999 23 .285 42 111 SEA
  2000 24 .316 41 132 SEA
  *2001 25 .318 52 135 TEX
  *2002 26 .300 57 142 TEX
  *2003 27 .298 47 118 TEX
  2004 28 .286 36 106 NYY
  2005 29 .321 48 130 NYY
  2006 30 .290 35 121 NYY
  2007 31 .314 54 156 NYY
  2008 32 .302 35 103 NYY

(Statistics from baseball-reference.com)

Nothing about those statistics other than homerun totals during 2001-2003 suggests Rodriguez's success is a product of drug use. He hit more home runs in 2007 than he did in 2001 and 2003, he has had five season in which RBI's totals have been higher than years during his drug use season in Texas, and two of the three years in Texas were two of the only five season in his career where he has hit .300 or less.

If you take a look at his statistics from all other seasons minus the years he has admitted to using drugs against the three years in Texas where he did, nothing really jumps out that much.

3-year Texas averages (.305, 52 HR, 126 RBI)
10-year total outside of 2001-2003 (.308, 39 HR, 119 RBI)

You could argue his Home Run numbers are way up and clearly inflated during that time in Texas, but don't forgot Texas is a home-run friendly ball-park and that his first couple of seasons in Seattle he was just 20 and 21 years old, hardly even a man at that point in his career.

I am not defending the fact that Alex Rodriguez, one of the greatest, most gifted athletes to ever grace the face of the earth used drugs that may have helped him be a better baseball player. What he did was wrong, and should be looked down upon. However, anything he used during that time was not illegal by MLB standards, and his career statistics do not benefit greatly because he doped for three seasons in Texas.

He has won 2 MVP's since moving to New York, hit for his highest career average at the age of 20, drove in more runs in 2007 than any season in Texas, and maybe the most under looked part of it all, played for a complete cellar-dweller of a team in Texas where his teams never sniffed a division title, let alone a world championship.

"I got caught up in this everybody's doing it era, so why not experiment with x,y, or z?", A-Rod said with Gammons today.

And I completely agree with him.

This was a time in baseball where many people were trying to find an edge to get better, and he was no exception. But the fact that he has proven in ten other seasons that he didn't need those drugs, has admitted his use, and has tested clean numerous times since his time in Texas solidifies him as a true star in my mind. The fact that he has come clean, been clean and is willing to talk about his "idiot" time in Texas is honorable. Which is EXACTLY what the sport needs right now. Instead of trashing Rodriguez and stripping him of his Hall-of-Fame worthy career ten years before it even ends, we should all be grateful that a player who was already brilliant before making a mistake, cut ties with his old ways and is still producing at a first-ballot H.O.F. level.

Don't hate the player, hate the game. And if Alex Rodriguez doesn't deserve the respect of baseball fans at this day in age, then nobody does.