A-Rod Reality: The truth shouldn't matter

OK, now that we've had a week to digest this A-Rod admission and his apology, let me say this. Can we just get over this? I don't think that his admission was any big revelation. Everyone was attacking Barry Bonds and hoping that A-Rod would soon pass his HR record since he was "clean" and Bonds was the bad guy. The fact of the matter is many players of various skill levels and positions took PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) during that time span.  Was A-Rod entirely truthful in his admissions at his press conference?  Probably not, but that's besides the point.

If someone were to test positive today for PEDs, they would get a 50 game suspension, not a lifetime ban. Why are Hall of Fame voters (i.e. sportswriters) so intent on not letting ANYBODY that has a positive PED test, or just even has just been linked with PEDs, in the Hall of Fame? Not even getting into the fact that it wasn't even against MLB rules when most of these players used PEDs, but that shouldn't disqualify a player from the HOF. Are we going to remove the many players that took uppers (amphetamines) to increase mental alertness and physical energy from the HOF? They are also PEDs, but don't have the media stigma that steroids has.  NFL player Shawne Merriman from the Chargers was suspended four games for use of PEDs two seasons ago, and it was in the news for maybe a day. We've been talking about Bonds forever, and it looks like it will be the same for A-Rod.

Is the argument because the baseball purists say it will skew the numbers for records (i.e. home run records)? You mean like uppers did? You don't think that helped increase numbers. You mean like pre-integration? You don't think the numbers for Babe Ruth and Roger Maris were better because they didn't play against black players? Do they have asterisks?  If baseball records/numbers really are sacred, why are all ball parks designed differently?  Old Yankee Stadium was 318', 399', 408', 385', and  314' ft from left field to right field.  Tiger Stadium was 340', 365' 440', 370', and 325'.  You don't think the Babe, Maris, Mantle, etc... had an advantage over Al Kaline and Hank Greenberg?  Definitely!  Asterisk?  Nope.  Want to sell extra tickets and bring excitement to your fan base?  Just shorten the fences by a few feet.

A-Rod answered, strike that.... A-Rod was asked if he felt that his numbers were tainted, or if his numbers should be wiped away for the years that he used PEDs.  That's ridiculous, you can't go back and erase numbers.  The NCAA does it, but am I really suppose to believe the Fab 5 never happened?  A-Rod's numbers are his numbers.  Bonds' numbers are his numbers. Bonds is the home run king, period.  A-Rod will eventually become the home run king.  Both deserve to be 1st ballot Hall of Famers when they are eligible.

This should just be another era in baseball, The Long Ball Era.  No different than the Dead Ball Era, the Live Ball Era, Integration Era, and the Free Agency Era.  The only reason this is getting as much media attention is because we now live in a soap opera/tabloid/paparazzi news society. That's what sells.  That's why sometimes we have to turn off SportsCenter.  Do we really need to know A-Rod's cousins name or who transported the substance from the Dominican Republic to the United States?  (BTW... that was actually a question at his press conference.)

DC is a contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted atdcthesportsguy@gmail.com