I'm not sure what bothers me more, A-Rod's betrayal of the game and millions of young athletes who look up to him, or his defiance and belief that he should still be allowed to don a Yankees uniform and return to the field. This entire situation wreaks of the fiasco that Lance Armstrong subjected us to.
Yesterday, the MLB announced that Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees was suspended until 2015. The issue (that could be proved) at hand here, is Alex Rodriguez's connection to a Florida anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis of America, which serviced athletes with performance enhancing drugs. In 2009 Rodriguez admitted to using performance enhancing drugs ("PED") from 2000-2003. This was prior to the league's testing and instituted ban of these drugs. However the Head of Biogenesis, Tony Bosch, testified that not only did his clinic service A-Rod and several other athletes with PED's, he himself injected A-Rod several times. The MLB's investigation has only been able to conclude that A-Rod did have a connection to the clinic and attempted to obstruct prior investigations that could have proven he did indeed dope up.
During yesterday's press conference two separate reporters asked A-Rod if he had ever taken banned PED's (this would be excluding his 2009 admission) or why hasn't he outright said that he never took them. In this same press conference A- Rod said that he was "in the fight of his life." However in response to those questions about his failure to denounce his usage, A-Rod said "when the time is appropriate to answer those questions, I will." If this is the fight of his life, why wouldn't he scream from the mountaintop his true innocence? This seems like the most appropriate time to do that.
I'm sorry, this entire ordeal stinks of deceit.
Buy Hey, What Do I Know?
1) In your opinion, did Alex Rodriguez take performance enhancing drugs past the dates of his admission?
2) Is the punishment handed down by the MLB fair, or should a lifetime ban been imposed?
3)Are performance enhancing drugs bad for the game of baseball?
4)Should A-Rod be allowed to play during his appeal?