It looks like I'm going to take a big bite out of Humble Pie. Was I elated, zealous to rip A-Rod a new ass when the news broke this spring that he tested positive for steroids?Yes.
It's on this blog. I wrote it. I called him a cheater. Andy Pettite and Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi. Cheaters. And let's not forget Roger "throw my wife under the bus" Clemens. Big cheater. Manny Ramirez. Cheater. And now David Ortiz. Cheater. Does this news forever change my opinion of the man who has become a folk legend in New England, our beloved Big Papi?
Yes.
Listen, I'm not saying anything that Dan Shaughnessy didn't say better in his column yesterday. Let's face it, that magical 2004 season, breaking the Curse, and the lovable Idiots are forever sullied. They now wear asterisks on their chests. Cheaters. Does this make the bloody sock any less bloody?
Yes.
Yankee fans must be licking their chops right now. Not only are they on the top of the AL East, but after five years of listening to Red Sox babble and bluster, riding around on our high horses and spewing verbal diarrhea about "the greatest comeback of all time," "the biggest choke in sports history," they can finally look back at us and say, with complete legitimacy: But The Red Sox cheated. Does this justify breaking out those old "1918" signs stowed away somewhere in their cellars?
Yes.
The Red Sox just acquired Victor Martinez. Does this even seem to matter now? Do Big Phony's two home runs the past two nights have me scratching my head, thinking, Here's a slightly below average hitter in 2002, again a below-average hitter 2009, taking a couple of lucky pokes? Does this taint the entire season, perhaps an entire era of Red Sox baseball, the ridiculous Red Sox Nation, and the even more obnoxious amount of money this organization cashes each year pandering to assholes like me, who more than anything, just wanted to see The Sox win a World Series in my lifetime?
No. Yes. Yes.
You really stuck it to us, Big Phony. I hope your share of Humble Pie tastes as bad as mine, but I tend to doubt you even care. After all, you're a cheater.
5 comments:
Coming from a non-Sox fan who didn't even raise an eye when I heard this news, or the A-Rod news from earlier this year, I have to disagree with you. Remember the Sox that year beat the Yankees who had no less then three proven steroid users of their own on the team. Jose Canseco wrote in his book 80 percent of the league did steroids back then, and he has admitted since then that number is probably even naive. I don't see how knowing that Ortiz and Manny did roids (and seriously, am I the only one in the world who wasn't surprised by this?) is somehow making that World Series tainted, and again, this is from someone who can't stand the Red Sox. Bronson Arroyo's comments the other day I thought were the most honest thing an athlete has ever said regarding the steroid era. "I did what I did and I don't care what anyone thinks."
Frankly, I'm sick of people telling me roids ruined the game, as if somehow retroactively my childhood is now a lie becuase Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire really didn't hit 61+ HRs. To quote another great man, Dainel Tosh: "I think pro athletes should be forced to do steroids. I could care less if you die at 40, you hate life after sports anyway. I'm doing you a favor."
If anyone is at fault for this, it's Bud Selig. Man should have retired about 15 years ago.
-Brian
Brian,
I think the problem lies more in the fact that Ortiz mouthed off about steroids, said that people caught using them should be banned from the game for a year, basically set himself up to be Mr. Honesty, a spokesman for clean living and integrity. And that's what this comes down to: integrity. And you can tout all you want about how it doesn't matter, that everyone was doing it. Um, no. Not EVERYONE was using PED to gain a competitve advantage, and I'm sure some of the guys who didn't take roids would take some offense to your statements.
Do I care what these guys put in their bodies? Not really. But I think integrity, and especially as a parent now, needs to be modelled more in our society, our world. Yes. I can be completely cynical and take the Camus charge, but I'm not.
Papi cheated and he deserves to be called out. And you can't qualify something as subjective as, "It taints it FOR ME." In the end, it has gravely disappointed me. Manny didn't surprise me, and I'm not shocked about Ortiz. I'm disappointed. There's a big difference there.
And Bronson Arroyo admitted to using "enhancements" during that season as well and would not be shocked if he her on "The List" as well. Take heart though. This was an era in which everyone was cheating. So the playing field was level in some perverse way. However, these fuckers need to at least man up and admit to what they were doing. They were caught and they are now hiding behind excuses like I did not know what I was taking. You're a professional athlete for gods sake. Your livelihood depends upon the health and well being of your body and you do not know what you're putting into it?!! I at least have some respect for Arroyo at least he came clean so to speak. The others should as well. They know exactly what they did.
By the way. I am a Yankee fan
Fair enough. Ortiz certianly has been very outspoken about it, and I'm not a parent, so I don't look at it from that angle either. I guess what bothers me is very rarely does this problem ever seem to adress the man who I have always felt is responsbile, namely Bud Selig. Also, as a complete baseball nerd I get annoyed when I sit down to watch 12 hours of trade deadline coverage on ESPN and instead I have to hear Steve Phillips and Buster Olney talk about how David Ortiz and his PR guy should address the public. The thing is, we don't know, and probably can never know the extent of what happened. Maybe Ortiz juiced for years and knew. Maybe( and unlikely), he slipped and fell on a syringe, passed out, then the next day took a drug test. I view it as a problem that we can't resolve, and so for it to come out like this every couple months is just frustrating and accomplishes nothing. In my mind I see an era of baseball where players did this stuff, just like the 86 Mets were coked out of their mind. You were honest, hard working guy who didn't do it? Great. Good for you. Really, honestly, that's something to be proud of and be respected for, but I don't see how figuring out everyone who did and didn't do it is making the game better for today or tomorrow, especially when 2009 has been such a great year for baseball.
-Brian
I agree, Brian. The stories are distractions, and it seems like they should either release the whole List, or burn it. And I'm not in anyway taking a moral stance against drugs. If you want to put something in your body, I say go for it. My big problem, and Nate said it very nicely in his comment, these athletes need to stop with the lying and excuses, and man-up and admit what they did. Integrity. Is there enough circumstantial evidence in the statistics alone to make a case that Ortiz started using in 2003 and got off the juice this season? Yeah. But you're right, Brian, it's a distraction, and it's been a very unpleasant distractions and unnerving distraction to me, as a Sox fan. It's not like I know Ortiz and can speak to his character, but lying and cheating don't put him in the best of lights.
Post a Comment