More Thoughts on PEDs

As I was reveling the other day in the two day outburst of production from Alfonso Soriano, I went to write a tweet. I thought about tweeting something like, "He must be hangin' out with A-Rod a little too much." I sent the tweet, but I just felt sick to my stomach thinking about that whole idea. I promptly deleted the tweet and sent a different one that didn't include any suggestion of juicing. I've since thought about why I got that sick feeling. I guess my pondering brought up some general ideas about human nature, so I'll share a little bit with you.

This whole A-Rod scandal has been the talk of the sports world for the past month or so. At first I just thought he was an idiot, but he's not. You hear from people who know him well that he is one of the smartest guys in baseball. If that's the case, then it seems that he's more of a con artist than an idiot. He's smart, and he's cunning, to the point that he still has Yankees fans (like me) rooting for him despite all the crap that has gone down. A month ago I would have told you that I hated A-Rod and wanted MLB to give him the lifetime ban. That would be good for the Yankees organization, because we all know that more than anything else they do not want to pay A-Rod another $100 million over the remainder of his contract if he's going to be under-producing (which he has) and continue to cause so many headaches (which he definitely has and will most likely continue to do). However, after seeing him back in pinstripes and the Yankees' bats catching fire with him back in the lineup, my feelings have betrayed my better judgment. I want to like A-Rod. I want to believe his denials about PEDs. I want to see him in pinstripes going forward. Why???

Besides the simple fact that I'm a Yankees fan and having him in the lineup is better for the team's chances of winning, I think that part of the reason is that A-Rod is one of those larger-than-life major sports figures that make the games so fascinating to watch. He was a phenom. He was the Mike Trout or Lebron James or Sidney Crosby of his time. He was the next big thing, and he was a big thing. And, as a fan, to find out that one of those guys -- the kind of athlete who blows our minds doing things that we have hardly, if ever, seen before -- cheated to get to where he is, especially if he plays for your favorite team ... it's upsetting to say the least. We don't want to believe it. We want to find any excuse to forgive him and let his performance go back to what it was before: amazing and inexplicable. Now it's not. Now it's just science; still fascinating but not inexplicable.

I hate that all of this drama has almost completely robbed me of any childlike fascination with sports and athletic achievement, so I'm not going to let it. I refuse to become (completely) jaded. Until it is proven otherwise, Alfonso Soriano, one of my favorite players ever since he came to the Yankees years ago, is simply having an awesome hot streak. I think that he is loving being back in the Bronx and it is translating into great play. It will be a great story if he is able to spark a Yankees' run to make the playoffs this year, but postseason or not, we love having him back and love what he's doing for the team.

What I love about this whole situation is that it's proven that the magic of baseball cannot be destroyed by the dark cloud of PEDs. This scandal, and A-Rod in particular, will fade into the background as we watch another great season of Major League Baseball unfold with great stories like the Pirates, Dodgers, and Royals coming to their respective climaxes over the upcoming stretch run. Baseball is too great to be undone by a few idiots.

Yeah, A-Rod's an idiot.