Prayin' For A Pay Day.

From the New York Daily News: 

Alex Rodriguez is unlikely to be punished by Major League Baseball for his admission that he used steroids from 2001-03, but commissioner Bud Selig chastised the Yankees' star Thursday, saying he and other users have "shamed the game."

Selig also Thursday asked the Players Association to explain a Sports Illustrated report this week that cited an anonymous player as saying he was warned by union executive Gene Orza that he would be tested on a specific date, Sept. 24, 2004, and told that he should "make sure there's nothing in your system."

Selig, who hinted on Wednesday that he was contemplating a suspension for A-Rod, issued a statement through the league clarifying his feelings.

"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am saddened by the revelations concerning Alex Rodriguez's use of performance-enhancing substances," Selig said. "While Alex deserves credit for publicly confronting the issue, there is no valid excuse for using such substances, and those who use them have shamed the game.

"What Alex did was wrong and he will have to live with the damage he has done to his name and reputation. His actions are also a reminder to everyone in baseball - under our current drug program, if you are caught using steroids and/or amphetamines, you will be punished."

Yup, Bud, A-Rod and all the other juiced-up cheats "shamed the game." Thanks for clarifying that for us.

Can you remind us again just what you were doing about it before Congress and all those super-sized, open secrets that were Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, José Canseco and BALCO forced your hand?

Oh, that's right! You were shaming the game in the name of gate receipts!

The Needle And The Damage Done.

Ushering in the A-'Roid Era, the Tampa wing of the Bronx Zoo finds Yankee manager Joe Girardi meeting the press. 

Bruce Reed from Slate has some ideas as to how baseball can extract its collective head from its collective ass:

In spite of itself, baseball remains the national pastime—so it's only fitting that with America mired in crisis, the game would find a way to do the same. Alex Rodriguez's belated confession that he used steroids from 2001 to 2003, along with Miguel Tejada's guilty plea for lying to Congress about an ex-teammate* and Barry Bonds' upcoming trial for perjury, has brought Major League Baseball to the tipping point. Almost 100 years ago, a renegade group of baseball owners launched the short-lived Federal League. Soon, it will be possible to do that again, and sell the naming rights to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Read the rest here.

The 'Roids Of Summer.

     I love baseball. To me, it is the perfect game with no rival. Beginning in the spring, it lumbers through an endless summer and culminates in the Fall Classic.

     Perfect.

     I don't know what baseball should do about the Steroid Era. The game has always had cheaters; the Hall of Fame is full of spitballers, spike-sharpeners, sign-stealers and those are just the good guys. But sticking needles that shoot magic potions into your ass? That's, well--that's a whole new ballgame.

     I bring this up, of course, because of Alex Rodriguez. When A-Rod admitted that he used steroids during his time as a Texas Ranger, I wasn't at all surprised. It's not that he has taken on Bunyanesque proportions or even that his power seemed suspect to me. I wasn't surprised simply because he's a professional baseball player who performs for money.

     I love the game with a little boy's heart, but I don't look at major league athletes through a little boy's eyes.

     The steroid scandal in baseball has stretched on for years. Commissioner Bud Selig, franchise owners, player's union leaders, player's agents, coaches, managers and the players themselves routinely watched as last year's skinny center fielder showed up at spring training looking like a WWF bad guy with a temper to match. Everybody suspected something and insiders knew. The fans who filled ballparks not to see a perfectly-executed suicide squeeze but to see Thor go yard should spare their shock and indignation.

     It hasn't been your daddy's game for quite some time.

     There are many baseball commentators who loved the 1998 season and even those who claimed it saved baseball after years on the skids following the strike-shortened 1994 campaign. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were engaged in an epic home run battle that year, fannies filled the seats and Bud Selig all but declared, "Mission Accomplished."

     Don't believe the hype about the '98 season. Yes, McGwire and Sosa were allegedly juiced and dirty; that's part of my cynical view of that over-rated season. But it was more about the focus on the Home Run itself. There's a lot more to baseball than tape-measure shots, which I happen to believe are the least interesting aspect of the game.    

     They still haven't invented a drug that gives a guy patience at the plate, the ability to hit and run, the instincts to read a pitcher and get a good jump when stealing a base, flawless defensive play around the bag or the touch to lay down a beautiful bunt. But Thor can stick a needle in his ass and long fly (former) outs might make the cheap seats.

     Boycotts, finger-pointing or moralizing won't change the facts. Running away from the facts won't change the truth. And neither baseball players running on designer potions nor their enablers in suits have ruined the perfect game for me, although they've tried.

     Alex Rodriguez was effectively outed; somebody somewhere screwed up big time. The drug tests were in the so-called "survey season" of 2003 and were supposed to remain anonymous. I'm not defending A-Rod, but there were 104 players who tested positive that year.

     Love him or hate him, but why--so far, on a roster of 104--is Alex Rodriguez out there all alone under the stadium lights? 

Well, Knock Me Over With A Feather!

From ESPN: 

His voice shaking at times, Alex Rodriguez met head-on allegations that he tested positive for steroids six years ago, telling ESPN on Monday that he did take performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers during a three-year period beginning in 2001.

"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day," Rodriguez told ESPN's Peter Gammons in an interview in Miami Beach, Fla. "Back then, [baseball] was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time.

"I did take a banned substance. For that, I'm very sorry and deeply regretful."

Full disclosure: as a young, foolish high school baseball player, I, too, used substances. But Genesee beer and Marlboro cigarettes were decidely not "performance-enhancing." 

The A-Rod interview will air on ESPN at 6PM EST tonight (and infinitely thereafter.)