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Bonds vs A-Rod

by Russell Dyas

I always find it hard to work out how to introduce myself to a new set of readers. You can often sound like you are part of an AA meeting “My name is Russell Dyas and I am a writer”. Even worse I could sound like a marketing person “Hi I’m Russell Dyas, you may know me from…” but no matter, here is my attempt. 

I have been a fan of baseball for a long while and to me this is what makes a good baseball writer as if you are not a fan then your writing can become very dry.  I am a writer, IT Professional and Educational Technologist but the importance of this article is to focus on me being a writer.  I have written about various subjects, from technology to sports such as F1 and baseball. I hope that I have not sounded like either of the examples above and we can now move onto the important stuff… baseball. 

If I had a pound every time words like “Alex Rodriguez” and “drugs” had been used in a sentence I would be a rich man and If I had been given a pound for every time the words “Barry Bonds” and “drugs” had been used together I would be Richard Branson.  The big news this week off the field is that Barry Bonds starts his trial on charges of perjury over the incident when he told the Grand Jury that investigated the BALCO steroid ring that he had never used banned drugs.  This column is not to decide if Bonds is guilty or innocent; the USA court system will be deciding that in the coming months.

One interesting element in all this is A-Rod’s announcement that he used performance-enhancing drugs (PED) while playing for the Texas Rangers. If you compare A-Rod and Barry Bonds it is certainly interesting how the media, public and players themselves handled the different situations.

It is certain that the media have been a lot kinder to A-Rod than Bonds. This could be in part because Bonds was one of the first to be suspected of taking PED’s. He then became the symbol of what was wrong with the MLB at the time.  Maybe it is that A-Rod has come out and said “yes I did it” which means human nature makes us less critical of people who took the first step in admitting they did something wrong.  If found guilty then people will comment that Bonds needed to have admitted earlier but constant denial means he will be like Pete Rose and will be forever scorned out of baseball.

A-Rod Started in his first spring training game other day. The advice that had been given to him by the Yankees management was to “go out and hit the ball”.  This is ultimately, what he needs to do; he needs to go and play ball and put the off-pitch stories behind him.  The same as Bonds he may never be able to remove the footnote in his career stats and he is not helping himself by making silly mistakes like being picked up after spring training by the very cousin who allegedly supplied him PED. All he needs to do now is go out and hit the balls and help the Yankees win games then fellow players, media and fans may accept him.

He will not be the last person to admit using PED. The young stars of that era will have been tempted to give a quick boast. More of them will realise in time that they have to be open about skeletons in the closet and clear their consciences. In the end it will be the ones that deny and then are found to be guilty that will be snubbed and hung out to dry.

The ultimate question for A-Rod is not if the media or his fellow players will accept him; but will the fans accept him back into baseball?

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4 comments

Mark George February 27, 2009 - 3:24 pm

Hi Russell,
Welcome to BaseballGB!
Hopefully you will have seen the posts on the site about our fantasy league – if you would like to join, email me at baseballfeedback@yahoo.co.uk
Mark

Reply
Russell Dyas February 27, 2009 - 4:29 pm

Hi Mark

Yes seen the post I was going to sign later tonight in fact.

Russ

Reply
Joe Gray February 27, 2009 - 7:35 pm

Welcome aboard.

Joe

Reply
Russell Dyas February 27, 2009 - 9:51 pm

Hi Joe

Thanks for the welcome.

Russ

Reply

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