It's Not Just About A-Rod

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So, it's not just A-Rod, or Bonds or Clemens; it's a whole machine. A machine we as fans support so doesnâ€™t that makes us part of it too? If you want to blame somebody, blame yourselves and pass me a hotdog and a beer, and sit your rear on down up in front.

[National: Comment On A-Rod Debacle]


I'm all for rules and regulations but when we don't follow them or are not exactly held responsible for upholding them then they have no real teeth.

When the administering of rules and regulations is gauged unfairly by who the person is, well then it is immediately compromised. This doesn’t just apply to sports but is prevalent in politics, religion, and so forth.  

The more important you are the more you are likely to be cut some slack via some smart lawyer’s use of technicality but its all a dodge. Add to the fact people have short memories and loyalties to men and not necessarily their actions and you create further imbalance in carrying out the rules. 

Do you ever wonder why Bernard Madoff is allowed to languish in his penthouse rather than in a jail cell?  If that were you or me, we would be under the jail had we stolen the kind of money Madoff stole. 

It seems that some rules are meant to apply while others don’t.  So, it’s all a sham.  Heck, oftentimes we convict people that aren't even guilty. We even occasionally hate the people that tell us the truth because of how they tell it to us; refer to Jose Canseco regarding steroid usage in baseball.  

Canseco, it seems, told the truth concerning widespread steroid abuse. Yet everyone hated the fact that he ratted-out other players because he was going down for it. Think about it; what difference does it make who tells you the "truth?" I mean does it matter who tells you the house is on fire? Hell, if the next door neighbor you hate gets you up and out of a burning house, then that should be alright. The truth is the truth no matter who speaks it and should be considered that way first and foremost. 

What should matter most is that the truth is being told. However, people have to add in their own feelings as to who is telling a particular truth and that's where we go wrong. We're not trying to be better people, we're always just trying to win and/or protect something or somebody at any cost.

That's probably why we fail so much at being the best we can be in a variety of ways. Things are so topsy turvy - notice how the law makes deals with criminals? That's because they make bargains to get at the bigger truth, even if they have to make the deal with a mob hitman like Sammy the Bull.

When Sammy spoke about John Gotti he was speaking the truth. The truth will set you free and behind all that the Bull now roams again. While it all starts to get rather convoluted, it’s the kind of concoction we throw together when we compromise the truth. The view gets murky and our vision darker and darker. 

It's probably why God implored us not to judge.  God said, "Do not judge..."  Therefore, I think I will choose the road less traveled and simply forgive A-Rod and all the other wayward players too; then move on.  Done! After all, we find the media constantly judging and asking us to judge too. I don’t know what we are looking for—perfection. That unreasonable goal we can’t even obtain ourselves.  So, do we really think the next guy will achieve what no one else has?  Before we judge others we need to look in the handiest mirror first. Is that a perfect, faultless face staring back? 

Not to say that we should simply forget what the A-Rods of the world have done.  No.  But it is meant to say let’s not judge so harshly the missteps of others, without judging ourselves.  I say stop judging and just try to step better going forward. Just my view and I feel pretty great behind it.  

Since it’s the fans that keep baseball alive, whether it’s the good, bad and the ugly, how can we boo A-Rod without reserving a few of those boos for ourselves. Some of these players big and small take advantage of the game and of us.  We have a tendency to hold the big rats up high while the little ones eat away at our core without much attention, until one day the gnawing gets the better of us and sends us reeling to our knees. 

I can remember the Bergen Record in baseball when sportswriter Bob Klapisch chased Barry Bonds into the alley for the kill on the steroid issue.  That is, until he found his boy RogerClemens in the same alley smiling like a Cheshire cat.  Suddenly, for all the pounding he did on Bonds, Klapisch initially went silent when it came to his guy Clemens.

Fans barely heard anything for weeks after Clemens got caught –unlike with Bonds— and when they finally did, the tone was much different from the one used against Bonds.  Don't you see, these players and writers represent us—you and me. Everyone can't be a ballplayer so what these guys do and we let them get away with under false allegiances, is ultimately what backfires in our faces.

So in that, the "Them" is "Us" really since we are very much a part of the game by the choices we make. That's why we continue to dig ourselves into a hole every time someone gets caught up and then admits drug or steroid use. The character flaws they show are really a mirror to where we are in the bigger game of human development. So go ahead and kick their asses as much as you want by blaming and judging because let’s face it, it's your own ass you're really kicking the shit out of and you deserve it. 

So, it's not just A-Rod, or Bonds or Clemens; it's a whole machine.  A machine we as fans support so doesn’t that makes us part of it too?  If you want to blame somebody, blame yourselves and pass me a hotdog and a beer, and sit your rear on down up in front.  

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