A-Rod and steroids

What do I care about a bunch of over-paid men who play children's games? Nothing at all, but children are influenced by the behviors of famous athletes and that's the relevance. I was disappointed, but not surprised, by Alex Rodriguez and his "apology" for both using steroids and lying about it. I enjoyed this discussion on NPR's Talk of the Nation - two sports writers made several interesting points. Professional football treats steroid use like a PR problem - it's widely known and there is very little, if any, hand-wringing over it. On the other hand, in football, personal stats are less central - the number of yards or touchdowns are noticed, but in baseball, stats are central and so "cheating" is more scandalous. Bottom line, the fans of all sports don't seem to care - they certainly don't buy fewer tickets when these scandals emerge whether in baseball, bicycling or the Olympics. I guess I was most offended that Alex Rodriguez told a bald-faced lie in his primetime Katie Couric interview* and therefore to his fans. I find that much more reprehensible than the actual drug use. I mean, "everybody's doing it" is not an acceptable excuse, but it's a better excuse for using performance enhancers than it is for lying. What's worse, lying or cheating? I supposed it's a toss up. In any event, thanks A-Rod for setting such a fine example. The parents of America are indebted to you.

Here are two quotes from that interview:

Re being "tempted" to use drugs - "I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I've always been a very strong, dominant position. And I felt that if I did my work as I've done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level. So, no."

Re the Mitchell Report - "Katie, you're putting me in a tough spot. I mean, these are guys that I play with. They're my teammates. If anything comes of this, I will be extremely disappointed. And it will be a huge black eye on the game of baseball."