It wasn't according to ESPN, it was according to some drug czar in the DR. ESPN wouldn't know their ass from their right elbow about anything. Of course you have to take what that guy says with a grain of salt too. We are talking about the Dominican after all. It's been a known fact for more than 10 years that players from there have been buying stuff over the counter forever. That's why not one single news reporter or news service questioned it in over a week after he said it.
Ths story I heard on the radio last night was that some ESPN Deportes clown had done some digging and found this out. Maybe some things have changed but it appears he has been caught in his 1st lie. Are there more? I hope not becuase if there are people will fnd out. The guy has such a fragile personality that it might destroy him mentally and that would be pretty sad.
Or it might just set him free from all the worries. Honestly, all the psychoanalyzing seems worthless to me. A-Rod has performed at a fairly high level on a consistent basis pretty much regardless of the situation. Unless he's physically being dogged by these reporters and losing sleep over it, I can't see it being an issue. On another note, it surprises me to see Mets fans use faggot as a derogatory term.
Does it surprise you that people don't like being lied to? I mean it seems like a simple concept to me... people who carry themselves with dignity and treat others with respect get respect in return. Disingenuous people who lie and cheat are treated with disdain, surely you've experienced this before in your life. The guy had a chance to come clean with an honest explanation to the people who support him and love him and he still couldn't do it. While I was watching that video I felt worst for the people they marched in their to support him, I'm sure some of them thought it was all fake too. I mean put yourself in Jeter or Cashman's shoes... they must be disgusted to be associated with this mess. Obviously I think your trying to rationalize A-Rods actions by talking about how you don't care what he does off the field and talking about how you hold athletes to different standards as far as integrity, honesty, intelligence... I mean you set the bar really really low to make it seem if this type of behavior is acceptable because he's a dumb jock. In the end it's just an attempt to move the conversation away from the topic and talk more about the people who are posting opinions, it's clever but I'm not falling for it. Ripping on A-rod for that stupid press conference is legit...
Key phrase: In your life. A-Rod is only "in my life" as a 3B for the Yankees. What do I care if someone who I will never meet... someone who I will never speak to... someone who doesn't even know or care that I exist lies to me? Seems like the epitome of wasted effort to me. 1. I never said I thought his behavior was "acceptable," and I don't have to try to set the bar low. Professional athletes do it for themselves on a regular basis, and have since the beginning of the modern era. This is nothing new. To believe that they would behave differently is simply naive. 2. I'm not holding professional athletes to different standards... my personal standards are the same regardless of who it is. I would not care to be friends with A-Rod, just as I would not care to be friends with 99% of professional athletes. They are typically self-centered assholes. This value of mine is nothing if not consistent. I don't make time for self-centered assholes, period, regardless of their job. If you don't believe me, ask me about the time when Manny Ramirez came over to my (then) girlfriend's apartment. 3. This still has nothing to do with rationalization. I'm not defending A-Rod's actions. I just happen to find it amusing how some of you are foaming at the mouth regarding this story. And as far as I can see, there are only two conclusions: One, you are dumb/naive enough to think that professional athletes on a whole are worthy people, and A-Rod's deviance from this path is therefore a heinous crime and worth your attention... or... you like seeing a Yankee player go down in flames and are more than happy to latch onto the story with all of your self-righteous moral outrage. Given the circumstances, I'm going to go with the latter, until/unless you can convince me otherwise. Whatever you want to think, man. Far be it from me to stop you from being the guy who gets his panties in a bunch over a baseball player who doesn't even play on a team he has a vested interest in, and who he will likely never meet in person. Way to focus your righteous anger. I'm sure it's going to good use.
This post clearly summarizes your position, you see this as an anti-Yankee thing, and since there is no sensible defense for what A-Rod said or did you're left with nothing more but sarcastic attempts to paint me in a bad light for stating my opinion (which is incredibly similar to your own opinion of A-Rod minus one thing). You're basically saying you know what he did was wrong, you think he has no integrity or honesty, he is a self centered ass-hole, but pointing that out is "wasted effort" because you'll never meet him. It's a weak argument, and it begs the question... if you only care enough to form opinions on things that you know or directly effect your life, why would you bother posting hundreds of times in an anonymous forum like this? I get the feeling you don't have any misgivings about "wasted effort" or we wouldn't be hearing from you so much.
You're missing the point. It's not that I think people shouldn't form an opinion, period. It's that I think the faux moral outrage is a show more than anything else. Why are some people getting so bent out of shape about this? If it's based on a value system, it's not a consistent point of view (since this outrage should apply equally to nearly all pro athletes). Merely pointing it out isn't wasted effort... it's just stating the obvious. However, people are using this opportunity to go on and on about A-Fraud the cheater. This righteous anger seems disproportionate to me, unless you think A-Rod is different from the rest of pro athletes or you hate any/all things Yankee/A-Rod. And say what you will about posting on message boards, but for me, it's merely a way to pass the time (i.e. I don't really care if my effort is "wasted" or not), and my posts are consistent with my value system for all aspects of my life. I don't make exceptions just because it's opportunistic.
Fans have every right to be outraged that A-Rod cheated. He cheated the game, he skewed the stats etc. But as Cappy says, and believe me I dont agree with Cappy very often, you guys that are acting so shocked and angry that he never came totally clean and he made up these stories blah blah blah are completely full of shit! Its also obvious that at that point it has become an snti-Yankee thing. The guy got caught. Everyoone knows he did roids. But youre all acting like youre more insulted that he lied at his press conferences------who in their right mind would give a fuck? We know hes lying...so laugh it off. Now it has become a withc hunt. Lets see if the dick head media can crack the guy. Lets see if we can make him run away forever and tuck his head in the sand...Fuckin dicks...all of them.....Pettitte lied, clemens lied, plamiero lied, sosa lied, magwire lied, they all fuckin lied. Who gives a shit...drop the fucking subject already...you guys, like the media, are acting like complete homos...holier than thou, self righteous shit heads...really, youre embarrassing yourselves.
It's easy to take a safe position like you do and say all professional athletes are dumb and dishonest... I mean what do you have to lose? But at the end of the day I don't think you honestly believe somebody like Chad Pennington is dumb and dishonest simply because he plays professional sports. The point of view your talking about isn't consistent or based on any pure value system, your painting an entire group of people with a broad stroke based on their profession. There is a simple reason the "outrage" you speak of isn't being applied equally to all professional athletes... because not all professional athletes did what A-Rod did, the reaction you're seeing is based on the sum of A-Rods actions over the years. To miss this point is to be completely in the dark on this topic. Come on, you're not posting in this thread because you care about a disproportionate response to steroid accusations, you've sat back quietly as the disproportionate response to Bonds went on for years... you're posting in this thread because A-Rod is a Yankee which makes your posts just as opportunistic as anybody else's in this thread.
Here's the thing. I honestly don't care all that much and actually think Arod has handled this pretty well. However... This isn't disproportionate in any way. The reaction was the same for Bonds and Clemens. Hell, ESPN made poor Carlos Gomez follow Bonds everywhere for 4 years. The man was a disheveled mess when Bonds finally broke the record and the anchor told him "go home and sleep now". Of course there's more of a reaction to this than to some AAAA fringe guy. But it's not disproportionate, it's equal to Arod's stature in the game.
Keeping that in mind, there is a portion of this outrage/blame/reaction (whatever you want to call it) that should be directed at MLB itself and for the horrible handling of this situation. I'm not so sure the media is focused on that this time around. The league is a failure for letting the enhancement drug issue go unchecked for years and now for allowing it to destroy the integrity of the game itself. They need to somehow control this thing or it will drag on for years and years...
1. Baseball players are by far the dumbest professional athletes. 2. I didn't say every last professional athlete was dumb and dishonest. Just the vast majority of them. Here's a little exercise for you. Think of the five best athletes from your high school and/or college. Now... how many of those guys were intelligent and not ridiculously self-centered? If you say more than two, I'm likely to believe you're lying. Now add a selection process that takes the best of the best of the best of those athletes as they move up the ranks. Add additional years of people telling them they're hot shit, and now let's throw in a few million dollars into their bank account. Look, dude, I've seen the "nice" ones (publicly) do and say awful things. Extreme narcissism is the norm for pro athletes, not the exception. No, not all professional athletes did what A-Rod did. And his indiscretions are the ones that have been made public. I get that. It's naive to think that others haven't, though. And it's just as naive (if not outright dishonest) to think that steroids are the worst thing that the typical pro athlete (including A-Rod) has done. This reminds me of politics, when one party will rage on and on about the [insert shady politician behavior here] from the members of the opposition party while ignoring it in their own backyard (like the politicians who make their name talking about the decline of values in society and then are found having gay midget hooker sex). I find the stated reasons for their kind of moral outrage hard to believe. Just as I find the stated reasons for the uproar here hard to believe. You're right. I don't care about it. I find this amusing more than anything else. Maybe a bit irksome. But only because of the hypocrisy and/or naivete. I also find it an adequate way to pass a rainy weekend. No offense, but how would you know? My stance on Bonds is pretty similar to my stance on A-Rod. People like to get on a moral high horse about this stuff, and it strikes me as silly. (And, of course, I'm sure Dodger fans were more "outraged" by Bonds than the average fan.) Interesting logic, but untrue. I'm not treating this situation any differently than I would treat any other situation involving this topic. I might be more likely to post in it because it involves news regarding my team (or could), but other than that... *shrugs*... I don't see what's being opportunistic about it. It's understandable that I'm more likely to see it here (and therefore respond to it), but I'm not taking an action that I would not otherwise take in a different situation. Seeing a chance to get yourself worked up about a player on a team you don't like... that's opportunistic. Of course, I think ESPN's response is disproportionate, as well. (To Bonds and A-Rod, both.) The media are worse than anybody. But that's what happens when we live in a world with a 24-hour sports news cycle. They need to freak out. And I should point out, that it's not really the media coverage that I find disproportionate here, specifically. More the reaction of people in ethical terms. The people who are quick to scream, "He's a cheater!" while (I'm willing to wager) are guilty of trangressions of a similar nature, just minus the spotlight.
What do the Mets have to do with this thread? This is my 3rd post in this thread. In my previous two posts I did not mention the Mets. What is with you people?
The fact you wrote something about Mets fans as opposed to the Mets doesn't really change anything. It is humorous to see just about every knock on a Yankees player result in a Yankees fan taking a shot at the Mets, Red Sox, or fans of those teams.
Eh. That particular post was a low-hanging fruit (and not really meant to be much of a shot). I mean, are you not a Mets fan?
Agree with me or you're a liar... sounds like some kind of Soviet style exercise to me. :rofl: Seriously man, this was a somewhat interesting conversation for a while... but I suddenly feel like I'm sitting on the bus talking with a kid who just got his ass kicked by the baseball team. Baseball players are the dumbest of all athletes... brilliant point Cappy and well proven! You still don't get it, I'm talking about the press conf. and the attempted cover up... that is why I called him pussy. I'm sure plenty of guys do bad things but that doesn't make what A-Rod did anymore acceptable to me. Nowhere have I claimed steroids are the worst thing athletes do or that others haven't done it... I have no idea why you'd try to interject those claims into the conversation (unless of course you're trying to rationalize what A-Rod did). I can only base it off your lack of commentary in this space. You keep banging the drum with this image of me seething over all this... First I was outraged, then I was foaming at the mouth, my panties were in a twist, now I'm worked up... you draw a nice picture but it's not accurate! I'm not trying to ban him from the game, remove his stats, put him in jail, crying about the children... I'm simply calling the guy a pussy and laughing about the extent some of you guys will go to defend him.
That's not the intent of what I said. But whatever. The point is, jocks are typically dumb and self-centered. I'm fairly confident you would agree with me. If you attended schools where more than one or two of the best athletes were intelligent and selfless, you either had a very rare experience, or you're lying. I mean, seriously... are you contesting this? I was under the impression that the dumb jock was a rather well-accepted stereotype mostly due to its accuracy. Typically speaking, it's true. My evidence (such that it is) is mostly anecdotal, but also common sense. For the most part, colleges act as the minor leagues for the other major three sports. No other sport is comprised of more athletes with nothing greater than high school level education. Even if student athletes in college aren't exactly getting the greatest education in the world, they're getting more a worldly experience than the kids who go pro out of high school get. Those guys are instantly pushed into a world that hasn't matured much past a high school locker room. And its effect shows. This isn't to say there aren't exceptions to the stupidity. But for every Greg Maddux or Mike Mussina, there are twenty Papelbons, Damons, or (Carl) Everetts. No, I get it. Believe me, I do. I'm not just talking about the existence of this thread or that you'd call him a pussy. I thought this conversation had moved past that specific point. We were talking about this more generally, I thought, and was referring more to the idea that someone actually cares that an athlete lies to them. I typically come on here to talk about the Yankees, and not much else. I peruse the Jets forum for Jets news, and that's about it. If there has been talk about Bonds on here, I probably never bothered to check the thread. It's not just you. I'm speaking in general, as well. But this started with the idea that "you don't like being lied to." Come on, man. You really care whether A-Rod is lying to you? Which brings me back to those two options: If you care about a professional baseball player "lying to you," you either have a very strange, imbalanced, and I would imagine erratically enforced sense of moral propriety... or a good part of this is fueled by dislike of the player/team involved.
All of this moral outrage is a joke anyway. Everybody is a cheat in life so what's the difference? I would bet that if anybody on this soapbox were to find $1000 on the street they would just stick it in their pocket rather than turn it into the police. It's just the obvious jealousy factor that we have all come to expect.
