My thoughts on 600 and ARod

Alex Rodriguez hit home run #600 this week, a feat accomplished by only 6 other players in history. Everybody has an opinion on Alex Rodriguez. Here is mine:

-The man can flat-out hit. He's one of the greatest hitters of all time. He will likely break Hank Aaron and Barry Bond's home run records and probably some other ones, too (like the RBI record). And all this not as an outfielder or first-baseman, but shortstop and 3rd baseman.

-He signed a 10 year, $252 million contract to play for the Texas Rangers, followed by a 10 year $275 million contract with the Yankees. This is where many fans get turned off ARod. But how many other people on planet earth are worth half a billion dollars? Not many. You can't blame him for taking money offered to him. He never whined or held-out before that. He did his best in Seattle, but if they can't win with himself, Griffey, Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson et al, can you blame him for wanting to go somewhere else? You can't call it greed; instead, call the Rangers and Yankees stupid over-spenders.

-ARod had a chance to be easily the greatest shortstop in the game's history. No one will debate that. But he sold out to join the Yankees and move over to third base. This is a strangely similar story to LeBron James joining DeWayne Wade in Miami. And this wasn't at the end of his career when his skills were deteriorating; this was at the peak of his career. He will never be the greatest shortstop of all time or the greatest third baseman of all time now.

-The man tested positive and admitted to using steroids over a 3 year period (2001-03). This is where it gets really hairy. He says it was because of an "enormous pressure to perform." I can understand that. As we can now see, plenty of other players around him were doing it, too. It was part of the game for at least 15 years. And he probably felt an obligation to the Texas Rangers since they signed him to the biggest contract in sports history. It was dumb and against the rules, but that's the game. He never did anything worthy of getting suspended or lying to Congress.

All you purists out there: the Speed Limit is 50. Do you go 55 or 60? Why? Because everybody else is doing it and you won't get disciplined if you only break the rules by 5-10 mph. So you want his records scratched because of something he did almost 10 years ago that weren't considered outrageous at the time? That's the way it was. They've made some changes to the rules, created punishments. The punishment has been decided by league officials, a 50 game suspension. Why do you think you can create your own punishments, like banning him from Hall of Fame consideration? That's silly. The discipline is what it is. You can't punish someone for something done before the punishment was affixed.

How can you determine the effect of steroids on his numbers? How many home runs are a result from being juiced? It's really impossible to say. However, compare him to Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds. Sosa went from 36-40-36 home runs batting .265 to 66-63-50-64 batting .320. McGwire went from 30-50 home runs to 70 and 65 and looked like the Incredible Hulk. Bonds went from a sure-fire Hall of Famer who never hit more than 46 home runs to 72 out of the blue. Alex Rodriguez has remained remarkably consistent for his whole career. There was no spike in production. Its possible that the steroids didn't even have a significant impact on him. It's impossible to know.

-His personal life leaves much to be desired. There were the pictures of him kissing a mirror. While married many other women (mostly strippers, dancers and prostitutes) claimed he had sex with them on multiple occasions. While these may just be nobodys trying to make news, where there's lots of smoke there is usually fire. Madonna seemed to be in the picture too, though she claims they were just "friends". For a person under one of media's largest microscopes he does a lot of dumb things.

-He's always in the middle of controversy, pissing off opponents by distracting them on pop-flies, slapping at their mitts, running across the mound (the last of which I find insignificant).

-He's not a very good person, I agree. However, many super stars in most sports have that reputation too.

-He's a Yankee now, so I'll cheer for him. He has won games for us, including a World Series championship. I don't love him, I won't buy his jersey, but I'll cheer when he gets hits and wish him success.