Getting the word out

Because (I believe) we have a larger readership than the New York Times, I thought I would help this story get some legs.

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It's official: All MLB players from 1998-2007 banned from HOF

Well, that's it. A-Rod did steroids, and baseball is seriously f***ed. Should we institute a blanket banning of all the potential steroid users?

Honestly, I was a little surprised at first that A-Rod is guilty of steroid use. I always defended A-Rod as an upstanding guy and a baseball purist. Yet obviously, he's a competitor that made the same mistake as his peers, and he unfortunately and predictably bought into the pressure to perform at a beyond-human level. If A-Rod is guilty, I would not be surprised to find out that every single star of the Steroid Era had used steroids.

So what happens next? I think the baseball community really needs to use this moment to evaluate how it views the Steroid Era. Sure, we all know about the Barry Bonds saga, but that guy potentially perjured himself. He doesn't deserve to be inducted if he's guilty of a serious crime. However, I'd hate to see the same jerk-offs who are keeping Big Mac out of the HOF -- without credible evidence, mind you -- continually block A-Rod when he's ultimately eligible.

Which brings up another point...

Did A-Rod keep his name clean by admiting he did steroids? Sure, he kinda had to admit it after his name came out. Yet unlike some of the other steroid stars, he never lied about it. If we find out that McGwire, Sosa, and Clemens were all in fact proven users, then clearly they lied and don't deserve the honor of induction to the Hall. A-Rod's case is a little different, and I don't know how the baseball community will handle it come his HOF eligibility. My guess is that A-Rod put himself on the right side of a blurry gray line that separates the tarnished from the untarnished.

I still love A-Rod, even though he used the term "loosey-goosey" in his interview with Peter Gammons. I refuse to crucify him -- or any MLB star -- for taking steroids. He's still a HOFer and one of the best infielders of all time.

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Make Believe: A-Rod passes Bonds in 2015

As both Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez are each four HR from career milestones, I've been thinking a little bit about the potential for A-Rod to hold the all-time HR record a scant decade from now. Thus, I spent a little time today on Baseball Reference and in my own imagination envisioning how it might happen. And frankly, if God loves baseball, it will.

Let's start with the current situation: A-Rod has 496 career HRs and 1437 RBIs. He's 31 years old. He can do it. Here's how:

Scenario #1: A-Rod keeps up his current pace for another 8 years. If so, he'll be sitting on 800 HRs and 2400 RBIs, both the best of all time. Maybe he can; maybe he can't. Jimmy Foxx is the second youngest player to reach 500 HRs, but he finished with only 534 career HRs as he slid off very quickly (possibly due to a drinking problem according to some 'expert' on Wikipedia). In the early 90's, you probably could have envisioned Frank Thomas breaking Aaron's mark... and then all the injuries came (or whatever caused him to fall off). But there are plenty of greats and not-so-greats that kept up their hitting stats through their 30's: Hammerin' Hank himself, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Tony Gwynn and the likes of Craig Biggio, Harold Baines, Brian Downing, Edgar Martinez, Paul Molitor, Andres Galarraga, Reggie Jackson. Sure, not each of these guys was hitting 42 HRs and 120 RBIs per year, but they still show that ballplayers can still swing the stick by the time they hit 40 years of age.

Scenario #2: A-Rod matches Barry's totals, 1997-2007 (age 31-current), over the next ten years of his career. If so, A-Rod will be even farther ahead: 823 HRs (though less RBIs, only 2226). And that's after I've erased Bonds' 73 HRs for 2001, a year in which the 'cream' may or may not have accounted for all 73 HRs so we'll erase them all just to be sure.

Scenario #3: Nobody pays A-Rod the $80 million/year he'll want for the rest of his career, and he retires at age 33. Sha, right.

Sure, Barry Bonds may not retire for another two years, but even the most well oiled and marginally productive machines eventually are considered 'not worth it' by their clubs. And all careers must come to end (except Ricky Henderson's). Still, I can't see Barry Bonds hitting many more than 800 HRs in his career.

The future's never certain, but I for one will be ignoring Barry Bonds this month and will keep my eyes on A-Rod's "Chasing Barry" saga.

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Wait, Yankees fans are jerks? Sir, your opinions fascinate me and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

CBS Sportsline's Gregg Doyel is one of those Jay Mariotti-type cheap trick columnists that every sports media outlet employs because they get people all riled up by the crazy crap they say. It's that "he's the guy you love to hate!" mentality, and it's really lazy and disingenuous writing that only suckers fall for.

Anyway, Doyel is generally a clown, but in his most recent column, he actually makes some decent, if not completely earth-shattering observations about Yankees fans' love-hate relationship with A-Rod.

Honestly, it's the fickleness that kills me. If you're going to resent Pay-Rod, Bronx Boors, resent him all the time. Resent him when he throws the ball into right field, resent him when he strikes out and resent him when he goes cold in October. Just like you did last year. Boo him when he pops out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning in snowy 38-degree weather, just like you did in the second game of this season. The second game. Unbelievable.

But also resent him when he's hitting six home runs in the first seven games of the 2007 season, a streak surpassed only by Mike Schmidt's seven-in-seven start in 1976. Resent him when he's blasting a grand slam to beat the Orioles on Easter eve.

I guess this column is supposed to rile up a lot of people, but not being a Yankees fan or an east coast sports fan in general, I think I only see this as what most sensible people have known for a while. The rest of the article is at least worth a read, and I'm particularly intrigued by what he has to say about Derek Jeter. Like I said, you're not going to learn anything you don't already know from reading our opinions here, but hey, you've got nothin' else going on.

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First Brady's playoff interception, and now this?

I'm so confused. I don't even think I know what clutch and non-clutch mean anymore. It's almost as if they're just adjectives that get permanently attached to someone for a very small sample size of game situations.

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