(sob, sob) Leave A-Rod Alone!!!!

Oh my God!!! Alex Rodriguez is the first baseball player that has ever cheated!!!!

Seriously. Alex Rodriguez has admitted that from 2000 -2003, he took steroids. He cheated while playing the game of baseball. Well, A-Rod...get in line.

I find it extremely ridiculous that such a fuss is being made about this story. The government is getting involved!!! Miguel Tejada could get a year in jail for perjury before Congress. Perjury is a terrible thing and very much a crime. But (I'm gonna shout here) WHAT THE HELL WAS HE DOING TESTIFYING BEFORE CONGRESS IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!! Don't our lawmakers have better things to do like, oh I don't know, fixing the economy!!!!

If A-Rod, Miguel Tejada and even Barry Bonds are guilty of taking steroids, they are therefore guilty of cheating and because of this may never make it to the Hall of Fame (hall of fame induction is determined by a vote by the sportswriters of America). Well, if that is the case, then kick out Gaylord Perry too. You don't know who Gaylord Perry is? Well, allow me to enlighten you.

Gaylord Perry was a fat, bald headed man that pitched in the 60's, 70's & even a little in the 80's. He had his best years with San Francisco and Cleveland and won 314 games in his career. He, obviously, is in the hall of fame. He even wrote a book "Me and the Spitter" in which he depicted all of the different ways in which he cheated. By the way, throwing a spitball (a baseball with a little extra lubricant on it, i.e. spit, vasoline, etc) and throwing a scuffed ball (a baseball which has been scuffed or cut along its smooth surface to affect the way it breaks or curves) is against the rules. In other words, it is cheating...just like taking steroids is cheating. Believe me, if steroids had existed in the 60's, 70's & 80's, guys like Gaylord Perry would have gobbled them up like a bag o' Skittles.

So the next question becomes: Are there varying degrees of cheating? Is one form of cheating worse than others? I think not. Cheating is cheating, no matter how you slice it. Giving oneself an unfair advantage is always cheating...and it is always wrong.

It seems to me that the major villain here is technology and science. Alex Rodriguez did not invent steroids just as Gaylord Perry did not discover the spitball. Steroids are where we are at today. And I would venture to say that if were going to be this extreme about the topic, then wouldn't contact lenses or eye glasses be a "performance enhancing" material? I mean steroids make you stronger, right? Don't contact lenses make you see better?

Bottom line for me is two-fold: First, I can take steroids from now until the year 2012 and I still wouldn't be able to hit a 95 mph fastball. That crap is hard!!!! And there is no proof that steroids makes you a better hitter, just a stronger hitter. You still gotta hit the ball!!! And it has been scientifically proven and documented by Dr. Michio Kaku, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, (hey, I don't screw around) that it is impossible for the naked eye to actually see a baseball traveling at 100 mph. It cannot be done. The eye sees the ball leave the pitchers hand and the brain interprets how and where the ball will travel. So, I reiterate, no amount of steroids is gonna help you be able to do that. You either got it (the ability to hit a baseball traveling at extremely fast speeds) or you don't.

Secondly, taking steroids is cheating and players who take steroids must be disciplined for their actions. But no more so than those who throw a spitter...or cork a bat...or put the pine tar too high on their bat. All of these things are against the rules and all should be punished...equally.

So again I say "Leave A-Rod alone"! And get the government out of the game. And Commissioner Bud Selig? Grow a set of , um, balls and quit playing "baseball - the political game" and start playing "baseball - America's game".

What the heck have you done lately?

Rick out.