Silly Alex...

I'm not very surprised that Alex Rodriguez was found to have failed a steroid test. At this point I'm more surprised if someone doesn't pop positive for something. It's just the nature of baseball from the 80's through 2004, when they finally started testing for this stuff. Now, thanks to those oh-so-trickable tests you have to put in 5 minutes of work and hide the fact you're on steroids. It's a big leap.

Now, I don't like Alex Rodriguez, even a little. There is something about him that seems very disingenuous, as if nothing comes from his mouth until he considers how it will sound on SportsCenter. From signing not one, but two contracts that pay him more than most small countries can produce, to the fact that the only thing automatic about him from July and on is how un-clutch he is, I find the media adulation over the top considering teams seem to get better once he leaves. But, this still disappoints the hell out of me. I thought that when he eventually passes Barry Bonds for the all-time home run total (and really, he's the got the best shot of anyone) we would go back to having a question-free star hold the most impressive record in American Sports history. As baseball fans (and yes, I know I'm only loosely one. I enjoy going to Sox games and will watch other teams if nothing else is on between the end of the NBA Finals and the start of pre-season football) we could finally point to a guy and say "You may not like him, but you have to respect him." Now, that's gone.

I don't care that this was 2003 and what he took then wasn't illegal for baseball. He still felt like he couldn't compete with the rest of the league and needed an edge, so he took a short cut. You have to assume that his number from before that (57 homers in 2002, especially) have to now be looked at with the same skeptical eye as Barry Bond's numbers. And the worst part of it all? Jose Canseco now looks credible, because he mentioned Rodriguez in his second book. When Canseco is the voice of reason you know something is going wrong in the world.

In the end I don't think this will matter at all. Despite the nature of it all, nothing of consequence will happen. Less people will go to ballparks this year, but that's the economy's fault, not steroids. At this point, fans are collectively over it. Nothing is going to happen and we know it. Commissioner Bud Selig would never grow the stones to toss out Bonds' or Rodriguez's numbers and revert back to Maris and Aaron like he should. The fact that we know Selig is too busy wondering what Scott Van Pelt said about him to do anything about this will ultimately trump our outrage at what has happened to the once National Pastime.