A Cruel Bargain for A-Rod and Boys With Baseball Dreams
While this is old, I think it's a great read about Alex Rodriguez. And no I'm not posting this because I grew up rooting for the Yankees; rather, I think this article (and the steroid issues) addresses one of the major themes we'll cover this semester: the fallen hero. This is where the ideas of the grit and glory have to held equally as we learn about baseball. But how do they work with/against each other.
What are your thoughts on the idea of A-Rod as a fallen hero? Was his trajectory unavoidable? Is the pressure to be better, faster, stronger partly to blame for his fall? How does he present the grit and the glory? (so many questions ... don't go crazy)
I don't think that he should claim the title as a fallen hero, because his record is outstanding. He started from a young age with very little as Alex and worked extremely hard to make a living out of his talent. As he began his career in the major leagues as A-Rod, I think that is where things start to get out of hand. In this day and age, baseball, for some players at least, has been about getting the most money and the best batting average, home runs, etc. And this causes player to feel as though their only way of succeeding is to turn to performance enhancing drugs. A-Rod got caught up in this mentality and felt like it was only possible to reach his goals if he got a boost from outside sources. In this day and age, it is getting increasingly harder for players to resist the temptation that is performance enhancing drugs. Especially when the undercover cops are enticing players and encouraging them to buy drugs. Overall I think that this was just one part of A-Rod's life and is part of his career but all of it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know enough about A-Rod as a hero or how people thought of him in his prime (pre-scandal) to consider him a fallen hero. He seems like an athlete who made morally controversial decisions, influenced by the ludicrous salary promised to high-performing athletes and desire to somehow connect with his father by becoming a professional in the same field. I think that given the circumstances, his trajectory would have been avoidable if he had different values, but seeing as most of those are ingrained in us by the time we graduate high school or earlier, he didn't stand much of a chance. The pressure to be competitive at an inhuman level of performance absolutely influenced him, but I don't think the pressure is what should be blamed; it's the people on top who create the environment that fosters that pressure who should be blamed. This reminds me of the college application process because everyone sees the unbelievably high GPAs and test scores that are on the acceptance rate/student body infographics that colleges release, which puts a lot of pressure on students to get outstanding grades and scores on everything, which has fueled the illegal and improper use of adderall. This drug, which was created for people who have ADHD, can drastically enhance cognitive ability and even athletic performance. I don't know what kind of regulations schools set around using medications like this illegally, but given the severity of usage across college campuses I think it could be similarly destructive as MLB regulations were.
ReplyDeleteA-Rod’s accumulative statistics and outstanding performance on the field speak for themselves, ranking him as a top MLB player. A-Rod could have left a powerful and exemplary legacy in New York but it all turned into a disaster over night because of an ill-advised decision. Players in the MLB seem to get better by the year and with the desire for a larger paycheck steroids suddenly become a profitable gamble. As Brad Ziegler stated on twitter, “It pays to cheat. Thanks, owners, for encouraging PED use. Apparently getting suspended for PED’s means you get a raise.” There is an overwhelming pressure to perform at an almost unattainable level of play causing most professional players to fall victim to steroids or other PED’s. While what A-Rod did was irrefutably wrong, it is not hard to see why someone like him would make a decision like this. The judgment he made might have been avoidable but that does not mean it wasn’t likely. I see A-Rod as a fallen hero and a representation for many MLB stars that came before that carried the same sentence. It is painful to see such brilliant players be dragged down by high expectations and misguided choices, but in the end, glory comes at a price.
ReplyDeleteGiven the expectations of all professional athletes in America, yes, I think it was pretty much unavoidable for a player like Arod to start doping. We are all human, and almost all of us will do anything for the right amount of money. Arod was already a home run machine, but the more home runs, the more fame, the bigger the bonus and the more the overall cash flow. Arod had so many influences to be better than humanly possible, and the only way to be better than humanly possible is through doping. Countless athletes have shown us this and many more do it behind the scenes but just don't get caught. I don't think Arod deserved this but doping and the endless flow of hate and disapproval that resulted from it lead to his downfall.
ReplyDeleteA-Rod's "character arc" of sorts here is definitely a tragic one, but whether this is due to the pressure of the competitive scene or his own impatience, ambition, or shortsightedness is debatable. I'm personally still conflicted as to whether to condemn him for his regrettable (and definitely not okay) decision or to feel sympathy for his having been borked in this manner. Ultimately, I think his story serves more as a sad example of another casualty of the scummy happenings behind the "grit and glory" usually happening in baseball. More of a cautionary tale than a full-blown fallen hero legend.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who had a weird love for the Yankees, specifically A-Rod and DJ, as a child, I immediately want to believe that A-Rod was a victim of the competitive atmosphere of baseball. But despite my childhood love of A-Rod, I still believe that his use of drugs was unethical. While he was driven by the pressure to succeed, ultimately he made a mistake that broke the rules. A-Rod's story is a sad one; to see his success in the early years fall due to one mistake is tragic and should serve as a reminder to other players that preserving one's legacy and playing clean baseball is far more important than making insane amounts of money. A-Rod's story should stand as a warning for players who get too caught up in success and competition and A-Rod's mistakes should encourage other players to stay true to the game.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think A-Rod’s trajectory was unavoidable, as there are certainly many MLB players who haven’t used PEDs, who were in the same environment with the same pressures as A-Rod. He did consciously make the dishonorable decision to use drugs that he knew were unethical and banned from the MLB. However, I don’t think he’s completely to blame for his choice. He was playing in an environment where the teams would clearly pay more for the better players, and often didn’t care if their players were clean or not, which directly creates pressure for players like A-Rod to use PEDs. I have of course never been in that situation, but when the temptations of fame and glory for the best players are combined with the higher salaries and the lack of proper repercussions, the pressure must be enormous. I don’t think it in any way excuses A-Rod’s actions, and I think his downfall should be a lesson for up-and-coming players, but it’s not hard for me to see why he made the choice.
ReplyDeleteI think A-Rod's trajectory, if he wanted to be as successful as he was, was mostly unavoidable. The unfortunate truth of baseball is that stardom is not possible for all. Rodriguez began his career in the era of steroids; stars like Barry Bonds revitalized interest in the sport because of their superhuman capabilities. To even stay on a competitive level, many individuals had to resort to PEDs. His usage of PEDs in his early years was probably due to the pressure of the era: he was far behind most other players if he did not cheat. Near the end of his career, he once again likely turned to PEDs. Again, the pressure to perform likely forced his hand. As an aging star, Rodriguez likely had to deal with the expectations of his fans and teammates to perform at the same level as during his prime even though his body could no longer do that. Though of course the decision to cheat is ultimately his, it is very understandable to see how taking PEDs and fulfilling everyone's expectations of him could be seen as preferable to playing at the natural ability of his changing body. It is in some ways even disrespectful to fans and his own legacy to play awfully, even his body demands that.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that A-Rod's track was unavoidable. He was a youngster growing up in a league where steroids were being used by the best players, like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. However, just because certain players were using steroids does not make the path unavoidable. The real reason why A-Rod went down the wrong path using steroids was because he was rewarded by doing so. He already made a ridiculous amount of money before he took steroids and the more home runs he hit, the more he got paid. By taking steroids, he could hit even more home runs, and get paid more money, regardless of whether or not he was cheating. Another big issue, and the reason that A-Rod has been caught doping multiple times, is that he was getting paid even more money after he was being caught doping. The MLB was basically encouraging it. It happened to Melky Cabrera on the Giants, paid more after he was caught using PED's and it happened with A-Rod. All of these factors lead to a heartbreaking demise of a really good baseball player, that will go down in history as a cheater, even though many of the decisions he had were choiceless choices.
ReplyDeleteI think that PED use presents an enormous problem to the sport of baseball, one that affects all players, and one that the league needs to take a stand against. Baseball is one of the only sports where drugs make such a big impact on performance. In basketball and football the game typically requires too much cardio to be using steroids, and especially in football the extra weight gained through natural weight training regimens is typically useful. However for baseball, roided out players are the ideal. Just a simple cycle of test and HGH can drastically increase a players strength, allowing them to turn outs into singles, singles, into doubles, doubles into homers. In baseball using drugs can be the difference between playing a few years in the minors and being a solid major league hitter, it can make millions of dollars of a difference, and when so many players are using with hardly any consequences, how can't you? A-Rod's path was unavoidable; he was just trying to do what it took to make it to the top. Just like the banks in 2008, one cannot put all the fault on the actors for taking advantage of a system at their disposal, especially with so much competition. The hardest part about all of this, is a solution is difficult. The MLB could suspend players without pay, but when so much of the league is using PEDs, it is a little unfair to penalize such a small portion of players for wrongdoing that so many more commit. But even worse than the fact that the MLB rewards PED use, it doesn't pay homage to those that suffered from the system but still made the league great like Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, both of which are some of the best hitters of all time, both of which helped save the MLB, both of which fell into unhealthy PED use because of the league's policies, and both of which have not been included in the Hall of Fame. I hope that the MLB is able to remedy some of these problems, but I doubt it is ever able to eliminate PED use completely.
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ReplyDeleteA-Rod’s rise to fame was accompanied by an unimaginable pressure to live up to everyone’s expectations of him, which led him to use steroids. He was obviously an outstanding athlete before his use of PEDs. He lived and breathed baseball his entire life. Despite this, his use of steroids was disrespectful to not only himself and his skills, but also his team, the fans, and the entire franchise. There is obviously an inconceivable amount of pressure in Major League Baseball, but why should that excuse his actions when thousands of other players deal with that same pressure and don’t use steroids?
ReplyDeleteThe worst part about A-Rod’s scandal was that he didn’t initially own up to his actions, which symbolized his betrayal to his team, the fans and the game of baseball. He put himself before the wellbeing of the sport and no one defended him.
When you are a top player, like A-Rod, turning to performance enhancing drugs becomes more of a temptation than if your career is not constantly in the public spotlight. When you're at the top, you have to push the limits to be better than you already are because if you slip up even just a little, you risk letting teammates, managers, and fans down. An easy escape to this added pressure is to turn to doping, especially when "getting suspended for PED’s means you get a raise." When top players from other teams are secretly doping, the only way to compete with them is to cheat too, and when more money is introduced into the situation, the decision to take PED's becomes a no-brainer.
ReplyDeleteI don't know too much about baseball and it's legacy but I do know that what several players are doing, called "doping," is against the rules of baseball. I can also understand the pressure several players must feel to be better and stronger and faster but I don't think that gives the excuse to dope. In my opinion, if you are already up there in the major leagues you are lucky enough and must have worked very hard to be there. If that was me working that hard to get that far I can imagine I would have had a great respect for the game and where it came from. The last thing I would want to do is break the rules, not even taking into account the consequences. People considering A-Rod as a "fallen hero" is understandable because he had an opportunity and he let it get away which has costed him a lot more than his reputation. He had a choice to make and he let himself down as well as his fans. I don't know if I judge him or not for it because I don't completely understand what it must have felt like for him to make the decision that he did, but I do know the difference between right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteA-Rod had been dedicated to baseball since he was a child. He started from the bottom and worked his way up to being a MLB superstar. As a kid, practicing all day while his mom was at work proved that he was committed to bettering his play and skill. He had high expectations for himself, as his dream was to be a major league baseball player just like his dad. This meant that he was competing with every other little boy who had the dream of being a major league baseball player. This drive to make a successful career out of baseball would have pushed A-Rod to want to be the very best player that he could be. I can image that there comes a point in your career when you start to taper off skill wise, which may be one reason that a player turns to performance enhancers. Another variable that may have pushed A-Rod to use performance enhancers could have been teammates or rival players who were benefiting from drugs already. In order to keep up with the game that he loved and desired to be a part of, A-Rod turned to performance enhancing drugs. A-Rod wanted to be successful as a major league baseball player and become that big name superstar that he had dreamed of becoming as a little kid. Performance enhancing drugs may have been the only option that A-Rod could see that would help him reach his goals. Because of this, the pressure to be better, faster, stronger is one hundred percent to blame for A-Rods drug use.
ReplyDeleteI think by no means his trajectory of using performance enhancing drugs was unavoidable. While there is always pressure to perform for fans and to do well for your team, breaking the rules to gain an unfair advantage is always a moral decision rather than one that you are forced to make. A-Rod is at fault for his own decisions even if there was pressure to do better. He obviously worked very hard to get to where he was in his career, and if he wanted to get even better, than he should've continued to push himself rather than fall back on other alternatives. This is kind of similar to racing in that while people can't give their cars steroids, they will modify their cars in a way that is against the rules, and while minuscule and extremely discrete, it will give them a small advantage yet sometimes enough to finish first rather than second. Illegally gaining an advantage in any sport is not forced upon someone, and is rather their own choice. While I understand that there can be certain circumstances that make it more tempting to cheat, it is always the wrong thing to do.
ReplyDeleteMy knowledge of doping and steroid abuse in baseball is severely limited apart from the major scandals, but when a sport becomes so intertwined with drug scandals I think that is saying something more significant about the sport rather than a single individual. As for A-rod being a "fallen hero" I think his trajectory was avoidable, the pressure to be better, always improving is strong, but I think one's morals should have a stronger say. Yet, I think in certain cases the individual is not entirely at fault. I don't remember the exact year, but the Tour de France once had to hand the 1st place title to someone who finished in the 20s or 30s, as not a single person that finished before him had not been caught doping. Baseball is bad sure, but it never got those levels and great players continued to exist without the use of PEDs. To touch on the "fallen hero" theme again... when legends like A-Rod and Barry Bonds are caught using PEDs it "exposes" them as plain people that give into temptations and make mistakes just as the rest of us do.
ReplyDeleteI think A-Rod felt the pressure to uphold his amazing record and publicity he experienced as an up and coming player new to the Major League. And instead of generating positive publicity and pushing himself to raise his stats to even higher levels, he chose the opt-out route of Performance Enhancing Drugs with the full knowledge of their illegality in Major League baseball. He was then able to play "better" and gain more attention with that, which I'm sure worked out fine until he was caught. Being caught was obviously the worst possible thing for his career, and his league-wide record became longest ban from the MLB instead of something uplifting like most home-runs in a season. I don't think this was his fate at all, and could've been easily avoided. He does seem to be a fallen hero, as his rise to the top was so exciting, but he definitely fell when he made the choice to ultimately wreck his career by doping. I am interested to see how the attitudes around A-Rod will play out, especially if he is ever considered for the HOF.
ReplyDeleteAs a Yankee hater and not a big fan of A-Roid it is hard to stay impartial when debating his place in baseball. To be honest I have very little sympathy for him, he made hundreds of millions of dollars in his career and all that he is labeled now is “bad boy”. He is all to blame for this tag. When younger and on the Rangers and Mariners he had it all. He could hit, was amazing at short, and was loved by all fans. When he was traded to the Yankees and subsequently opted out of his 10 year 250 million dollar contract only to go sign with the Yankees again for another record deal that was the start of his demise. Moving from shortstop (where everyone seems to love you no matter what) and playing third instead, especially for the Yankees, puts a tag on your head. When reports come out that steroid use was a possibility, people really start to turn on you. Even more so when it was when he was younger, more vibrant and fun to watch. “The pressure to perform” was Rodriguez’s fault as he shouldn't have signed that ludicrous of a deal if he did not believe he would be worth it without cheating. Also he should have had confidence in himself because the three previous years with the Mariners, which are in the same division, he posted out of this world numbers and honestly was worth the money. Basically what I am trying to say here is that A-Rod is a troubled man and his demise was his own doing.
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