(Photo Credit: Noah K. Murray, USA TODAY Sports)
Alex Rodriguez‘s handwritten apology letter released to the media yesterday was a joke. It was authentic A-Rod: cold, unforgiving, and insincere. In a letter that should be the most humble apology we’ve ever heard, he didn’t explain himself. He didn’t even say what he did. He called his steroid use “the mistakes that led to my suspension.” However, it doesn’t matter at this point what A-Rod says (or writes). He realizes he doesn’t need to beg for forgiveness. He’s already won.
Sure, A-Rod’s reputation took a big hit years back when he admitted to using PEDs with the Texas Rangers between 2001 and 2003. But he was already hated. He had already alienated baseball fans everywhere with his stuck-up attitude. If you weren’t a Yankee fan, odds are you didn’t like him anyway.
Since then, Rodriguez has had nothing to lose. He’s played fast and loose with the media in the years since. He hasn’t cared what anyone thinks, nor has he needed to.
Yesterday, we saw two men in very similar yet vastly different situations. A-Rod apologized in what on the surface appeared to be a desperate move while Anthony Bosch, the former Florida clinic owner who sold steroids to A-Rod and others, cried in court before receiving a four-year prison sentence. While what Bosch did was far more despicable (selling steroids to minors), his punishment fits his crimes. A-Rod’s crimes against baseball will go practically unpunished.
No matter what happens with Alex Rodriguez this year, he wins. If he goes into spring training in terrible shape and can’t even beat out the likes of Chris Young and Chase Headley for playing time over the next two years, he still goes home $61 million richer, and that’s the worst case.
Even in a piece for ESPN New York scolding A-Rod and calling him “a serial liar and cheat who thought he needed underground pharmacology to become one of the all-time greats,” Ian O’Connor opened the door for redemption. “Alex Rodriguez has only one genuine way of connecting with fans who want to win a whole lot more than they want to read his handwritten B.S,” wrote O’Connor, “See the ball. Hit the ball. Hit the ball over the wall.”
Say Rodriguez returns with a 30 home run season and leads the Yankees to a surprise playoff run. In a country that craves redemption stories, he will suddenly be a hero, or at least, his reputation will be partially repaired. And that’s the problem.
A-Rod lied to the media, fans, his teammates, and his bosses time after time. He made us sympathize with him over the “pressures” he faced in Texas and made some understand why he did what he did. He even convinced most that he had turned over a new leaf. He has stepped on people and used the media to push people around. He doesn’t deserve a shot at redemption. Heck, he doesn’t even deserve his money. Players will look at A-Rod as someone who, while his reputation is damaged, got away with it all. He won’t get a plaque in Cooperstown or have his number retired by the Yankees, but he comes out of it all with fame, fortune, and yes, a shot at forgiveness. If he got through, so can others. How many times are we going to give clearly bad people who don’t show any true remorse second, third, and fourth chances? Until there is some sort of genuine, collaborative effort by both the players, owners, and teams to stop this from happening, can we really bet on players not repeating these mistakes? Can we really declare the so-called “Steroid Era” over?
