The JB Random Report 8/5/10

OK…I really thought of taking a vacation this week, and then I saw this shit…The New York Daily News, which is nothing more than a glorified tabloid at a 5th grade reading level, a paper whose only real value is in its daily Sudoku puzzle decides to congratulate Alex Rodriguez on his 600th homerun with this headline…Now, I would love to see the asshole who came up with this little nugget of half-wit hit one homerun, much less 600.
Once again I am forced to remind the over zealously critical New York media that this guy took a pay cut and changed positions just to play on this team. Sure this is and always will be Derek Jeter’s team, but Alex Rodriguez is a major part of it, and the new Yankee Stadium would not have been christened with a World Series Championship if not for his contribution. Sure he clearly “misoverestimated” the free agent market in 2007, and he didn’t help his image in New York by testing those free agent waters, but after the way he was treated could you blame him for at least wanting to know what his fair market value was? I wonder what the fair market value of his haters would be?

And ESPN, a word of advice…How is your credibility after that whole LeBron James 1 hour TV special? Exactly! So do us all a favor and go away for a while; go harass Lance Armstrong, he seems to be in a bit of trouble with PEDs lately, and there is no proof there, so go plant some. And I might also remind you that Rodriguez took exactly 3 years to go from 500 to 600, and he was in his 30’s, long after baseball begrudgingly added a testing program. So his pace is actually better than before and during he said he was using PEDs. And his usage was only for a period of 2 years; too short to even matter in a 16 year career.
Seriously isn’t it time to give this guy a break already? At least at home? As far as steroids go, I have said this before and I will say it again…If the self important sports writers who never played the game insist on not voting in certain players who are linked to steroids, then they are going to have one empty Hall of Fame in a few years. They are finally going to have to get over themselves and acknowledge that this was not one or two players using, it was just as rampant as amphetamines a.k.a. “greenies” were in the 1970’s and cocaine was in the late 70’s and early 1980’s.
In the so-called “steroid era,” it was guys hitting homeruns at a time where pitchers were also using, so I consider the playing field level. If A-Rod or anyone else has to discount every homerun they hit while on steroids, then every pitcher who ever struck him out on steroids has to give that back too; good luck trying to re-adjust those numbers. Steroid usage, no matter how limited or rampant, really was a mess for baseball. But Alex Rodriguez is not that era’s poster boy, nor should he be, so give it a rest already. And should he one day get tired of being treated like Richard Nixon and request a trade, I wonder how let down and betrayed the assholes at the Daily News will feel.