One thing that ESPN does well is take good athletes and promote them until they become huge superstars. Granted, if an athlete plays baseball in Seattle or basketball in Charlotte, then he or she is not going to get the same amount of press as his or her rivals in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. Most athletes are able to run with it and make millions upon millions. That is why it is so sad to see that these athletes are just frauds-they are people who have built their careers on lies. 

There has never been an athlete that I have despised more than Alex Rodriguez. I am exaggerating for effect, but there really are no redeemable qualities about this guy. He is not a man with any love for the game or respect for his teammates or opponents, but instead is an intensely wired athlete who, like a machine, breaks down at just the moment that you need him. He is like a computer with hitting skills: cold, distant, mechanical.

Coming up as a prospect through the minor league levels, and then finally in the major league, Rodriguez has proceeded to break almost every record in front of him. And with a few more years of his prime remaining, America finds out that he is no different than any other self-obsessed celebrity. 

Steroids! The big scandal of this century, and all the more disappointing considering the careers it has improved: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens. Four of the most outstanding ballplayers of the last 25 years who have nothing to show for it other than increased health problems and a bunch of bitter sportswriters who will make sure these athletes never live to see their names in Cooperstown.

The sad thing is that the American public does not even seem that sorry that steroids were the cause of baseball’s popularity over the past decade, or that it is probably pretty likely that pretty boy Lance Armstrong’s several Tour de France’s were just the result of timely juicing and luck on the drug tests. 

This is America though. We have apple pie, freedom, the 4th of July, democracy and baseball. And baseball takes the cake as the premier U.S. sporting event. In order to be a “Gaddang Good American,” one must go to the ballpark and eat hot dogs, cut out box scores, collect baseball cards, and cry and scream with excitement when his or her team comes out on top. And with this love for the game, there also comes a love for drugs, for cheating and for betting on games. 

In America, baseball is synonymous with everything that is wrong with our country. And there, sitting in the middle of it all, is Mr. Rodriguez, smiling like a fat king with too much money and no way to spend it.

You can hire as many public relations people as you want, Mr. Rodriguez, but when the heads start to roll you will not be able to hide for much longer. We will all find you, and when that day comes, you can spend all the money you want and it will not clean your name from the mud. 

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