Jason G on A-Rod

Jason G Posts:

Upon hearing the Arod steroid story, I felt disappointment. Not so much disappointed in Arod (I don't care to judge whether the decisions he made were ethical or not) but disappointed in that it will create a haze over his career. Assuming the story is accurate, we'll never really know when he started using, how often he used and what impact, if any, it had on his play. Is he still a Hall-of-Famer? I definitely think so but now there's a cloud over his career and that's what I find disappointing. But as Yankee fan, I'm most concerned about where he goes from here. The choices Arod will have to make in the next few days will likely have a huge impact on the rest of his career and by extension on the yankees' future. Reportedly, Arod's gone off to the Bahamas and one would expect that Boras will soon be joining him to advise him on how to deal with the most important decision of his career. One option is to take the Barry Bonds route and deny everything. The problem with that is that most people won't believe him anyway. It also could result in the government going after him the way they have Bonds, relentlessly and without too much concern for any constitutional rights. Bonds had a loyal trainer willing to go to jail to keep him out of jail but should a trainer emerge in Arod's case will he be so lucky? Not to mention Arod's ex-wife may know a thing or two. He'll have to hope she's a material girl and willing to be bought off to keep her mouth shut.

The main problem I see with taking this road is that it can arguably work for someone like Bonds whose confident and combative personality allowed him to thrive amidst the steroid furor. He didn't seem to care what people thought about him. The picture painted of Arod though is of the opposite extreme: emotionally fragile and hyperaware of how he is perceived.  Boras probably knows him as well as anybody and so it will be interesting to see if he thinks Arod can handle the abuse he will inevitably face should he go down this road. The other option is the Jason Giambi/Andy Pettitte route. Cop to having taking steroids at some point, admit it was a mistake and say he stopped taking them once testing started in 2004. Pettitte after his admission was cheered by Yankee fans and Giambi eventually became a fan favorite again. The same likely would hold true of Arod. It seems important to Arod that the fans love him and so perhaps this might be the best route for him to take to put this behind him and focus on his play on the field.

The downside with this approach though is that it removes any doubt that perhaps he really never used steroids. And as far as the HOF goes, it would be naive to think that just because he made an admission, the writers would think better of him and vote him in. No matter what decision Arod makes, the yankees must support him as much as possible as it is in their best interest, having nine more years left on their contract with him, that Arod weathers this storm. It also wouldn't hurt if Jeter comes to his defense which he did with Giambi and has so far been reluctant to do with Arod in other circumstances. Spring training is just a few days away and Boras is going to have weigh the pros and cons in counseling Arod and this is where he'll truly earn his money.