We have a new culprit to add to the ranks of the steroid-guilty. Yeah, it's that guy that won the NL MVP this year.
Here we go again.
Baseball seriously just can't catch a break. I don't even blame the commissioner anymore - ample rules and testing are in place to make sure those who use get caught. Unfortunately, those who use, at least as far as we casual fans know, are always the iconic players, the superstars, the athletes who we're supposed to be looking up to. Of course, as time has told over the past several years, we're looking up at phonies. And now Brewer fans get to share in that misery.
It's a real shame that it had to be Braun. He was so good already. He didn't need the juice, just like A-Rod didn't. Just like McGwire and Sosa didn't. And yet, he used anyway, presumably driven by greed and a thirst for further prominence. Are those qualities to look up to?
The reality is, baseball doesn't have any model athletes anymore. Our favorite players are probably the ones who would be first to be implicated in steroid usage if further users were discovered. For Braun, it doesn't even matter that he's appealing. It doesn't even matter if he's guilty or innocent. He has been forever linked to steroids, and personally, I won't forgive him for it. A lot of baseball fans feel the same way. It's a deep-rooted betrayal that takes place when a professional athlete cheats, because now the fan has had the wool pulled over his eyes. He's followed the moves, sprung for the jerseys, and screamed the loudest for the fake, the fake that everyone wants to believe is real with all their baseball hearts, but that none can anymore. Baseball has been tainted an eerie black, courtesy of not only performance-enhancing drugs, but of hypocrisy, inner corruption, and poor judgment.
And so we bury Ryan Braun with the rest of the suspended, as all the while baseball's authenticity continues to take brutal body shots. The sport knows exactly what's hitting them - yet attempts to stop it are still in vain. Is there a knockout on the horizon? Time has told, and will tell again.
December 12, 2011
December 8, 2011
Pujols' Christmas List: A Halo and $254 Million
Albert Pujols to the...Angels?
Wait, that can't be right, let's try it again.
Albert Pujols to the...Angels?
Hold on, hold on, third time's the charm.
Albert Pujols to the...Angels.
Seriously?
And so it is, during this angelic time of year, that Albert Pujols adorns a halo over his head. Not like he's a saint or anything, mind you. Greedy superstars who chase the green stuff and neglect loyalty entirely should end up on Santa's naughty list. Except this year Arte Moreno donned the red hat and the white beard.
Pujols now has 254 million reasons to be joyful this Christmas season, while bewilderment continues to set in everywhere else. How does an owner who never bites on big free agent contracts in the winter all of a sudden pull a rabbit out of his hat and give it #5? You can't explain it without using words like bizarre, random, strange, puzzling. This kind of spending has never been the Angels' MO...maybe they were in an especially generous mood this holiday season. Come on. No player is worth $254 million, are you kidding me? And that's not even the biggest contract Pujols saw! The crazy Marlins were offering him $275 million! A team changes their name and in a flash they're throwing New York Yankee-sized contracts out on the table. Baffling.
No one can argue Pujols' accomplishments to this point in his career, but this deal is ludicrous. Not to mention he's leaving the best baseball city with the best fans in the country for more cash. The sad truth in sports these days is that, for players of Pujols' caliber, home is where the money is. Whatever happened to loyalty and traditionalism? The Cardinals were offering Pujols $198 million over nine years. But that was an old toy. Like any kid opening presents on Christmas morning, Pujols wanted the best and newest, and he got it, from perhaps the most unlikely of sources.
And so it is, that with the signing of Pujols and former Texas Rangers ace C.J. Wilson, that the Angels appear to be on the rise to prominence once again. It might be the greatest exhibition of Santa Claus going broke that anyone has ever seen.
I don't think Pujols really cares much. After all, he's wearing the halo.
Wait, that can't be right, let's try it again.
Albert Pujols to the...Angels?
Hold on, hold on, third time's the charm.
Albert Pujols to the...Angels.
Seriously?
And so it is, during this angelic time of year, that Albert Pujols adorns a halo over his head. Not like he's a saint or anything, mind you. Greedy superstars who chase the green stuff and neglect loyalty entirely should end up on Santa's naughty list. Except this year Arte Moreno donned the red hat and the white beard.
Pujols now has 254 million reasons to be joyful this Christmas season, while bewilderment continues to set in everywhere else. How does an owner who never bites on big free agent contracts in the winter all of a sudden pull a rabbit out of his hat and give it #5? You can't explain it without using words like bizarre, random, strange, puzzling. This kind of spending has never been the Angels' MO...maybe they were in an especially generous mood this holiday season. Come on. No player is worth $254 million, are you kidding me? And that's not even the biggest contract Pujols saw! The crazy Marlins were offering him $275 million! A team changes their name and in a flash they're throwing New York Yankee-sized contracts out on the table. Baffling.
No one can argue Pujols' accomplishments to this point in his career, but this deal is ludicrous. Not to mention he's leaving the best baseball city with the best fans in the country for more cash. The sad truth in sports these days is that, for players of Pujols' caliber, home is where the money is. Whatever happened to loyalty and traditionalism? The Cardinals were offering Pujols $198 million over nine years. But that was an old toy. Like any kid opening presents on Christmas morning, Pujols wanted the best and newest, and he got it, from perhaps the most unlikely of sources.
And so it is, that with the signing of Pujols and former Texas Rangers ace C.J. Wilson, that the Angels appear to be on the rise to prominence once again. It might be the greatest exhibition of Santa Claus going broke that anyone has ever seen.
I don't think Pujols really cares much. After all, he's wearing the halo.
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