The story of Alex Rodriguez……..presumably, one of the greatest baseball players of all time. An American hero, with this giant image that would blot out the sun if it were allowed to become the urban legend and myth that it was supposed to be. No, anyone with a single name designation automatically becomes a societal issue. Madonna for example. How about Diana? How about Elvis? How about Marilyn? How about Beyonce? How about Oprah? How about Tiger? Who else? How about Magic? How about Lebron or Kobe! Then you have baseball players: “The Babe”, “Joiltan Joe”, “The Mick”, “A-Rod” and…..well there are more of course and each fan has their own set of special line up. To get political……you have to mention Obama! One name and a hell of an impact.
“A-Rod” however seems to blot out people like Barry Bonds or even Lance Armstrong when it comes to steroid use or what they call today: Performance Enhancing Drugs…..or PED’s. The Commissioner of Baseball, 60 Minutes and half the Hall of Fame Baseball Players all want to keep “A-Rod” out of their little museum of sport greats. “A-Rod” recently got a 162 game penalty for taking some of those drugs. Ironically, 162 games equals the average yearly number of games that each baseball player will play in 2014. So, “A-Rod” gets a year off….how bad can it be? Well, if you listen to the likes of soon to be Hall of Famer….Curt Schilling or other commentators….it sounds pretty darn bad. “Cheaters never prosper!” comes to mind. Like a bunch of school kids who are upset because someone else got chosen first in the latest pick-up game.
How about this: Test each and every Professional Baseball Player each year – at the start of the season. Test them again after game 81 and then test them all again at game 162…before the play-offs and World Series. This way every player, owner and fan would know…..that Major League Baseball had actually tried to do the right thing. Instead, they pick on “A-Rod”, as if he is the only Anti-Christ in Major League Baseball. Spare us the nonsense sports fans! Each owner of every franchise should be responsible for testing all their players and making sure that the game has integrity. Obviously, most owners think the whole system is one big joke. Straighten up and fly right MLB…….at least pretend you actually care, instead of using “A-Rod” or anyone else as your poster boy for cleaning up the sport.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers are tanking faster that Houdini at a Rotary Club event. Their Coach is a total joke, their General Manager now facing the most blistering questioning that all points to stupidity at the highest levels. Mitch Kupchek needs to leave the building along with Mike D’Antoni and the abject owner Jim Buss. We need a clean slate folks. The great Jerry Buss has passed away. The great Chick Hearn has passed away. The great Jeannie Buss and Phil Jackson have been relegated to back benchers. The great Jerry West and Magic Johnson have been relegated to ultra back benchers. This cannot go on and is what they call in politics – “Unsustainable”!
Moving over to the operations on Figueroa……the great USC Trojans are facing “Sarkesian Time”. Better yet: “Pat Haden Hell”. Supposedly, Haden is supposed to step down and let J.K. McKay take over as the next AD at USC. He said he would retire after four years. Well, Haden….those four years are up. Beat feet and split….no one is going to miss you. After what you did to Coach O – Orgeron…….your shame should be beyond reason. Time for a new Sheriff in town. Meanwhile, near do well – Sarkesian is guaranteed to make USC Football mediocre for the next five years. We can all look back in pain and recognize that for the five Sarkesian years…..USC Football became a footnote to a bad UCLA Football program. USC will lose to UCLA, Notre Dame, Stanford, Arizona State, Arizona and probably Boise State. Six losses a year should guarantee that USC Football will enter its Bronze Age….as opposed to a Golden Age. It was a deal made by Pat Haden with the NCAA………A deal with the devil………..and USC fans, players and sports writers will have to pay the price.
In any regard, the NCAA needs Federal oversight. The new system of Final Four Football……which starts next year is still being run by the same guy that ran the BCS program. Who are we kidding folks? This is a dirty system. Even, poor Coach Nick Saban has had to buy in. He had to take Lane Kiffin as his Offensive Coach. How was this stupidity possible? Not by chance sadly. This is the same game planned National Championship that has been planned and executed for the last 40 years. These are the same people that have promulgated International Gambling and Institutional Funding of Universities and Colleges around the nation. Will anyone finally take a realistic look and deal with the corruption? The outlook doesn’t look promising. The money is immense and the power and corruption beyond control. We need a true National Investigation to the various aspects and dirt in this system. Will it happen? God only knows!
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