Thread: A-Rod tested positive

Not Jeter.
You can all bow to Jeter now.

A-Rod, Nomar......they all took it in the ass except for Mr. Intangible.

Klapisch: Derek, don't fail us now
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Last updated: Monday February 9, 2009, 11:52 AM

By BOB KLAPISCH
RECORD COLUMNIST


Baseball is at the outer limits now, a dark universe where everyone cheats and lies. Let us join hands and admit we’re down to the last player we can trust — Derek Jeter.

Pity this sport if the Yankee captain falls into the abyss, too. With Alex Rodriguez now exposed as a steroid fraud, baseball turns to Jeter as the last outpost of honesty. Someone has to be beyond suspicion; someone has to care enough to say “no” to the syringe.

It’s Jeter, it has to be. Indeed, most Yankee fans will take his shrinking power numbers over the artificial A-Rod’s. Now we know how a man could hit 50 home runs and play Gold Glove middle-infield defense at the same time.

But give A-Rod this much credit: His fall from grace has legitimized Jeter’s decline. We can take comfort in the fact that the captain is aging before our eyes; it assures us that he’s clean.

Jeter’s home runs are down, his slugging percentage is shriveling, he’s hardly steals bases anymore. And that’s how it should be for a soon-to-be 35-year-old. Though it may create a public-relations nightmare for the Yankees in 2010 when Jeter’s contract expires, his lowered profile has turned him into the anti-Alex Rodriguez.

Which is why he cannot fall, not now, not even retroactively. If Jeter’s name is among the 103 players who failed drug tests in 2003, we might as well turn off the remote this summer and start watching the Newark Bears or Jersey Jackals. Or maybe it’s time to surrender to the WWE.

We are, after all, reeling from the news that A-Rod, the onetime poster boy for clean living, is a liar, after all. And he’s not the only one being shamed: According to Sports Illustrated, the players’ union was part of the scam, tipping off A-Rod to an imminent drug test in 2004.

Of course, some baseball insiders said A-Rod’s incredible growth and surge in muscularity over the years should’ve been a tipoff.
Perhaps. But no one ever waged a whispering campaign against Jeter, who, with a laugh once said, “Just look at me” when the conversation at his locker turned to steroids.

He’s just a notch above skin and bones, not much in the way of muscle. Nor has Jeter ever experienced an unnatural spike in his numbers; he peaked in 1999 at the age of 25 and hasn’t been quite the same since.
The arc of Jeter’s career, in fact, is even more believable than Mariano Rivera’s, who’s maintained his inhuman cut-fastball even as he begins this season at age 39.

There’s no doubt Rivera is the greatest closer in the sport’s history. His durability is due, in large part to his natural athleticism, conditioning and work ethic. But this is what one major-league talent evaluator had to say about Rivera after it was learned that A-Rod, another hard worker, had been exposed as a fraud.

“If you want to start taking a hard look at everyone, and I mean everyone, then look at the year Rivera was in the minors and all of a sudden goes from 91 mph to 95-96 mph [on the radar gun], in just one start,” he said. “If I’m going to be suspicious of everyone, that’s one thing that would jump right out at me.”

The idea that Rivera could’ve been enhanced is more than the Yankees care to contemplate. It’s too dark, too sinister — just as indigestible as Jeter using a syringe.
It takes a certain mind-set to cheat like that. It requires a torrent of vanity and arrogance, not to mention a risk-taking gene that borders on stupidity.
Jeter has never craved attention the way A-Rod has. Rivera has displayed the same modesty. But arm-chair psychiatrists beware: Everyone believed that Andy Pettitte was as innocent as a dove, too.
Just goes to show, the lure of steroids is so powerful, no one is immune to its temptations. There are those — Barry Bonds sycophants, mostly — who insist that juicing doesn’t actually enhance a ballplayer’s skills; you can either hit home runs or you can’t. But if that were true, why have so many players injected themselves?

The answer comes from a former major-leaguer, who told me recently why he used steroids at the midpoint of his career and how they helped him.

“The biggest thing was my vision. I saw the ball so much better and I was able to wait longer before I swung,” he said. “The ball looked like a softball. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to hit.”

Turns out, a vast number of players found similar reasons to fall in love with the juice, perhaps as many as 70 percent during the steroid heyday. That’s why it’s important to hunt down the honest ones and, yes, put them on a pedestal.
It takes guts to say no to synthetic achievements. It takes strength to age naturally. A-Rod was too insecure to trust his genetic coding, and now he’s paying the price. His debt to baseball cannot be repaid any time soon.
Perhaps Rodriguez doesn’t know (or care) about the devastating effect of his fall. All of baseball suffers with the knowledge that his home runs and speed were concocted in a laboratory.

Woozy with bad news, baseball only has one place left to turn. Fingers crossed, prayers said fast and furious, the sport embraces its last remaining icon. Jeter better not fail, too.

Where have you gone, Derek Jeter?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
(Woo woo woo)
What’s that you say, Mrs. Soxmuscle
‘MR. Intangible' is here to stay?
(Hey hey hey – hey hey hey)

In 1999, Jeter had a slugging percentage 70 points higher than his next best season and an OPS 89 points higher than his next best season in that category.

That doesn't happen often.

I wouldn't be so sure, Min0.

P.S: stop sucking his cock

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

In 1999, Jeter had a slugging percentage 70 points higher than his next best season and an OPS 89 points higher than his next best season in that category.

That doesn't happen often.

I wouldn't be so sure, Min0.

P.S: stop sucking his cock

Nope, he is pure as the driven slush...I mean snow.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Nope, he is pure as the driven slush...I mean snow.

For the record, I don't care about steroids. If Jeter were to have tested positive for steroids, I really wouldn't care.

Steroids bothers me in sports.
Especially in baseball where stats are sacred.

I was looking forward to seeing A-Roid break records at the new stadium.....

I would bet Rivera at some point in his career took steroids.

There's probably a couple Red Sox as well.

Nomar most likely. Trot Nixon perhaps...

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

There's probably a couple Red Sox as well.

Nonsense. The Red Sox are the only organization that is completely clean.


Well, the Sox and the Royals, but that's because the Royals can't afford them.

How will A-Roid' steroid use impact the 2009 Yankees?

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

How will A-Roid' steroid use impact the 2009 Yankees?

It's more how would it affect his delicate mind, if he has an off year kiss the Yankee season bye, bye.

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

How will A-Roid' steroid use impact the 2009 Yankees?

I doubt it will impact the other players, since many of them have already been exposed to the Arod circus (see stripper, Madonna, divorce, not to mention his on-field exploits such as the one he pulled while running the bases).

It shouldn't even really bother him when you think about it, he's should get used to the drama by now.

thought you guys might get a kick out of this
it really gets good from 1minute in until 3minutes in

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Steroids bothers me in sports.
Especially in baseball where stats are sacred.

I was looking forward to seeing A-Roid break records at the new stadium.....

Nonsense. How many cheaters are in the hall of fame and cherished? Shit gaylord perry during his playing career did vaseline commercials...

Mike Schmidt has admitted to using uppers(performance enhancer) while playing and I bet you a good majority of HOF's have as well.

It is just the evolution of the game. You can't ignore a whole era of baseball cause of steroids.
As a fan of the game. I like it cause it is putting the best game on the field

athletes will always use steroids, and they will beat drug tests as long as we have chemists capable of creating new compounds that cannot be detected.

When a Brady Anderson becomes an elite player overnight......nah.
I pass.

Originally Posted by IainDaniel

They all were.... and I don't care. Even Ken Griffey Jr.

that one doesn't fly for me. This is a player who was supposed to break all records and fizzled because of injuries. While i don't believe steroids does anything for your ability to hit a curve ball 385 feet, i do think that it can help recover from injuries faster and continue to play longer. If anyone had a reason to use it could be argued griffey was in that boat. yet nothing has even remotely surfaced about griffey. Jr. is clean.

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

In 1999, Jeter had a slugging percentage 70 points higher than his next best season and an OPS 89 points higher than his next best season in that category.

That doesn't happen often.

I wouldn't be so sure, Min0.

P.S: stop sucking his cock

I don't say this often, but you bring up a good point

Originally Posted by bio-chem

that one doesn't fly for me. This is a player who was supposed to break all records and fizzled because of injuries. While i don't believe steroids does anything for your ability to hit a curve ball 385 feet, i do think that it can help recover from injuries faster and continue to play longer. If anyone had a reason to use it could be argued griffey was in that boat. yet nothing has even remotely surfaced about griffey. Jr. is clean.

What about the conversation about steroids with bonds?

Let alone the type of injury he had. Tearing your hamstring off the bone? Don't think it has anything to do with tendon growth not keeping up with the muscle gains? Which is a common problem

Originally Posted by bio-chem

that one doesn't fly for me. This is a player who was supposed to break all records and fizzled because of injuries. While i don't believe steroids does anything for your ability to hit a curve ball 385 feet, i do think that it can help recover from injuries faster and continue to play longer. If anyone had a reason to use it could be argued griffey was in that boat. yet nothing has even remotely surfaced about griffey. Jr. is clean.

Me either! For the reasons you stated. But, you see what the use of steroids has done to the game of baseball? Everyone is now considered guilty, or is considered to have used them at some point!

Originally Posted by bio-chem

I don't say this often, but you bring up a good point

Not really, look at

Carl Yastrzemski he hits no more than 20 homeruns from 61' to 66', then out of no where hits 44, 23, 40, and 40. Then never hits more than 28 for the rest of his career.

This can go in circles....

Not that this means anything but have any of you ever seen Jeter shirtless?
He's not built at all.

Originally Posted by IainDaniel

Let alone the type of injury he had. Tearing your hamstring off the bone? Don't think it has anything to do with tendon growth not keeping up with the muscle gains? Which is a common problem

This....

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Not that this means anything but have any of you ever seen Jeter shirtless?
He's not built at all.

Stalking again, I see Min0?

Jeter.

When was the mound height change 66'?

The certainly provide a favourable era for batters to increase there stats.