Randy Smith
Thirty-nine year old Alex Rodriguez has really turned some heads so far in this Major League Baseball season. The New York Yankee slugger belted his 7th home run of the season last night in a win over Baltimore. More significantly, it was his 661st career home run which moves him past Willie Mays into fourth on the all-time list. A-Rods' teammates made a pretty big deal out of the career milestone, and so did the crowd at Yankee Stadium. But, the Yankees front office remains basically neutral to anything great that A-Rod accomplishes.
I can certainly understand the reasoning.
It was written into his contract that if he passed Mays on the all-time homer list, he would receive a bonus of $6 million. Because he sat out last year for accusations of using illegal steroids, the Yankees now feel they shouldn't have to pay him that bonus, and I agree with them. However, where do you draw the line at what to respect about A-Rod's great career and what not to respect and honor?
Unless things change drastically, Alex Rodriguez will never be elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame. He'll join Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Raphael Palmeiro and a few others who have been suspended or at least accused of using PEDs. He will never have a plaque in the Yankees' fabled Monument Park and will never have his number 13 jersey retired. All those things he won't have because he took part in Baseball's steroid era.
I have never been a person to sit in judgement of anyone's character. Judging people is certainly not my job and I'll let someone else take care of that responsibility. I can however judge talent about as well as anyone, and A-Rod is without a doubt one of the best baseball players I have ever seen. Could he have reached those lofty home run totals without cheating and using steroids? Perhaps he could, and so could Bonds, and McGwire. He chose however to cheat and that will cost him dearly when his career is judged alongside other great players.
Can you imagine how many home runs Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, or Hank Aaron could have hit had they used steroids? The numbers could have been obscene. Or think about this.......How many homers would Ted Williams have hit if he had used steroids and had not missed almost five seasons due to military service in World War II and the Korean War? Those numbers would have been astronomical.
Sadly though, those all-time greats didn't and A-Rod did. They are all in the Hall of Fame and A-Rod won't be. Records are nothing more than standards that people aspire to reach or surpass. The Hall of Fame is an accomplishment that only a handful of players ever come close to getting in any sport, and it's a tremendous travesty that as of May 8, some of the greatest players of this particular generation will never be enshrined. Poor Pete Rose has waited for 30 years just to be reinstated by baseball for betting on games, and that reinstatement could come soon. However, there is no guarantee that Rose will ever be invited to Cooperstown.
I wish there was a way to undo the damage that PEDs and steroids has caused. For now though, let's just show a little love for A-Rod and his recent home run milestone. This may be as good as it ever gets for him.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.