The Lexington Dispatch raced to the press with this story, as Chipper Jones talks A-Rod, baseball, and steroids.
Chipper Jones predicted Alex Rodriguez will be the next player answering questions about steroids if he gets close to breaking the home run record.
The Atlanta Braves star said Wednesday that A-Rod probably will face suspicions about steroid use - just as new home run king Barry Bonds has - because Jose Canseco recently hinted he has salacious information to disclose about Rodriguez.
"I don't doubt it," Jones said. "There's been a lot of validation to some of the things that Jose Canseco has said over the years. At first when it came out a lot of people didn't want to give him a lot of credit for it. But a lot of it has been proven true. Now, when he opens his mouth, people listen. And unfortunately, this cloud is following probably two of the best players of this century."
Jones' reaction came from the WEEI interview we posted on last week. Seems Canseco ruffled some feathers with his statements, which could be a PR ploy too.
Last month, the 1988 AL MVP told WEEI-Radio in Boston that in an upcoming book he has
Canseco said A-Rod was a "hypocrite" and "was not all he appeared to be," according to ESPN.com. But Canseco wouldn't say whether A-Rod had used steroids.
Rodriguez has declined to comment.
Jones discusses the relationship of the media to the ballplayers these days. He recognizes that the numbers generated in the steroid era boggle the baseball mind. Obviously questions follow. And also obviously, given the current technology that develops anabolic drugs relatively easily, MLB must scrupulously develop effective PED/steroid/anabolic testing. This is on of the prices modern society pays for the pharmacologic revolution.
(more Jones talking about A-Rod after the jump, including the sensationalized NY Post cover)
Update: R-Rod's agent Scott Boras answered in the NY Post today:
“Alex Rodriguez has always been a great power-hitting player form Day 1,” Boras said. “He has hit above 35 homers form his first day in the big leagues. He does not have any indices of change, he has indices of consistency.”
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"I think it will follow him," Jones said. "There's going to be the questions because his name's been brought up. If I had to pose a guess on A-Rod, I would say no. But I don't know. He's going to have to answer the questions. And that goes for everybody that approaches the number. It's just so farfetched, the numbers that those guys are putting up. And a lot of it comes from the era that they're playing in."
Bonds broke Hank Aaron's career mark with his 756th homer Tuesday night and insisted the record is not tainted. Asked what he thought, Jones said: "I'm going to reserve judgment. Let's put it that way."
"But it's unfortunate for the game that there is such a cloud hanging over it. Hopefully, everything will come out and Barry will be cleared and we can all say that Barry is the true home run champ and that there is no asterisk, there's nothing tainted," Jones said.
"There's nothing any of us ballplayers would want more, to be honest with you. Because I'm playing in the steroid era. Everything that I do is going to be judged. It's the same with a lot of good ballplayers that have put up a lot of good numbers in this era that did it the right way."
Jones, who hit a two-run double against the New York Mets on Wednesday night, also pointed to baseball's ongoing steroids investigation, led by former Senate majority leader George Mitchell.
"Time is going to tell for a lot of people, until this Mitchell investigation is complete. And it's not just (Bonds and Rodriguez), but they're the poster children because they are the two best players in the game, or have been. It's inevitable. It's just the way things are now," Jones said.
Whelp, guess Chipper was right after all.
Posted by: DunderChief | 02/07/2009 at 14:16
A-Rod now is a joke. He did it to himself. A-Rod just like Pete
Rose has no place in MLB HOF. A-Rod can answer his own question
as to why he thought he had to take drugs to improve his MLB
career.
Thousands of MLB players in the past could not equal the talents of
A-Rod,he is a cut above in natural talent. He would have broken
many records ( without drugs to give him an extra edge). Now he is
just another run of the mill MLB player. To bad, To Bad. A-Rod
cannot expect to stand with ( willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams
Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson. Or MLB can throw
away the rule book and let any player do what ever they choose to
to do get a hit, bring a tree trunk to the plate, let pitchers
throw a spit ball or do anything on the mound that can strike out
a batter.
And put Pete Rose in the MLB HOF. Who cares what anyone does, let
baseball be the same as ( wrestling ) it's just a show and for fun
nothing matters as long as the fans are satisfied.
In this day and time morals don't seem to matter any more, so who
cares if players cheat, what difference does it make.
MLB has a choice to make, play by the rules, or make a joke out of
baseball. It's up to the owners, it's their decision. One thing
will change, the owners won't need to pay the players 260 million
dollars anymore, if everyone's cheating and there are no rules to
follow every tom, dick and harry can get in on the fun, since
talent won't be necessary.
Widmarc clark
Posted by: widmarc clark | 02/11/2009 at 01:36