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Michael Phelps and Alex Rodriguez have been lumped together by sports talkers, but their cases are not at all alike. This columnist is much more sympathetic towards the Olympic champion, while A-Rod goes on to chase his bogus version of baseball immortality.
The most important lesson to be drawn from the Phelps incident is the marijuana laws are outrageously unfair. What we learn from Rodriguez and steroids is in baseball it pays to cheat.
Take Phelps. He was caught in a photo smoking a bong at a non-public party. He had every right to believe his behavior would remain private. Yet, in this age when it seems as if cameras are always present, and private behavior becomes public behavior on YouTube, somebody took a photo and got it published. Criticism rained down on the swimmer that he should have known better. He is supposed to be a role model for children.
If Kellog’s and other corporate sponsors thought they were signing St. Francis of Assisi to endorse their product, they were incredibly naive. If you were shocked a 23-year-old might puff on a marijuana pipe at a private party, you are also naive. What does anyone think goes on in the Olympic Village when a bunch of young athletes get together? Hint — Scrabble is not the first choice of amusement. You should have been about as shocked as Claude Rains in "Casablanca."
Kellog’s reportedly knew about a DUI on Phelps’ record when he was 18, but that didn’t stop them from signing him to a hefty endorsement deal.
Choosing athletes as role models for your kids is as stupid as buying Kellog’s Cereal because there’s a picture of the gold medalist on the box. If you are not your kid’s idol, then shame on you, not Phelps.
This leads to Rodriguez’s admission that he was juiced on steroids for at least three seasons while playing for the Texas Rangers. A-Rod’s indiscretion is much more morally troublesome than Phelps smoking. The Yankees third baseman claims the "loose era" and the pressure of signing a big contract seduced him into using. Yet we’re supposed to believe that he stopped taking them after 2003, even though he signed a huge free-agent deal with the Yankees, which put even more pressure on the All-Star. Yet he remained clean? Other Yankees teammates such as Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi were on the juice, but A-Rod’s cheating was confined to his years in Texas? Sorry, Alex, you’re no longer credible.
A-Rod was a gifted athlete, like Barry Bonds, without steroids. They aren’t fringe players trying to hang on in the big leagues. They are stars in search of shattering the game’s most hallowed records. Only a baseball fan can feel in his gut what the home-run record means. It is, in some respects, the very foundation of the game itself. A-Rod’s contrition is patently phony. Two days after his confession to Peter Gammons on ESPN, he was seen making jokes about cheating while dedicating a baseball field in his honor. There should be a special place in hell for phonies like this guy. He screwed the game that made him rich and famous and now jokes about it.
It has been reported at this writing that four Major League players snitched on him. Baseball should now release the names of the others who tested positive and announce that it will not recognize any record set by these cheaters. I am well aware that Hank Aaron, who saw Bonds break his career home-run mark, says that the record belongs to Bonds and should not be taken away. I disagree. If MLB lets the records set by the former Giants outfielder or A-Rod stand, it invites other players to cheat. If you are caught cheating in the Olympics, the athlete is stripped of their medal. Baseball should do what amounts to the same thing. No Hall of Fame, no name in the record book.
There is a final irony to all of this. Phelps was threatened with prosecution by the law, which would have been the ultimate injustice. Meanwhile A-Rod has a big, fat contract from the Yankees. He will probably replace Bonds in the record book.
And so it goes.
