lisaswan
that 3rd point is one the best points ive read by anyone on this website.
the biggest reason those three are ripped apart by the media is def because they won admit to using PED’s. if they were to admit to using them theyd be forgiven to a certain extent and after a month or so everyone would pretty much stop talking bout them. just like arod and giambi and andy did. they admitted to it then everyone pretty much left them alone after a month or so.

lisaswan wrote:

The real people who have gotten a pass from the media and the fans, relatively speaking, are Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Manny never explained anything, and Ortiz gave an implausible response. Yet everybody has moved on.

Excellent point.

1. If this publication wants their opinion on A-Rod’s name to be taken seriously, they ought to learn how to spell his name correctly – it’s Rodriguez, not Rodriquez.

2. Of course Bonds and Clemens will make the HOF before A-Rod – they’ve been retired for years, and he still has eight seasons left on his contract.

3. The real people who have gotten a pass from the media and the fans, relatively speaking, are Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Manny never explained anything, and Ortiz gave an implausible response. Yet everybody has moved on.

Everyone has made a great point on this and I think why Alex has been forgiven, as opposed to Bonds and Clemens, is obvious.

1. He actually admitted to what he did, whether what he said is 100% true or not. There’s some honor in that.
2. GDH’s point, where our intelligence is insulted by Bonds and Clemens asking us to believe them when it’s obvious they’re lying. We’re a forgiving nation, but you need to show some shame and humility to be forgiven.
3. Alex is still playing, and has many years, plays and at bats to help erase his past PED use. In other words, his press conference isn’t our lasting memory of him where the last we’ve seen of Bonds, Clemens and McGwire were sweaty, shaky testimonials on Capitol Hill.
4. Every time Alex is referenced in the media, it’s been for staying out of trouble, getting big hits and dating attractive girls. Every Clemens reference is about another update in his case, same for Bonds. We’re allowed to forget Alex right now, whereas Bonds and Clemens last link to the game is the Mitchell Report or leaked documents.

Alex’s gang of PR reps have finally gotten it right. He’s cleaned up his act, and he’ll have 8+ years to help erase what he’s done in the past. Will it work? Idk, let’s see in 2017, but if we can take anything away from the transformation we’ve seen in one year, maybe he’s on the right track.

What a dud of an article. I get that it’s a small community newspaper and, their budget being what it is, they can’t get timely reporting but, really? Talking about A-Rod and PED’s as if this was February 2009 instead of November 2009? Old news and very, very boring at this point.

As Scout said, while it’s touching that this newspaper wants to hold a candlelight vigil to restore the names of Clemens and Bonds, neither of them have admitted to any wrongdoing.

Scout wrote:

We live in a culture in which the media are prepared to forgive those who admit their failings and go through the ritual of public contrition. Giambi did it, Pettitte didi it, and now A-Rod has done it. What the Amsterdam News overlooks is that Bonds and Clemens have yet to admit to anything. McGwire seems in the process of trying to restore his name, so he will be in a different category..

For better or worse, this is extremely accurate. McGwire didn’t admit anything either. He sat there in the Capital and said nothing.

The reason we forgive those who fess up is that – it’s so blatantly obvious they did it – by denying it and asking us to believe them, they insult what intelligence we have. Still, Bonds was cheered like crazy in San Francisco, until he retired.

So, on the societal esteem scale, the lowest is cheating and lying, trumped by a cheating but coming clean, trumped by non-cheating (integrity), all of which is trumped, of course, by winning.

Couldn’t agree more with 1 and 2. Dead on. Third factor, I believe, is that A-Rod is still playing, and playing well. Nothing makes people forget a steroids story more than winning performance on the field. Bonds, Clemens and McGuire were all out of the game (or on their way out) when their stories broke.

We live in a culture in which the media are prepared to forgive those who admit their failings and go through the ritual of public contrition. Giambi did it, Pettitte didi it, and now A-Rod has done it. What the Amsterdam News overlooks is that Bonds and Clemens have yet to admit to anything. McGwire seems in the process of trying to restore his name, so he will be in a different category..

“The media showers love on A-Rod”? Were they sleeping from 2004-2008? How many articles were there in the past portraying A-Rod as a 1) big game choker 2) narcissist 3) player hated by his teammates & opponents?

By accounts, this season A-Rod was more guarded and distant from the beat writers and reporters in the past, so this quid pro quo theory with the media doesn’t make sense.

I think the public is just genuinely tired of all the talk about steroids, HGH, PED, etc. Whatever happened in that period of the 1990s forward is done – nothing is going to change it.