by Robert Lamber

Created on: March 02, 2009

A-Rod Diculous Raking Over The Coals of a Talented Athlete

I have never met Alex Rodriguez personally, so I cannot be accused of favoritism. But my love of the game of baseball compels me to address the cloud that now surrounds him and quite possibly the game. I do not believe the game in and of itself will be hurt. The game will rise above controversy because it is a game played by humans with talent and flaws and those that know and love the game will understand the imperfections that all humans possess. The medical profession has had its insane doctors as well and yet it too survives its human frailties. Alex Rodriguez is a talented baseball player. No one can doubt that. He was talented before the steroids, during the phase when he admittedly took steroids, and he will be a talented baseball ballplayer years after this incident has run its course. Predicting his future is all but speculation at this time. What has become a media frenzy that is focusing on Alex, shows that very little matters to the media when if comes to sensationalism and creating opportunistic journalism. This headhunting', that seems to justify collecting a paycheck, comes at the expense of the same superstars' that the media themselves have created.

Talent like that of an Alex Rodriguez and those of our present and future Hall of Famers, that reach a level of accomplishment that we judge by the accumulation of extraordinary achievements over time, demonstrates that their exemplary skills are a gift given to them by nature. Their talent, when compared to others within their field, places them in the high end of the bell-shaped curve where very few athletes can hang their hatsAnd although Alex Rodriguez and others have made a decision to enhance their abilities by biochemical anomalies, these drugs did not give them the talent they were born with. If wanting to enhance that talent because the methods and products to do so are so readily available, then before we condemn them through accusations and half-truths, maybe we should examine the true significance of why the talented' such as Alex, reach beyond what we, the ordinary untalented' judge as cheating or abusive.

No pill, drug, or biochemical compound can create a human being that puts together the coordination to consistently hit a baseball, run a marathon, swoosh a basketball, or any one of a number of eye-hand, fast twitch muscular coordination activities it takes to excel in a given sport. Talent is inborn not drug induced. So let's

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