Will fans cheer for this nitwit?

Alex Rodriguez is a disgusting creature. I've been wondering why the Yankees would even consider putting this loser on the field. Perhaps this article provides the answer.

There ain’t no easy way out for the Yankees, unless they release Rodriguez. Until then, he is like that stench in the carpet that will not go away. No matter how much you spray and scrub, sometimes you have to just give up and throw the thing out.

That's what I would expect: throw the bum out. But that's not what they're doing. The writer goes on:

The Yankees will go through the charade of spring training, partly to see if Rodriguez’s hips break down and force him to retire. In that case, the team would fulfill its fantasy of collecting, through insurance, most of the $61 million still owed Rodriguez.

Ah, I see. They're hoping he'll injure himself. Kinda fun, actually. I wonder if they'll play him hard, to encourage serious injury. Nah, he'd just sue them. That's all the guy is good for: hiring lawyers to claw at other people's checkbooks on his behalf.

I can't imagine being a Yankees fan right now. How can anyone look at this guy without feeling disgust? I certainly can't. And let's remember that when it counts, A-Rod will always let the team down. If the Yankees are one run down with the bases loaded in their favor, and Alex Rodriguez is the final batter, NY fans may as well head for the exits. He'll bomb out every time, guaranteed.

Any Yankee fans want to chime in? Are you looking forward to the coming season? If so, why?

Steroids, baseball and players who can't hit

During a Mets telecast last week, Keith Hernandez brought something up. The strike-out rate for baseball players in the last nine months of play has been higher than at any time in baseball's history. Not in the last five or ten years -- in the entire history of Major League Baseball. This is a stark statistic.

A more basic way of putting it is that no professional baseball player can hit a baseball these days. That's the thing everyone's been noticing. You see guys this season who have incredibly low hitting averages. And these aren't minor players; many are traditionally good hitters. Yet this year, they can't get above the "Mendoza Line", which is .200. If you're not a fan and don't understand hitting averages, a .200 batting average means you hit the ball safely once in every five at-bats. That's not good -- and guys are hitting below that.

Hernandez rightly attributes this to steroids, or rather the current lack of steroids in baseball. He said it was highly suspicious that everyone's batting average dropped right after baseball honed in on steroid use among players. But there's more to the story.

I suspect Keith hasn't done steroids himself, so his knowledge of their use is superficial. I took tons of steroids when I was a bodybuilder, so I know all about this stuff. The thing people don't grasp is that there's more to steroids than a bigger, more muscular body. There are after-effects.

Once you stop using steroids -- as the MLB players are now finding out -- you're much weaker than you were before using them. I don't know why this isn't talked about. It's true, take it from me. I went from super-powerful on steroids to very, very weak when I got off them. And this post-steroid weakness lasts. My strength never recovered, no matter how much I worked out. My strong days were over.

So to me, it's understandable that no one can hit now. Without the additional punch that steroids provide, the players can't even muster the strength they had before they used steroids. And as a result of this catastrophic loss of strength, some can't even make it to the Mendoza line.

It's the lack of steroids and the lasting effect of having been on them that is plaguing baseball players now. And I've got news for these downtrodden players: it won't get better. The effect is permanent. Teams will have to be replace these guys with players who are steroid virgins. Mark my words.