A-Roid Is Just The Tip Of The Fraud Iceberg!

The admission by baseball star Alex Rodriguez that he took performance-enhancing drugs is symptomatic of a culture in which frauds are only sorry they got caught, mere “mistakes” (a euphemism for “criminal acts”) are committed, and all one must do to atone for such sins is apologize. In this “anything goes” atmosphere, it's no wonder many people feel no compunctions about cheating their insurer on a claim.

This is also the same culture where bankers who ran home mortgage operations like Wall Street boiler rooms can sleep easily about not having to face any criminal prosecutions.

And it's the same culture in which President Obama–insisting he wants to focus on what's ahead, not what happened in the past–sounds as if he's likely to shrug off any Constitutional or general legal violations by his predecessor's administration.

How did we come to this point?

A-Rod is a glaring example of how easy it is these days to get away with the most outrageous behavior. He essentially took money from his former employer, the Texas Rangers, under false pretenses. He said he was a legitimate baseball player, but instead was pumped up with drugs to drive more balls out of the park.

Only after his fraud was exposed by a diligent journalist from “Sports Illustrated” did A-Rod “come clean,” so to speak, if you can believe anything he says at this point.

But what are the consequences of his actions? Yes, his reputation will be sullied, and his Hall of Fame chances are perhaps slimmer. He might be booed more often, although I fully expect a standing ovation from the Yankee faithful at the home opener in the proverbial “show of support.” (Support for what, by the way? For a cheater? Way to go, A-Fraud!)

In his interview with ESPN, Rodriguez said he hoped kids would learn from his “mistakes.” What lessons exactly would they learn? That if you pump up with drugs, you can make tens of millions and win a Most Valuable Player award???

Where are the consequences of his actions beyond loss of reputation? The Australians have a favorite phrase–”No worries, mate!”–to assure you all is well. Is that what we have here with this cheater, “no worries,” just because he “confessed” (after being exposed) and apologized?

As a lifelong baseball fan, I don't want an apology from A-Rod. I want a suspension from Major League Baseball, to show the industry is serious about cracking down on those who undermine the integrity of the game. I want A-Rod to give back the MVP trophy he “won” while pumped up on drugs.

And I want him to donate the $75 million he “earned” in the three years in which he admitted doing drugs (or at least the $36 million or so he took home after taxes) to youth drug counseling and Little League development.

That, at least, would show Rodriguez is genuinely sorry about what happened. That he is ashamed to keep money he took under fraudulent circumstances. And that he's prepared to spend a good chunk of his ill-gotten booty on efforts to truly help kids avoid the “mistakes” he made.

I'm reading the 1958 novel, “The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant,” on which the Broadway musical “Damn Yankees” is based, about Joe Hardy–a middle-aged man who sells his soul to become a young baseball star that hits home run after home run.

In the introduction to this latest edition, published in 2004, baseball stat guru Bill James hit the nail on the head when he wrote that “the story of Joe Hardy has a special resonance in the era of steroids. Joe Hardy was able to shatter through the glass ceiling of normal human batting performance with the secret assistance of an unnatural supplement.”

You could argue that all those who took performance-enhancing drugs made the same deal with the devil. Joe Hardy managed to have it both ways–leading his hapless but beloved Washington Senators to the pennant and defeating the hated Yankees, but managing to return to his old life with little or no consequences. Now A-Roid is hoping to follow in Hardy's fictional footsteps.

Ironically, in the book's intro, written long before the latest case of baseball drug abuse was revealed, Bill James–now a senior advisor for the Red Sox, and therefore a Yankee-hating expert–laments that the Yanks are still destroying the hopes and dreams of non-Yankee fans everywhere, with the latest outrage being their trade for the greatest player in baseball……Alex Rodriguez!

Little did he know that five years after writing that intro, A-Roid would be in the same boat as poor Joe Hardy. The only difference is that Hardy won the damned pennant, while A-Rod has been labled a choker for coming up short again and again in the clutch–especially in the playoffs.

Perhaps there is some justice in this world after all.