For years, Alex Rodriguez was the most underachieving postseason player based on his regular season statistics in sports history. In 2009, A-Rod ‘exercised his demons’ and had a terrific playoff to help lead the Yankees to their 27^th World Series title. In addition to this, Rodriguez won the Postseason MVP award at the 87^th annual New York baseball writers’ dinner on Saturday night. Not only this, but A-Rod choked up and started to cry at the achievement that he won and the obstacles he had to overcome.

Give me a break.

Rodriguez admitted steroid use in spring training of 2009 and he was lucky to be injured until May to let people forget about it. Then he was ‘relaxed’ and could ‘focus’ in October to do well enough to actually help the Yankees win. He did look a little shell shocked in the World Series, until he got hit in back-to-back at bats in Philly to lead his team to a win with a clutch hit later in the game. I still can’t believe they allowed him to do that. A-Rod did deserve the award in general though (minus the tears) due to his .365 average, 6 homers, and 18 RBIs in 15 postseason games.

This brings me to Mark McGwire (and you’ll see why in a bit). I’ve been very quiet on the McGwire front in regard to steroids, combined with his return and admission. I was really just hoping that it would blow over, as it has with just about every player that has admitted using them before. Instead, the last 2 weeks have been chock full of every person related to baseball bashing McGwire for using steroids.

Do I agree with McGwire’s use of steroids? Of course not. I am disappointed that he used them, especially during the 1998 season, which was an incredible summer that ended with him breaking Roger Maris’ 61 homerun record. However, in hindsight, I realized he was using steroids, and I decided it was best to just not talk about it. That is kind of what McGwire’s stance was for years, especially ever since that Congressional hearing in 2005. He repeatedly said, “We’re not here to talk about the past.”

Now did he lie there? Actually, he never did. Most of the big time steroid players lied about it repeatedly and now if they ever come out that they did use steroids, then they would probably be under some kind of perjury. That includes Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and some others.

I know people are big McGwire haters, and I just hope that it’s 100% because of steroids, and not because of anything else. He was such a nice guy and I do believe that his admission of taking steroids was killing him. He didn’t want to bring it up, because he really never did have to bring it up. He was completely out of the spotlight and as a result, he never had to say a thing. But in November he came back to baseball to be the Cardinals hitting coach, and it was obvious that he had to say something. He couldn’t live with the shadows of his past, and more importantly, he couldn’t live with the questions that he would face on a daily basis. That is the only reason that he came out and admitted his steroid use. It was not because he was trying to make the Hall of Fame. If he was trying to make the Hall of Fame using this as some kind of leverage, he would have admitted this years ago, or certainly before the voting in early January.

Now, I’m not saying that McGwire’s situation won’t blow over; as a matter of fact, I know it will go away. These things come with time, and since it is not actually baseball season, there is no other distraction from this discussion.

What makes me so sure? I look at Alex Rodriguez as a test case. He was able to admit using steroids in an attempt to make us feel bad for him. Is the public still mad at him for using steroids? NO! They actually have seemed to totally ignore/forget about it! And I love when you ask most New York fans what their opinion is of A-Rod now. They fail to mention that they LOVED to boo him in earlier years and they just use his success of 2009 as a measuring stick of their love for him. So A-Rod is completely off the hook!

I just hope that McGwire is able to focus on his job this year, not only because I am a Cardinals fan, but also because others are allowed to move on with their lives after admitting to cheating. I am confident that this will happen, but I just hope people think twice before automatically praising A-FRAUD.