Alex Rodriguez, popularly known as A-Rod, who recently became the seventh and youngest player in Major League Baseball history to hit 600 career home runs is still crumbling under pressure to prove his critics wrong as he is always associated with anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs.

Rodriguez told Suzyn Waldman of WCBS Radio that he feels depressed when his name is always associated with steroids.

From NYtimes.com:

Rodriguez is part of a quartet of sluggers who carry the scarlet letter S on their broad backs. The retired stars Barry Bonds (the career leader with 762 homers), Sammy Sosa (609) and Mark McGwire (583) are all linked, to one degree or another, to performance-enhancing drugs.

They are stacked up in the stratosphere, waiting to see if the writers who vote for membership in the Hall will ultimately accept them. At the moment, there are no guarantees. McGwire, who has been eligible for four years, eked his way up to 24 percent in January, far short of the 75 percent needed for admission.

This overt withholding of honor is the legacy of a steroid era that began in the last decade, when McGwire, Sosa and Bonds all had surprisingly high home run totals at ages when most great sluggers are tailing off. Steroids were illegal by federal law and by edict of Major League Baseball, although no testing was in place during their peak years.

On his own, Rodriguez brought up his link with steroids Wednesday after the Yankees defeated Toronto, 5-1, at Yankee Stadium.

A-Rod may not find it easy to gain entry into the Hall of Fame once he becomes eligible five years after retirement due to his past links with steroids.

Tags:  A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez, Anabolic steroids, Barry Bonds, Hall of Fame, Major League Baseball, Mark McGwire, performance-enhancing drugs, Sammy Sosa, steroid era, Steroids

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The Hall of Fame linebacker, Dick Butkus, who was renowned for playing with a menacing fury, is now expression and passion into the fight against steroids.

Butkus says the link between steroids and sports disgusts me. The former Chicago Bear is handling the problem by delivering a message aimed at high school students on the dangers of doping with his “I Play Clean” campaign.

From in.reuters.com:

Last month’s admission by baseball’s highest-paid player Alex Rodriguez that he had taken steroids from 2001-2003 while with the Texas Rangers, shone the light again on performance-enhancing drugs in sports, something Butkus abhors.

“As an ex-football guy, I still enjoy watching it,” the gruff Butkus told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“It just disgusts me and I hope it doesn’t come to a point where I’m sitting there watching a Senate hearing and have them drilling some ex-football players on their steroids habit,” he said, referring to baseball’s appearance before Congress. “I want to lick this before that happens.”

The NFL has had its share of steroids cheats, notably San Diego Chargers Pro-Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman, suspended for four games in 2006, and now-retired 1997 Defensive Player of the Year Dana Stubblefield, sentenced last month to two years’ probation for lying to investigators about his steroid use.

I have learned over time that use of steroids could result in heart damage among its other dangers, Butkus said.

Tags:  Alex Rodriguez, Dana Stubblefield, Dick Butkus, Hall of Fame, Shawne Merriman, Steroid use, Steroids, steroids and sports, use of steroids

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One baseball fan, Lucas Swineford requested hundreds of other baseball fanatics to protest against steroid. His urge to boycott the April 17 games is due to his dismay when New York Yankees, Alex Rodriguez admitted to the public that he used to take steroids. Swineford get disappointed to the fact that steroid is still an on going issue in baseball. During an ESPN interview of Alex Rodriguez, claimed that he was pressured to use steroids to maintain his million-dollar baseball career.

Lucas Swineford, founder of the Baseball Fans Give Back, appealed to the fans of Major League Baseball to donate at least half of the MLB ticket price to charity, and spend three hours of volunteer work instead of watching a game on that date. Lucas said that what he did was not a negative move; it’s a protest against steroid. He just wanted to encourage everyone to devote at least a day doing humanitarian efforts.

From NJ.com:

Swineford, who works in the IT department at Yale University and now resides in Easton, Conn., said he created Baseball Fans Give Back because he was disgusted by Yankee All-Star Alex Rodriguez’s admission during an interview on ESPN that he once used steroids.

“As a big baseball fan - I’m a Mets fan - I was frustrated and disappointed with the steroids issue that’s been going on in baseball,” Swineford said.

Lucas Swineford chose April 17 in honor of the late Roberto Clemente of Pittsburg Pirates. Clemente died in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1972 when he was on his way to Nicaragua to bring help to the earthquake victims. Lucas said the he has always honored Roberto Clemente for his charitable works.

According to Lucas, bad athletes should not spoil the reputation of the whole group because athletes can serve as good influence to children.

Tags:  Alex Rodriguez, baseball, Major League Baseball, steroid

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