Thursday, August 5, 2010

600 HRs And The Pursuit Of Memory Loss

ESPN and the internets are alive with people with severe memory loss. There are endless reams of people falling all over themselves to blame the lack of attention given to Alex Rodriguez's pursuit of his 600th homerun on the fact that he admitted to steroid use in the past. This would seem to indicate that other members of the 600-HR club -- the accepted non-PED users -- received media attention to rival the Miami Heat "Look At Me" Three, right?

Wrong.

To refresh everyone's memories, here is a writeup about the collective yawn the baseball world gave during Ken Griffey Jr's pursuit of 600:

LOS ANGELES – Ken Griffey Jr., the 38-year-old man sitting on the equipment trunk in the corner of the clubhouse this evening, will hit his 600th career home run one of these days, more than all but five players, three of whom are beyond reproach.

Yet, there is no buzz...

Cincinatti Reds teammate Adam Dunn: " It’s a huge deal and it’s almost swept under the rug. I mean, 600. Six hundred! It’s unbelievable. This is so disappointing. He’s a great guy, first and foremost. What he’s done for the game of baseball, it’s sad. It’s a shame. And it’s sad."

So tell me, here you have a guy who is absolutely beloved, who has never been tied to any suspicions of PED's, and yet his 600-club pursuit went largely unheralded. Yet people want us to believe that A-Rod's PED use is the reason his pursuit has not grabbed more attention. Well, it's a load of crap.

Fact is, the baseball world, crazy as it seems, has grown weary of the homerun ball. People barely care about the homerun derby nowadays. And I bet you that Albert Pujols will garner the same type of collective yawn when he starts breaking milestones (he's currently 7 away from 400; notice anyone talking about that?)

The PED use is a crock. Just another example of baseball purists' elevated sense of self-importance.