Note to the World: Lay off of J-Rod - June 13, 2009

Just wanted to add my two cents on the whole JRod situation.

For those of you who don't know, I am referring to the ordeal regarding a fellow blogger alluding to possible steroid usage by the Phillies' Raul Ibanez. While many are throwing JRod under the bus and deeming him an irresponsible journalist over this article, I can't help but come to his defense on this one.

Irresponsible? Hardly.

When I first read the article, I saw a thorough, well-thought out piece. Throughout his article, JRod outlines a plethora of possibilities that could have attributed to Ibanez's rise in numbers. He nitpicks at the many intracacices of the game that make hitting homeruns an easier task, including ballpark dimensions and opposing pitchers' ERA.

However, with all the fuss that has been made out of this lately, I expected to see a blog along the lines of this:

"Ibanez is a scum. Dude couldn't have hit a ball in Seattle. He's a lousy player and that means he is obviously taking steroids if he is putting up this type of numbers. What n00b."

But in fact, J-Rod never once attacks Ibanez. While he does mention steroids he does it ever so slightly. He tiptoes around it like a ballerina. He begrudgingly mentions it. It seems obvious that he does not want to offend anyone? So much for that one.

Yet, if you peruse the actual online article (scroll to the bottom), you will notice that there are still many antagsonists out there sitting at their computers with nothing better to do than bash J-Rod. Many, i'm guessing, haven't even read the 1,000+ word article.

The reality is, many people will spring from their seats and say that JRod has no right, nor any evidence to say that Ibanez has ever taken steroids in his career, making his article an irresponsible one. But unfortunately for the players in the MLB, given recent history, fans and journalists around the nation have multiple reasons to believe that steroids may attribute to an increase in hitting production. Simply denying steroid use on television, like Ibanez did, isn't the end of the argument either. Just ask A-Rod.

And quite honestly, Ibanez, you made a huge deal out of nothing. Take the test, prove everyone wrong. Whats the fuss? If you truly didn't do it, you should've let actions speak louder than words. There was no need to publically humiliate JRod on TV - going as far as to refer to him as a kid living in his parents basement. Quite the assumption. But given the stereotype of us journalists, I can see how you arrived at such a conclusion.

And given the stereotype of baseball players these days, can't you see how J-Rod arrived at his?