Say It Ain't So, A-roid

I do not believe a heart can be broken as many times as Major League Baseball has broken mine, so at this point I have lost all feelings toward it. No other sport could get away with half the things Major League Baseball has done without me dropping my jaw, but congratulations, MLB, I now have neither feelings of disappointment nor anger when you break news to me about another user of steroids, another cheater or another black eye on baseball. All I do now is shake my head and go on with my day.

I am of course talking about the steroid allegations against Alex Rodriguez, which he has confirmed to be true. The man who was supposed to cleanse the game and wash the dirt off of baseball is just another cheater. Hate him or love him, he was going to be the clean record holder. We were going to cheer for him to pass Barry Bonds as the Home Run King instead of question him.

We had just gotten back to enjoying the greatest game in the world based on the fact a clean era had started with players like Ken Griffey, Jr., Frank Thomas and Greg Maddux passing on the clean ball and bat to players like Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols to lead the game back to where it was supposed to be. Young talent has blossomed all over the league as baseball is taking former oversized players swept under the rug and sweeping them into court. With the possibility of Rodriguez and Pujols breaking all the records ruined by steroid users and young players like Geovany Soto, Tim Lincecum, Alexei Ramirex, Carlos Quentin, Dustin Pedroia, Felix Hernandez, Grady Sizemore and Hanley Ramirez seemingly steroid-free and showing so much promise in the game, baseball was heading toward some kind of light. Yet another hiccup in baseball's attempt to breathe again with this A-roid fiasco, however, has lost the faith of many fans.

I feel sorry for the fans, especially the young ones. It seems as though they will have the same lack of faith in baseball I gained as I grew up in the steroid era. I feel sorry for the clean players' names we will never know because they lost their spot in the lineup to another player on steroids. I feel sorry for myself because I can never trust a player's numbers again without wondering if they took steroids. I feel sorry for the game because it seems to have a scar on it now instead of just a black eye. Alex Rodriguez is not sorry, we are the ones who are truly sorry.