A-Rod's 600

I'm not a big sports person. I'm not lost without a football season, I hate the NBA and March Madness is beginning to suck as well. I do, however, love Professional Baseball. I often attend Reds' games where I find that I'm the only person under 50 keeping score in the programs, old skool style. The media orgasm that is the All-Star game aside, Baseball to me, is the perfect game.

Now, this is why A-Rod getting attention for hitting 600 home runs is bad for the sport. If you take a look at the guy for longer than a SportsCenter highlight, you can barely find a reason to like him. He's an admitted drug user, often seen catting around at some shady clubs and dating Madonna (ehg). He's not rateable.

I'm not saying professional athletes have to be perfect, they're human. However, let's look at Pete Rose. The man is banned from Baseball for betting on it while he was a manager. Yet, you will find no one has a stronger lobby for letting him in the baseball hall of fame. Why? Because he was a red-headed, tubby, all around normal guy who could hit the ball and knew the game like a Russian knows winter. He's rateable. Even non-fans of the sport have strong opinions on the issue.

Not a normal dude.
The Apex of dude-istry.

I highly doubt, that unless you are an A-Rod fan or a fan of the Yankees, you care about this 600th homer. I would find it hard to believe that most Yankee fans care. To them, Jeter has to be the fan favorite. He's a hard working normal sized guy who is notorious for always saying the right thing and getting along with everyone. Hell, I hate the Yankees and I find it hard to dislike Jeter.

Bottom line is this: No one cares about A-Rod. Yet, ESPN is playing this up like it's more amazing than than anything else that has happened in the world of sports this week. Hell, it was the #1 top 10 play this morning! A Human Growth Hormone junkie hits a home run? Big eff'n deal. Chalk it up the steroid era of baseball and move on.

(Note: Most of this is Baseball nerd rage venting)