A-Rod didn't need to do it

I'll tell you what story I'd love to break: I'd love to the find the clean player of that era. And I don't just mean a player who didn't use steroids -- I'm sure, even now, that there were a number of those -- no, I'd love to the find the player who WANTED to use steroids. The player who understood what was happening out there, the player who didn't close his eyes to the realities, the player who was offered chances to use steroids and who understood just how much more money and playing time and even fame might have come with that choice.

Still, he said no. Why? In my dream scenario, he might not be able to tell you exactly why. Maybe it was because he wanted to prove to himself he could do it without cheating. Maybe he was scared of what might happen. Maybe he grew up around the game and he loved it and, while he would not judge others or go squealing about it, he could not bring himself to do it. Maybe there was something else, something few people ever considered.

That's the guy I'd like to talk with. I remember years ago being in a high school accounting class, and we had this teacher who let anyone cheat (and by cheat I mean you could walk up to the front and copy right out of the teacher's book -- nothing subtle here). I never knew for sure if she let people cheat because she was semi-senile or if she was simply so tired of teaching high school accounting, so beaten down, she didn't want to mess with grading. Pretty much everybody got a good grade in that class (which may have led to my own delusions of becoming an accountant). And the others just didn't show up.

Here's what I remember: It was so clear that she WANTED us to cheat -- or at the very least she did not care -- that it didn't even feel like cheating. Guys were shouting out the answers. It frankly felt STUPID to do the work, especially with graduation day so close and the sun out. Still, I remember one guy who simply refused to cheat. I mean, he would not even listen to the answers when they were shouted out. This guy wasn't brilliant, and as I recall he wasn't holier than thou or anything like that. A-Rod -- well, whether he's innocent or guilty, lots of us have at least a little A-Rod in us. The whole sad story is probably not much more complicated than that. Human nature. But I used to watch this guy sometimes, the guy who didn't cheat, and I'd wonder what was going on in his head. I never quite figured it out. That's the guy I'd love to talk to now.

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