Leave Alex Alone

To the Editor:

Alex Rodriguez was only doing steroids for our benefit. Didn’t we want him to hit the game-winning home run? And, how cool will it be if it is a 500-foot moon shot! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am in favor of any performance enhancer. Let me tell you why.

Last year when the Yankees signed Alex to a ten-year, bazillion-dollar contract my reaction was: For that kind of money he better be doing steroids! If he isn’t, then he better start. I want to see maximum offense! I am paying a ton of money for my tickets and I ain’t interested in seeing warning track power. Alex knows that he is playing solely for the pleasure of me and my fellow patrons. If he is not using a performance enhancer then he is not giving it his all.

It was Opening Day at Yankee Stadium in 1997 when I saw the greatest home run I ever witnessed in person. It was the sixth inning when Mark Maguire hit a line drive which reached the center of the black seats still traveling with force while never reaching more than 15 or 20 feet off the ground. I remember looking at Bernie and immediately thinking, “Where do you think you’re going?” He took three steps and stopped. Not to admire the ball, but more just in amazement. I know I had not ever seen a ball hit like that before.

OK, so this may not be politically correct but, I want to see moon shots and line drives that look like they are from a howitzer. I really don’t care about the health of professional athletes. Why should I? I guarantee they don’t give a crap about me. If I am injured or become ill does anyone think they are gonna send me flowers?

So let them screw themselves up for all I care. After all, isn’t it all about me anyhow? And I am not interested in listening to the excuse that they are setting a bad example for our youth. That’s a copout. Let the parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, social workers, priests, rabbis, and anyone else in the child-rearing business explain to kids that they should wait to see if they are really good enough to be a pro and then start juicing. Steroids will not make a mediocre high school jock into a billionaire. But it can put the most talented of them over the top. To entertain me. Don’t worry, we will pay them an lot of money.

I believe almost any of us would be happy to suffer the eventual consequences for the immediate gratifications that come with the juice if we had the talent!

So Alex, Barry, and most especially Mark, thank you and remember that in time you will be remembered as revolutionary sportsmen who risked much to entertain the masses.

And Costas, Lupica, Berman and Francessa, you guys can just bite me! Leave Alex alone!

Frank Pitrone

10 Tanglewood Lane, Sandy Hook                         February 11, 2009