Jesse Spector On Adam Jones Show: Take Away A-Rod's 2003 MVP
BOSTON (CBS) - Should Alex Rodriguez lose his 2003 AL MVP award?
Rodriguez has admitted to using steroids that season, when he hit .298 with 47 homers (tied for the most in baseball) and 118 RBIs.
That decision would be up to the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America), and something Jesse Spector of The Sporting News would be in full support of.
"It's dangerous to re-write history, but it happens enough throughout the sports world," Spector said Tuesday night on 98.5 The Sports Hub's The Adam Jones Show. "Lance Armstrong is now a zero-time Tour De France winner. Ben Johnson, 1988 Olympics had his gold medal stripped. A-Rod, I can't say you should take away his other two MVPs in 05 and 07 because we cant say for sure that he was juicing then, but you look at 2003 when he was with the Rangers -- he admitted he used steroids from 2001 to 2003. Even though there wasn't a test that he broke the rules, why does he still have that award?"
"It's something that has to be considered on a case-by-case basis and very carefully," he said. "Once you make a move like that, to strike something from the record, you can't easily move it back. You have to be 100=percent sure you're doing the right thing. I think with the case of A-Rod in 2003, when he's admitted using drugs and broke the rules that way, I think it's totally fair to take that MVP away from him."
Rodriguez was suspended 211 games on Monday -- a suspension that would begin on Thursday had he not appealed -- along with 12 other players who received 50-game suspensions. These players did not fail tests though, and were only caught due to the Biogensis investigation. Though MLB touts their testing system as one of the best in sports, is it a broken system given they can't seem to catch players?
"Where were (the Biogensis group's) positive tests, and how could can their testing really be if you can't (catch them). It's not like they were doing undetectable steroids," said Spector. "You catch some of them, but there are still 3/4 of them that get away with it until you do the paperwork and follow that trail. It was the investigation that popped these guys for 50 games and A-Rod for 211... It's very strange that they continue to tout how good of a job they're doing with the testing process when the evidence is counter to that."
Listen: Tulane Sports Law Director Gabe Feldman on The Adam Jones Show
"Players want this to work, they want to play a clean game," added Spector. "I think the majority of them are clean and are sick and tired of seeing guys get jobs because they're using PEDs. It's not so much Alex Rodriguez that ticks people off; it's not the stars that are going to be super stars anyways. These guys don't want to be competing for roster spots with dirty players. It's the difference between millions of dollars and a lifetime pension on the line."
Also, will Jon Lester ever turn things around for the Red Sox? Find out as The Sporting News' Jesse Spector joins 98.5 The Sports Hub's The Adam Jones Show:
