A bad week for former all star shortstops

All-star shortstop Miguel Tejada was charged today with lying to congressional investigators about his use and knowledge of steroids. The 2002 MVP is expected to plead guilty tomorrow in court and faces up to a year in prison. 

It has been a rough year for the former Baltimore Oriole slugger. In the last 12 months he has been named in the Mitchell Report, traded to Houston, and had his true age revealed on national television. He posted by far his career worst season in Houston this year as well and as he faces possible jail time, his career may very well be over. 

It's sad to see a player like Tejada fall from grace so quickly. He was always one of the most charismatic and exciting players on and off the field. He looked like he had a true joy for playing the game and while he was a ferocious competitor, there was almost always a smile on his face.  

Alex Rodriguez Update

A few hours after I posted on Alex Rodriguez's name being leaked for testing positive in a 2003 steroid test, he did something very surprising, he confessed:

Summary: Rodriguez took responsibility and says that he did in fact use steroids from 2001-2003. He said that the pressure to live up to his contract and the atmosphere in Texas were the contributing factors to his decision to take steroids. He did however admit that it was his decision and no one else's. 

Analysis: Well...A-Rod probably realized that of all the stars who had been busted for steroids the only ones who have come out looking good are the ones who admitted to their use. The one thing people hate more than cheaters is liars. I think A-rod came out and told the truth in order to maintain his legacy and probably in the hopes that people will be willing to move on.

I think his hopes will probably be realized. He will most likely still be a Hall of Famer and considered one of the best in the game. The one thing that will likely be harmed however is his legacy as one of the best of all time. People can forgive a cheater, but they wont embrace him as one of their heros.

And can anyone really forgive the man that looked Katie Couric in the face and lied?

A-Fraud

Unless you've been under a rock this entire weekend, you know that Sports Illustrated reported that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003. 

The positive test came from an anonymous survey that Major League Baseball distributed in order to determine if there was a need to test for performance enhancing drugs regularly. Reportedly 104 players tested positive in the survey.

 A-Rod testing positive for performance enhancing drugs is surprising but by no means shocking. I think most baseball fans assumed that the great slugger was clean based on his consistent performance and non-overwhelming size. When people thought about steroids they thought of superhero bodies and freakish growth. But the fact itself that the games biggest star and arguably one of the best players of all time was caught juicing at this point really shocked no one. We've become so jaded over the last decade as we have seen those we once labeled as hero's stripped down to the the worst title of all: cheater. 

But what does this mean for baseball, and where does it leave us? What are we supposed to expect/believe about the time period in baseball now known as the steroid era? Do we simply assume that everyone was juicing and therefor it was a level playing field? With the amount of stars positively linked to steroids at this point that may be a safe bet. 

But then what about the records? Sure it is simple enough to give these guys a pass into the Hall of Fame because they were playing against other roiders, but doesn't it punish the greats of the past?

Some would suggest we simply go on a witch hunt and find all the offenders we can. Potential Hall of Famer Curt Schilling even suggests that Major League Baseball renege on their confidentiality claims and list all 103 players who tested positive in 2003.

While I don't have the answers to these hypotheticals, the whole problem did get me thinking about how many sure fire stars there were left from the steroid era that hadn't been linked to the juice. So here is my starting Roider and Non Roider line up for the steroid era.

Rules: I'm defining the steroid era as 1995-2004. Players who have either tested positive, or have otherwise been all but proven to have taken steroids are considered Roiders. Those with no substantial steroid rumors are Non Roiders.

Roiders

C- Ivan Rodriguez (Juiced)

1B-Rafael Palmeiro (Tested Positive)

2B-Chuck Knoblauch (Mitchell Report)

SS-Alex Rodriguez (Tested Positive)

3B-Ken Caminiti (Admitted)

OF-Jose Canseco (Admitted)

OF-Barry Bonds (too many to list)

OF-Gary Sheffield (Admitted)

DH Mark McGwire (Brother, Juiced, Inability to deny allegations)

SP Roger Clemens (Mitchell Report)

RP Eric Gagne (Mitchell Report)

Bench: Jason Giambi (Admitted), Mo Vaughn (Mitchell Report), Nook Logan (overwhelmingly large guns)

Note: Sammy Sosa did not have enough on him to put him on either list. 

Non-Roiders

C-Mike Piazza

1B-Albert Pujols

2B-Roberto Alomar/Jeff Kent

SS-Derek Jeter

3B-Chipper Jones

OF-Ken Griffey Jr.

OF-Vlad Guerrero

OF-Rickey Henderson

DH-Manny Ramirez

SP-Pedro Martinez

RP-Mariano Rivera 

Bench: Cal Ripken (Tail end of career), Wade Boggs (Ditto) Nomar Garciaparra

Who makes your list?