Major League Baseball is really missing a great chance at a long
term high quality HBO (it’s not television, it’s HBO) drama series and has
unfortunately decided to go the way of a shady, mini-arc of many lesser network
dramas. I am talking about Alex Rodriguez
being banning from the sport he loves to play and deceive. Sure, the way things are playing out now will
make for a great miniseries or TV movie filled with various lowlifes, scumbags,
and antiheroes, but why stop the drama at a level so small? We need villains. We crave good, tangible ones that can be seen
and fought. Making Alex Rodriguez a
figure from the legal shadows is interesting, but it pales in comparison to the
preverbal freak show that could be unleashed if he were to play this year. Remember the frenzy number 13 brought about
in his end of the year cameo last season.
He became public enemy number one and for a brief time he was excelling
at the role. He moved up the evil rankings
from outright villain to anti-hero when that dickhead from the Red Sox pegged
him after missing three times. The drama
that unfolded after that costly hit by pitch sent shockwaves through the spine
of the big leagues. Not only did A-Rod
lead the Yankees to their best victory of the season, he infused them with life
and hope and nearly lead the Evil Empire to the playoffs when they had no right
to have been close to sniffing the glory that is October baseball. Ticket sales went up, T.V. ratings increased
all to see the next chapter of the Alex Rodriguez saga. The public was enthralled because everybody
loves a good villain.
Good villains make the superhero or movie or book or
whatever. I’m talking about the Darth
Vaders, the Jokers, the Khans, the Cruella de Vils, the Moriartys, and the
Goldfingers. These characters ratchet up
the stakes and can be more compelling than the protagonist of the story. We love those with serious flaws; just look
at all the villain origin stories coming out soon or how the anti-hero became
television’s most popular character.
Real villains add the spice of chaos to the proceedings that make it all
worthwhile. We love a villain we can
see, not some abstract boogeyman like a smoke monster from a certain lost on an
island television program. It’s easier
to fight a person and a concept rather than a concept or an idea (which is why
the war on terrorism will never really succeed, but that is an essay for
another liberal rambling). Alex
Rodriguez has a chance to be that tangible enemy. He has been a hated player since he signed
that gargantuan deal with the Rangers in 2001.
Plus, he plays for the Yankees, the self-proclaimed Evil Empire of
baseball. This is an organization that
is somehow both the most popular and most hated sports team in the land. Alex Rodriguez is the Darth Vader to the
Yankees Evil Empire and Major League Baseball is trying to ruin such a perfect train
wreck of a marriage.
Yes, the elephant in the room is that Alex Rodriguez cheated
baseball and took steroids and so on and so forth. We all have heard the evidence and there is
no reason to rehash all of it (only the parts that strategically help my argument). Rodriguez never failed a drug test (he’s that
good) and Major League Baseball probably shouldn’t have been hanging around with
a bunch of drug dealers to play gotcha on Rodriguez. Bud Selig talking to 60 minutes instead of the
arbitrator is just disgusting. I say
suspend A-Rod for 50 games and let him return to an even bigger circus than the
one that occurred last year. The man has
earned it. If he was able to
successfully cheat baseball again and again, then maybe the doping program isn’t
as good as MLB says it is. Good for him,
he beat the system I say!
Bud Selig simply should look to basketball. When Lebron James signed with the Heat, the
NBA gained a public enemy number one for the first time in a while. Criticized and condemned at the time of his
decision, Lebron James’ fateful signing with the Miami Pat Riley’s gave the NBA
a compelling narrative: beat the Heat.
Teams would come out and play their hardest to beat Lebron and his cavalry
of stars and an appearance by the Heat would rev up an opposing fan base like
no other. Watching the Heat lose to the
more conventionally put together Mavericks was a moment of great joy for many
fans of the NBA. Lebron and the Heat were/are
the perfect villains. They were not
comically weak or woefully incompetent, but a good team. They were the Globo Gym Purple Cobras and
excelled all the way to the finals.
Watching a heavily favored villain lose in the finals is the perfect
Hollywood ending for a villain. The only
way to have improved the ending would have been if the cocky Heat blew a fourth
quarter lead in game 7 and lost on a last minute shot by Dirk (I smell an
Oscar). Now the Heat are champions twice
over and still the NBA’s premier villains even if the hatred has been watered
down as of late. Missing out on this
type of drama would be a huge disservice to fans of the game and fans of the
media freak shows.
I put it to you Major League Baseball to let my Alex
Rodriguez go (said in a Moses voice).
Let the man play the game he loves this year and bring unparalleled
drama to a game that could use some. Bring
a tangible villain to our national pastime and embrace the carnival atmosphere of
the proceedings. The fans will cheer
every strike out or misplay in the field.
Me and (possibly) my fellow Yankee fans will relish every opportunity
Alex Rodriguez shows flashes of his old grand self. Let him break records of our parent’s heroes
and our parent’s parent’s heroes as the pennant race thickens and the Yankees
fight for their rightful place as kings of the baseball universe (full
disclosure I am a big Yankee fan). There
will be no better gif than the look of horror on Bud Selig’s face if Alex Rodriguez
hits a home run to win a playoff game or series. We sometimes like it when the bad guys win if
only because it makes the heroes journey all the more compelling. In this instance there really aren’t any
heroes, just villains and antiheroes. It’s
time for baseball to get with the times and devote one season to that of the
antihero/villain (plus think of the ratings!).
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