MLB Steroids: Derek Jeter's reaction to A-Rod's cheating completely misses the mark

Derek Jeter is known as the consummate teammate. He was the leader of a New York Yankees team that won four world championships in five years. He lives the Manhattan penthouse life and he is a model citizen. That is the profile anyways.

If a man, woman or child had to choose between Derek Jeter and Captain America to have as his or her role model, they would be hard pressed not to pick Jeter. Once at a game in Anaheim, I witnessed an Angels fan verbally retaliating to a loud mouth arrogant Yankees fan. Earlier in the game during a rally, the Yankees fan provocatively yelled, "Everybody hits!" But now it was time for 'Everybody sits.' The Yankees fan yelled back at the Angels fan, "Sit down and shut up and watch a future Hall of Famer (Jeter) hit." To which, the Angels fan immediately sat down and reverently watched Jeter!

Leaving aside the general positive feelings that Jeter illicits, I find his comments regarding Alex Rodriguez's cheating and steroids use in baseball are completely unacceptable. Thus, I will address those comments here:

"People always ask that question, (you know) do you feel as though somebody cheated? Well first and foremost, you cheat yourself. I think that's the message that needs to be out there," Jeter said.

That's a good question Derek Jeter. Did he cheat? Because A-Rod's story is that he took steroids by mistake. We just know that is rouse and anyone as intelligent as Jeter knows that is so also. Yet later on in Jeter's press conference he had no problem calling A-Rod "honest."

But first and foremost, A-Rod did not cheat himself. If A-Rod's psychologist wants to tell A-Rod that, then that is one thing. But baseball is the national pastime and is sacred to thousands if not millions of purists. For them, it's the A-Rods, Bonds, Big Macs of the world that are spitting on Babe Ruth's grave.

But even if we marginalize the purist, are we really suppose to downplay that A-Rod cheated his way to over half a billion dollars. That is billion with a b! A-Rod's career on the field earnings are at $197,431,586. That does not include the next nine years of his ten year $275 million contract. That does not include the millions of dollars he made in endorsements. Endorsements were his main reason for being in New York. Some experts estimate that a player like A-Rod can earn $100 million a year in endorsements alone. That is well beyond his exorbitant yet comparatively poultry $28,000,000 he earned last season.

Yea but do not worry because first and foremost A-Rod cheated himself. It is not like you, the everyday Joe is paying him all that money for his cheating (sarcasm). So remember that the message is that A-Rod has to deal with his own demons.

A-Rod will earn over half a billion dollars (in his playing career), not get punished or sewed by MLB's weasel commissioner, probably be allowed to play without being disciplined and possibly break hallowed records by cheating is of lesser consequence. And when A-Rod hits home run 757, breaking Hank Aaron's all-time home runs record, his cheating will be reinforced with you guessed it more bonus money. But don't worry, because A-Rod has have to deal with his own demons. You do not need to worry if you are one of countless pawns that pads his bank account. Just sit back and idly watch as cheating is tolerated and advocated, because A-Rod feels bad enough after all.

"The biggest message that needs to be out there is that everybody wasn't doing it. (I mean) You hear about people saying this was the steroids era. There were a few players in this era taking steroids, but it wasn't a steroid era. I mean you have what a hundred something people fail the test and how many people are in the major leagues, 1200? You have 1100 people that haven't done it," Jeter said.

Did Jeter read my entry, 'It was not the steroids era; it was the better steroids era'? OK, probably not. But how does 104 steroid users qualify as a few? Because only one in twelve people were caught cheating he wants to play it down? If you throw a party on Christmas Eve with a dozen people and play Monopoly and one person is slipping himself a gold bar ($500) every turn then do you say well the biggest issue is that the other eleven people were not cheating?

In some circles, Derek Jeter may be considered equivalent to Captain America, but I'm just going to say that it is un-American to turn a blind eye to such a huge plague of corruption. Comparatively speaking, only a 'few' of the Germans were Nazis too. But that did not stop the detriments of WWII occurring.

There will be some that say that Derek Jeter needed to say what he said for the sake of being a supportive teammate and having good feelings in the locker room. And from that standpoint I can understand any hesitancy to speak sharply on the matter. But he has no excuse to take it to the next level and downplay what A-Rod has done here.

"I always hear other thing about should the other 103 names come out? Really, what's that going to do? It's just going to be another story and it's going to be another black eye for the sport," Jeter said.

Jeter had an attitude that we should all just move on that the dialogue is tired. It is only tired because Jeter is mirroring his players association that stifles discipline. It was that attitude that allowed for 104 players to anonymously cheat and not be punished for it. It was an attitude mirrored by MLB dunderheads like Commissioner Bud Selig and Yankees GM Brian Cashman. They would love to turn a blind eye and move on. Why not. It worked in their Days of Yore.

As for the 'black eye,' that's just another way that Jeter is downplaying the situation. 'Cancer' would be the much accurate term. Unfortunately the cancer is only killing the integrity of the game. It has yet to start speaking a language that MLB executives and players understand; and that is the language of money.

Derek Jeter has an enabling attitude. If he truly wants to be Captain America and not some concoction of the media then he needs to call for zero tolerance. You cheat and you are gone for life period. There is no excuse for blatant premeditated cheating. Eradicate the cancer by doing the radiation. Stop calling cancer 'a black eye.' Seriously, did we fall so in love with Derek Jeter that he can spew all of this out and we are not critical of it?

"You see some of the things these players are going through and then they have to admit it; that's worse than somebody being suspended or anything like that," Jeter said.

So what, A-Rod is a sympathetic figure here? His shame is punishment enough? Granted he does have the Scarlet S on his chest. But let me remind Jeter that A-Rod also wears the blacks NY on his chest. To give him a pass and even allow him to keep that NY on his chest just makes an incoherent gray symbol. There's just nothing special or meaningful about what it means to be a Yankee at this point.

The consequences of cheating just is not important to those in the dough (money). We are talking about the same organization (MLB) that when pressed to get tough on steroids, came up with the ten strikes and you're out law!

"You understand people do make mistakes, nobody's perfect. We're hear to support him recover from that mistake," Jeter said.

Why is this merely a mistake. Why is the c-word blantantly missing from Jeter's dialogue. Stop minimizing the severity of his crime against baseball. This is not merely a mistake. We are talking about a man that has cheated his way to the most amount of money in baseball history. We are talking about a man that would have been considered the best player in baseball history (at least statistically). We are talking about a man that was winning MVPs and countless accolades for his perceived greatness. This was not just a mistake this was criminal, literally. Jeter calling it merely a mistake is bombastic.

"Unfortunately when you are in the spotlight any mistake you make is made public and people are talking about it and they're scrutinize and stuff like that," Jeter said.

There is nothing unfortunate about it. Let your light so shine before men. We want to see real players and we want our game unpolluted. We want cheaters to suffer real consequences. There is nothing unfortunate about that. Jeter is taking up a passive aggresive stance against the media and the public for having the audacity to not want to settle for less (sarcasm).

There you have it sports fans, maybe Jeter is not such a hero after all. Maybe he is just a baseball player; and one that is happy to turn a blind eye to the ills of his sport at that. He is not 'classy' as so many of the youtube users said in their response to his comments. Nor does it matter if he was coached. His response to the A-Rod situation was contrived and designed to illicit such bliss. Meanwhile, the cancer continues to kill.

Pictured: Derek Jeter, New York Yankees team captain