The Newest Major Rivalry

With record breaking numbers being seen throughout the major leagues, a new rivalry has been formed between the steroid raging Barry Bonds and baseball's golden boy Alex Rodriguez, or at least the media would like you to think so.

Although A-Rod recently failed to break the "Month of April Home Run Record" (he only tied the previous record set by the Cardinals Albert Puljos at 14) his power hitting seems to be all that baseball fans can talk about this season. And with Bonds now only 13 homers away from the all time home run leader, Hank Aaron, his quest to break one of the most sacred records in the sporting world has been overshadowed. Even though Bonds had his best opening season since April of 1996, when he hit 11 home runs and notched 32 RBI's, no one is willing to remove the 28 million dollar man (who by the way took about 4 years to prove his worth it) from his pedestal and mention the pill-popping junkie.

Now, obviously I'm no fan of Barry Bonds either. I actually find it kind of funny that if A Rod stays on track he could potentially hit over 100 home runs this season. I find it even funnier that if he continues his career numbers and only hits 30 home runs a season from here on out, he'll be in Bonds all time record range by the time he's 40. So then what's the point?

I find it ridiculous that while Barry Bonds suffers simply because he was the only person actually caught using performance enhancing drugs his numbers are over looked while Alex Rodriguez is drooled over by the media and fan alike. Hasn't anybody noticed his considerable change in over all size since he first appeared in the big-leagues? I realize that there are a few out there have written on the subject and questioned his liegitimacy as a player, but for the most part, and more specifically this past month, he has been nothing but glorified for his incredible numbers while Bonds remains ridiculed and seemingly forgotten. I'm not syaing I want Bonds in the headlines, in fact I'd prefer not to hear about him either. I'm only suggesting that before we bow down to all that is A Rod, maybe we should keep in mind that that the MLB is a level playing field these days.