Ten Guys to Believe In (At your own risk.)
It feels foolish, doesn’t it? It feels foolish to even venture a guess anymore about who’s using in sports and who isn’t. It’s a sucker’s bet every time, trying to find the clean stars. Manny Ramirez isn’t a shock, exactly, but he is one more guy you have to cross off the list. Just ludicrously careless.
Still, I’m a parent, and parents don’t give up so easily. They know the truth in a way that makes it unavoidable: Their children love, love, love having sports heroes. It’s got nothing to do with what Charles Barkley thinks about being a role model. He is one. LeBron is one. Peyton is one. Manny is one. And every time one of them goes off the rails, he ruins something for a kid in a way that leaves a deep, lasting impression.
It really is that simple.
So baseball is loaded with losers and louts, but you knew that. The more interesting thing, by far, is figuring out where you’re still willing to go with your hopes on behalf of your kids, the ones who still love pro athletes and want to believe in them.
In the wake of Manny’s news, I thought immediately about Derek Jeter, as follows: Please be clean. (He’s at the top of one of my sons’ lists, with David Wright at the top of the other’s.) And I decided that Jeter almost certainly is, that it’s going to be okay. He’s a safe hero, comparatively. A sucker’s bet, I know, but we’ve all got to invest hope in something.
Herewith, a quick, shoddily researched but heartfelt list of bona fide winners who I think my two baseball-playing, baseball-loving sons can believe in:
- Derek Jeter. Punch-and-Judy hitting never looked so appealing.
- Albert Pujols. Says he’s clean – and, I admit, I’m begging to believe him.
- Evan Longoria. Nice, short-to-it-and-long-through-it swing. Natural power.
- Justin Morneau. Gotta be straight-up talent. Just got to.
- Adrian Gonzalez. Gold Glove flexibility; good but not unbelievable power.
- Troy Tulowitzki. So fun to watch in the field.
- David Eckstein. I mean, come on. Gives hope to little kids everywhere.
- Jason Bay. For the lovely irony of it.
- Josh Hamilton. Already admitted everything, and no steroids on the list.
- Ichiro Suzuki. Best pure hitter of his era.
Now go out there and don’t make me look stupid.
-30-