I’ve been wondering about this question the past week considering the blitzkrieg of WBC press by ESPN lately. First of all, don’t get me started on the World Baseball Classic to begin with — we get to watch the best players in the entire world compete 162 times from April-September in something called Major League Baseball, what good does the WBC serve besides tiring out my team’s pitching staff? Anyway, every time I see the ESPN WBC commercial play (which I’ll admit is pretty cool in a nationalistic sense), I wonder why they would choose Alex Rodriguez — an admitted steroids user, not to mention a U.S. citizen — as the player to represent the Dominican Republic. Yes, this admitted cheater is now headlining the WBC as a representative for a country where he wasn’t even born. Here’s the commercial in case you’ve missed it:
Of all the players on the Dominican Republic roster — superstars like David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez, and Jose Reyes — you pick the admitted cheat who wasn’t even born in the freaking country? And what kind of slap in the face is that to the U.S.? As we were discussing on The Arnie Spanier Show on Sporting News Radio Wednesday, why would a guy who was born in the U.S. and has made like $300 million here, choose to represent the D.R. in the WBC, especially considering he played for the U.S. team last time? It’s bad enough seeing this guy used as a “face” in advertising a product considering his latest admission, but it’s rubbing salt in the wound by having A-Rod draped in a Dominican Republic jersey. I’m very surprised that ESPN not only continued to run the commercial, but that they didn’t just splice in a new player to represent the Dominican while leaving the rest of the commercial the same. It’s highly disappointing and makes me wonder why they decided to pick him for the spot and why they continued to run it even after the steroids issue.
