There’s plenty to be said about Alex Rodriguez these days. The 33-year-old Yankee third-baseman has made headlines nation-wide for weeks because of his recent tie with steroids. Before this recent development, he was fronting tabloids because of a fling with Madonna. It poses an interesting question. Is this an innocent ball player trapped in unwanted lime light, or is he a firefly unable to resist the glow of fame?

When this story broke I was adamantly defending the future hall-of-famer, but not because he was innocent and steroid free. Rodriguez doesn’t deserve to bear the blame of the entire steroid era. It’s doubtful that anyone honestly believes he was alone or even one of a few.

ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated and every other sports related media has spent weeks deciphering A-rod’s every move. ESPN’s First Take even brought in a body language analyst to talk about the official press conference. It’s nearly impossible to shed light on anything that hasn’t already been said when it comes to opinions on the situation. Facts are all that remain and all that should really be considered.

In 2003, MLB administered a drug test in order to decide whether steroid usage had become prevalent enough to need future monitoring. Rodriquez participated with the guarantee that the results of the test were to remain anonymous and players were not to be punished for a positive result.

In 2004, the sealed results were confiscated by federal investigators in correlation with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal. The search was for 10 specific players being investigated for use of tetrahydrogestrinone, a then untraceable steroid. A list of 104 athletes was shown to dozens of judges throughout the BALCO trials and a few of the names have been leaked.

At the time the tests were administered, MLB’s policy on steroids was that players with a positive result be required to seek treatment. There were no fines or suspensions involved.

In 2004, one year after Rodriguez’s only positive drug test, MLB’s policy change. Each player was tested once a year during the regular season. A first offense required treatment. A 15-day suspension was given to second-time offenders.

These policies show that baseball was more than willing to turn a blind eye to steroid use as long as the players were filling seats, which they most definitely were. It’s hard to imagine any professional athlete, or any person for that matter, that would pass up an opportunity to make a few extra million or more in their next contract by experimenting with steroids. Baseball’s lack of concern would only make that decision easier to make.

It wasn’t until 2005 that MLB finally made steroid use a punishable act on the first offense. Players were subject to at least one unannounced test during the season and random testing was done in the offseason. All suspensions were non-paid. A first offense was a 10-day suspension, 30 days for a second, 60 days for a third, and one year for a fourth.

There has been plenty of debate as to whether or not A-rod lied about the years he was taking steroids and the extent to which he understood what he was doing. After watching his first official press release, I’m sure almost no one found his statement sincere. It may or may not have been written by him and the manner in which it was read seemed both too planned and too fake. Rodriguez must be a fan of The Young and the Restless because his delivery was as overly dramatic as today’s best soap’s.

He dodged questions like a professional during the Q and A portion. The “no follow up questions” clause helped that effort very much. He did, however, admit repeatedly that he was young and stupid at the time.

At this point, what more can the public possibly ask of this man? That is, above all, what he is. People seem to forget that he’s not a super-human baseball player incapable of making mistake. He has come forward to apologize and take responsibility, unlike others in the same position.

At the time, steroid use was not a punishable offense so Rodriquez cannot be suspended or removed from baseball for his actions. Maybe it wasn’t the most ethical thing to do, but poor ethics aren’t a crime. If evidence comes out proving that Rodriguez continued to use steroids after it was made illegal by MLB, I’ll happily change my tune.

Wrong or right, the bottom line is that Rodriguez is going to continue playing baseball and will probably break the home run record before he retires. To the parents out there, remember there are much worse things in this world to be concerned about than a steroid-using baseball player. He isn’t a murderer or a pedophile. He didn’t sell your kid coke or get your daughter pregnant. He didn’t hurt anyone but himself with his mistake.

Rodriguez obviously enjoys being famous, but even he can’t like this kind of attention. This was clearly something he did years ago and never intended to come to the surface. We all have things in our past we’d rather not discuss today. Rodriguez’s usage has become public and he has no choice but to address it. He’ll survive, we’ll move on to the next juicy story, and believe or not, small children all over the world will grow up without ever seeing a syringe despite this incident.

Dawn Johnson can be reached at [email protected]