Baseball's gone bananas

What has happened to major league baseball?
In a span of 48 hours, three of baseball’s biggest stars made headlines and not for petty things such as disputes with coaches, etc.
In the last week, Alex Rodriguez has come to the New York Yankees to renegotiate a contract. Barry Bonds was finally indicted on federal counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, and Derek Jeter has been accused of tax fraud.
Alex Rodriguez’ willingness to renegotiate with the Yankees is significant for a few reasons. First A-Rod walked away from his old contract with the Yankees and now the fact that he is negotiating a new one makes him look like your typical money hoarding, greedy sports player. Most of us already knew A-Rod was a greedy player. Otherwise he would have taken a pay cut all those years in Texas to give him a better chance to win. This is just proof.
Secondly, Rodriguez went back to the Yankees against the wishes of his super-agent Scott Boras. Boras told teams that they would need to make a $350 million bid, just to get a meeting with A-Rod. Now it looks as though Rodriguez is going to be “settling” for $275 million. For years teams have wondered about the validity of Boras’ “mystery suitor.” The irony is that it took one of his own players to call him on it.
Bonds’ indictment is strange to me for the simple reason that I cannot understand why it took the federal grand jury four years to indict him. The only explanation for this is that somebody must have rolled over on Bonds.
It has been said that in order to have any chance to prove a person perjured in the courtroom there must be either two people willing to testify against him or one person and a document to back him up. I have long been a Bonds supporter, because even if he did take steroids, (and I believe he did) many of his competitors were doping as well and baseball had no testing policy so they have to sleep in the bed that they made.
However, if Bonds’ is found guilty of perjuring to the court about his knowledge of his steroid use, it will be damning for his Hall of Fame chances and the way his career is remembered.
Bonds has wanted his day in court for a long time, and now he will get it. If he is acquitted of this, he will be a first ballot Hall of Famer and all his records will become much more legit.
The most shocking of all is the Jeter incident. Jeter has been accused of not paying his New York City or New York State taxes from 2001-2003. Jeter claims he is a resident of Tampa Florida, (which has no state income tax) not New York, which he claims explains why he filed for non-residency income tax returns to the state from 2001-2003. The State claims that Jeter is simply using his Florida home as his main address as a way to avoid income tax.
Look I don’t know who’s right here, but I know this. Jeter is beloved in New York and all of America. If this turns out to be nothing then people will forget it ever happened and Jeter can go back to being Mr. Yankee and one of the faces of Baseball.
However, if this sticks, it could be very damaging to Jeter’s carefully constructed reputation. Jeter would never be looked at the same by fans or media, and his honest hardworking reputation would be severely tarnished.
Personally I don’t think it will stick, but you know what? They way the last few day have gone in the baseball world, it wouldn’t surprise me if it stuck like glue.