A Rod A Juicer? Nahhh..

Now that we have a new home run king and Alex Rodriguez is somewhat close behind him, I just wanted to express my opinion on this whole steroid issue in baseball.

Chipper Jones came out a few days ago and made a comment about how A Rod will be the next player to be accused of juicing. I agree with Jones. This goes for anyone who hits a boat load of homers, say 50 or more.

But in my opinion, I think the steroid factor is small compared to someone who just has good hand-eye coordination. Don't get me wrong, I do think you also need some power to muscle the ball 400 plus feet away but if you don't have the hand-eye coordination to hit a 90 plus mph ball that is 9 inches round, not to mention hitting the ball with a bat on the "sweet spot".

For those who don't know what the sweet spot is let me define it for you.

The sweet spot is the center of mass on a bat, the perfect balance point. This is right near the label on a Louisville Slugger. This is the point at which the most energy can be imparted from the bat to the ball.

This is about 5 to 7 inches from the end of the barrel where the batted ball speed is the highest. Batters know when they hit the ball in the "sweet spot" because the sensation or the vibration generated from hitting the ball is minimized.

In 14 seasons, A Rod has consistently hit over 35 plus home runs (except for the first 2 seasons of his career and and his 4th season in Seattle). This is going back to 1994. He has also racked up close to 2200 hits and has a career batting average of 305.

In other words, the man can hit! And I think it has a lot to do with his discipline at the plate and his great hand-eye coordination. And if you want to say, "well look at him, he has bulked up a lot". Let me ask you this, take a look at some photos of yourself say ten years ago. I'm sure you've bulked up too! I know I have, and other then lifting a few weights off and on and playing a few pickup games on the weekend, my workout regimen is know where close to the average professional ball player whose job is to workout and stay fit year round.

Like I said, I've bulked up. You wanna know what my steroid is, it's called FOOD!

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