Already, the Alex Rodriguez apology tour is in full swing. In a world of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, A-Rod doesn’t have to do much to cut a sympathetic figure.

He sought out Peter Gammons of ESPN for the confessional and explained that he was naive and stupid and part of a “loosey-goosey era,” in which lots of stuff was going on. He didn’t ask the right questions and he didn’t know exactly what substance he was taking. There were nutritionists and doctors and trainers and, whatever he took, he “feels terrible about it.”

Here’s a simple way for A-Rod to do more than talk — to really show that he has “so much respect for the game” instead of just telling us about it.

In A-Rod’s three steroid years in Texas, he averaged 52 home runs. In his other 11+ seasons, he has averaged 36 home runs. That’s a 50 percent increase.

During those three seasons, A-Rod earned $66 million from the Rangers.

On Friday, A-Rod is scheduled to be honored by the University of Miami at a dinner in honor of his $3.9 million contribution to the school’s baseball program, which is dedicating its renovated “Alex Rodriguez Park.”

At that dinner, A-Rod should announce that he’s donating 50 percent of his salary for those three years — the percentage increase in home runs during that time — to medical research related to steroid and young athletes. That’s a self-imposed $33 million sanction.

“I want to do things to change,” he told Gammons. “I want to do things to influence children.”

That’s something. And it would set good precedent for 103 other major-leaguers, too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 6:41 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.