The day after Tom Hicks’ unreserved remarks about former Ranger Juan Gonzalez ended up on the radar of sleeping TV shows and blogs alike, the Texas owner clarified his accusation somewhat, telling the AP, “I have no knowledge that Juan used steroids. His number of injuries and early retirement just makes me suspicious. In any event, we paid him $24 million for very few games.”
To which I can only add, I have no knowledge Tom Hicks has smoked angel dust. But he’s currently paying Alex Rodriguez tens of millions of dollars to play for the New York Yankees, and the Rangers have made very few playoff appearances this decade (ie., none).
And not to take Hicks’ original quote out of context, but there’s something a tad unseemly about one of the game’s powerbrokers expressing frustration over not getting his money’s worth as opposed to taking umbrage at whatever Juan Gone might’ve previously achieved with an unfair competitive advantage.
Let’s not forget the player being villified won a pair of MVP awards as a Ranger and arguably did more for the franchise than their current owner.
Through all of this, there is one man who could surely vouch for Juan’s integrity, much as he did once did for Rafael Palmeiro. How difficult would it be for the Commander In Chief to issue a blanket vote of confidence for everyone named Gonzalez?