A-Rod versus A-Roid

By Cecile Nguyen

I spent this past Valentine's Day with A-Rod.

No, not that A-Rod, not the one who has been dominating the sports headlines as of late for his use of performance-enhancing drugs. I was with the other one.

Tabloids in New York have already dubbed Alex Rodriguez "A-Roid," and I think it's quite fitting.

Because of all this, I move to strip Rodriguez of his nickname A-Rod and hand it over to Andy Roddick, the more deserving A-Rod.

So I spent my Valentine's Day watching this A-Rod play tennis.

Roddick was in San Jose all last week for the SAP Open, and watching him play Saturday was probably one of my better Valentine's Days to date.

A-Rod was defeated in the tournament's intense three-set semifinal match by Radek Stepanek, who went on to win both the singles and doubles title and was the first player accomplished this feat since John McEnroe did so in 1986.

Regardless of A-Rod's loss to Stepanek, it was still awesome seeing one of the top American players up close.

Watching the three-time SAP Open singles champion run up and down the court, returning volleys and hitting his signature 150-plus mph serve made for an incredible day.

But you know who else hits balls really hard? The other A-Rod, the one that used steroids.

Thank you Rodriguez.

Thank you for taking steroids and becoming another fallen baseball player.

Thank you for practically lying to my face about using performance-enhancing drugs.

Thank you for keeping steroids in the nation's limelight. The use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are major problems that Major League Baseball needs to deal with now.

Thank you for ending your marriage to reportedly date Madonna. Your baseball records are as fake as her British accent.

Thank you for making tennis and the other A-Rod look that much better. He doesn't need performance-enhancing drugs to establish a record for the fastest serve.

Thank you, Rodriguez, for being the highest-paid athlete ever and thinking that might justify your use of steroids. Yeah, sure, you felt pressure to succeed because of your bloated salary.

Thank you for continuing to ruin my image of baseball and baseball players whom I used to hold in the highest esteem.

Thank you for all of that, A-Roid.