What kids think about A-Rod, steroids

It's interesting looking back on the good deeds Alex Rodriguez was doing while he was also doing steroids. In 2003, A-Rod presided over a ground-breaking ceremony for "The Alex Rodriguez Education Center" at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami, an event trumpeted by Major League Baseball.

A-Rod made a major gift to the center and explained the gesture this way: "I'm all about giving kids different avenues and good avenues. In life, there are bad ways you can go. I want to give kids good avenues."

Linda Robertson of the Miami Herald stopped in at the A-Rod Center this week to chat with kids playing ball. From the Herald article:

"He [Rodriguez] is like a living patron saint to this place. He always comes around in the off-season, to work out, to hang out. He gives away Christmas gifts, holds baseball clinics, tutors students. To the kids, he was the ultimate role model, because he was one of them, made it big and never forgot his roots.

"Now, though, a sense of confusion permeates the club. Fallibility isn't a concept kids can fully comprehend. But cheating is a word they know.

''Lots of kids want to wear No. 13,'' said Joshua Pastrana, 12, a catcher on the International Gold team. ``Now it will be kind of embarrassing to wear that number.''

Finally, the debate goes on in Appleton, Wisconsin over whether it's time to yank A-Rod's name from the local Babe Ruth League diamond. Post-Crescent sports columnist Mike Woods thinks it's a no-brainer. (See Feb. 10 post).

MLB's good deed: The Breakthrough Series

A thumbs up to Major League Baseball for a smart youth sports event it's hosting this week.

The event is the Breakthrough Series, a three-day audition for high school juniors and seniors hoping to play baseball in college. The wrinkle is that that kids participating, for the most part, are from inner cities and disadvantaged backgrounds. They don't have the finances to pay their way to for-profit showcase tournaments.

The Breakthrough Series is being held at MLB's Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif. It's a fabulous complex, with diamonds, batting cages and, as impressive, study areas and a wonderful library filled with baseball books. I had the pleasure of visiting in 2006 and meeting the director, former big leaguer, Darrell Miller. I've been critical of MLB for so many blunders over the years. MLB deserves considerable praise for the Urban Youth Academy. It's a gem.

Anyway, the kids participating in the series are coming from all parts of the country. They'll be observed by dozens of college coaches. And their teachers for the week include Rod Carew and Frank Robinson. As one player told me when I shared that news: "Awesome."

I've written about the Breakthrough Series in next week's Sports Business Journal.