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This past Sunday ended up being sort of a strange day of thought. It didn’t start out that way, and it really didn’t even seem strange until well into Sunday night. On Saturday, I saw a pretty good movie and afterward heard a piece of news. The two events didn’t really seem related at the time, but for some reason, I thought about both of them, sort of as separate issues and then together. It’s weird and awesome when things work out that way, even if I usually don’t like working that hard.

The first part of the equation was that Mickey Rourke movie, The Wrestler. I wanted to see it, but I’m not completely sure how much I was really expecting from it. I’ve liked about half of director Darren Aronofsky’s previous movies, but I really don’t watch much professional wrestling, so that part was a crap shoot. Still, that was the last thing I worried about. I don’t really have anything against Mickey Rourke, but he does sort of seem like a one-man freak show most of the time, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see him as the character he was playing. I’d also heard Marisa Tomei was naked through much of the movie, which actually was the reason I figured I could sit through it.

It turned out I forgot about all of that crap, except the naked girl part, about three minutes into the film. It was just a really amazing movie. It’s sort of strange sometimes when someone does a kick-ass acting job because I’m still sitting there thinking, “Wow, they’re a good actor.” Instead, with this movie, I was sitting there thinking, “Wow, that poor wrestler has a pretty freaky life.” It’s nice to get sort of lost in a story and believe all of it is really happening. The sad part is that it just doesn’t happen all that much to me anymore. I couldn’t wait to talk about it afterward.

Post-movie, we went out to have a couple of drinks and do just that. While we were sitting talking about The Wrestler, I noticed a crawl on ESPN that said Yankee third-baseman Alex Rodriguez was one of 100 and some players who tested positive for steroids back in 2003. I have to admit, it made me feel a little happy. I wasn’t happy because my favorite sport had been tarnished once again by a vastly overpaid dipshit. I wasn’t happy because it would be the only thing on the sports page the next day. I was just happy because I really don’t care for A-Rod. You know, that kind of “don’t care about” where you wouldn’t piss on his head if his frosted hair was on fire.

These particular steroid tests were supposed to be confidential, but as we all know, that word has sort of lost all meaning in these times. Regardless, the information got out somehow, and now A-Rod is getting smacked down by seemingly everyone in the world. A person would think that that 200-and-some-million-dollar contract would take some of the sting out of it, but I bet it doesn’t in this case.

A-Rod has always struck me as a guy who was more concerned with appearing to be a good ball player than actually being one. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an amazing baseball player, but I’ve never felt he was quite as good as he thought he was. I won’t even mention that he seems to disappear in the playoffs or that every team he leaves gets better and every team he goes to gets worse. OK, well, I actually did mention it, even though I said I wouldn’t. Either way, I get the impression that his biggest fear is being exposed as a fraud, and now it’s actually happened. He’s a guy pretending to be A-Rod.

See, these two things don’t really go together, but if you think about it, they sort of do. Apparently both of the characters were doing steroids, but it’s even more than that. The Wrestler is about a fake sport, and yet it allows us to see the real pain involved in putting on such a show. Pretty much everyone who goes to see pro wrestling knows it’s a sham, but that’s part of the deal. They still enjoy it. Baseball is an actual sport, and we all believe its outcomes to be true. Yet underneath all of that, it hasn’t been on the up and up for many years now. It’s getting tough to see which one is the bigger fraud.

Mickey Rourke has seemed like a complete nutjob for many years now, and yet he’s still able to do something amazing for his craft. A-Rod, at least until recently when he left his wife for a washed-up pop singer, has seemed like the biggest goodie-two-shoes in the sports world, and yet he’s done nothing but yank another cloud over his profession.

So just to sum it up, I really liked the movie, and I really like baseball. At the same time, I don’t care much for Mr. Rodriguez. Just the same, I’m beginning to wonder what’s actually real these days. Maybe it’s all just a big show, and part of the fun is trying to figure out the truth. I almost liked it better when I didn’t know anything.