2009 World Series: It's amazing what the truth does for you

Congratulations to the New Yankees on winning their 27th World Series.

Never mind it took $1.4 billion to get from 26 to 27. It was a proud accomplishment and should be regarded as such.

Two Yankees stuck out to me amidst all of the celebration: third-baseman Alex Rodriguez and pitcher Andy Pettite.

Within the last couple of years, links to steroids and/or other performance-enhancing drugs marred both of these players' careers. Nicknames like "A-Roid" started popping up, and you wondered if we would ever remember them for anything else.

Both players have gone on to make wonderful contributions to this championship team, and we have more-or-less forgotten about their infamous past.

My is question is "Why?"

Why have we forgotten about the disgrace these players brought to themselves, their team and Major League Baseball?

We certainly have not forgotten about Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire. Roger Clemens hasn't slipped our minds. As much as we try, we can't get Jose Canseco out of our minds.

Why A-Rod? Why Pettite?

I always hear people say things like "winning solves everything" or "by nature, people are very forgiving."

While I do actually believe both of those statements, I think there is a missing ingredient to both.

The truth.

Like them or not, both players did eventually come clean and admit their mistakes. That's not something you can say for Bonds, Sosa or McGwire.

Whether it's sports or politics or TV, the truth still goes a long way.

I'm glad we have put it all behind us, because this can be a lesson to those who get exposed in the future.

Just admit it. Don't insult our intelligence. Come clean with your wrongdoing, and be done with it. Don't tell us "it must have been something in these supplements I'm taking" or "I just take whatever my trainer gives me. I don't ask him what's in it."

Even during the whole Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, I remember people saying if he'd have just told the truth, they'd have forgiven him. Whether that's actually true or not, I don't know, but it shows how high honesty is still valued by society. We don't like being lied to.
Sure, we'll be completely dishonest when it comes to selling things, making business deals, filling our tax forms and the like, but we just don't want anyone to lie to us.

It may not make much logical sense (few things people do/say do), but I think it gives us a lot more insight to society's moral thermometer.

When people stop caring if others are lying to them, then we're really in trouble.