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Dunlap: Arrieta Doesn't Deserve This

PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan)  - Haters are just the worst.

They are jealous, they are envious, they want what you have and --- more than likely --- will never get it.

Apparently the haters are working overtime emitting their hate in the direction of Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta.

You know who he is, right?

He's the guy who has thrown two no-hitters in his past 11 starts.

He's the guy who is in the midst of the best 24-start pitching run in the history of the grand game of baseball.

He's the guy who stuck it to the Pirates at the tail end of last season in the Wild Card Game at PNC Park.

He's the 30-year-old guy without the enormous pedigree until recently, but with a staggering 20-1 record and 0.86 ERA in his last two dozen starts.

He's the guy the haters keep rumbling has to --- JUST HAS TO! --- be on some sort of performance enhancing drug or drugs.

I don't know if he is or he isn't. Only he does.

I also know when he says he isn't, I believe him.

But you know what's unfair? That Jake Arrieta --- who has to go through the same drug protocols as every other Major League Baseball player and to this point has passed all the tests --- has to be the continual subject of ire for the haters.

Why?

Why does a man have to incessantly prove he is innocent?

That isn't how the burden of proof in this country works --- and it shouldn't be how the burden of proof in baseball works, either, now that we've pushed past the Steroid Era.

It gets back to the haters for me.

On Tuesday at his clubhouse stall, Arrieta addressed some of the haters …

"I've heard players, and I'm talking about some of the best players in the league,'' Arrieta told USA TODAY Sports, "question whether I've taken steroids or not. Some of the things I hear are pretty funny, and some people are idiots, frankly.

"I'll see on Twitter, 'My close source revealed to me he's on steroids.' Well, the 10 tests I take a year say otherwise. I eat plants. I eat lean meat. I work out. And I do things the right way."

You know what? I believe him. I believe in this meteoric rise from a guy who a few years ago with Baltimore was a middle-of-the-road pitcher to now someone in the throes of doing legendary things. And I can't believe some out there have a hard time believing he could change his body type, change the way his being is put together, through hard work.

Know why? Because that's his job.

Also, I have done something on a bit of a smaller scale while not having anywhere near the amount of time to dedicate to my body as Arrieta has.

First to the part about his job: Baseball is what Arrieta does for a living, it's his sole vocation and what he can dedicate 365 days a year to. There isn't a 9 to 5 he has to work and then hurry off and rush to the gym. He doesn't have a ton of other responsibility and then hurriedly have to devote some time to baseball.

No --- baseball is who he is and what he does.

When Arrieta wakes up, he can start training for baseball until the time he goes to sleep on most days, if that's what he elects to do. Outside of every fifth day when he's called upon to pitch, he can almost literally live in the gym.

What's so hard to comprehend about a man with that time to devote – and access to world-class facilities -- being able to force a significant change with how his body is structured?

I know it is more than logical to me.

Know why else it is? Because I've done something akin to it. In the past three years or so, I've gone from 217 to 177 pounds, added a lot of muscle and dropped many pants sizes working out very hard five or six times a week for about 90 minutes each session.

I've found a CrossFit regimen that I love and like-minded people who I go through it with who have as deep a focus as any group I've encountered. I've reached goals I didn't know I could achieve when I set out on this journey.

The reason I did it, the motivation I used, was to be a healthier role model to my twins, who are now 5.

Who knows, maybe the motivation Arrieta used was to attain more money, to be a better pitcher or to stay in baseball as long as possible. Perhaps it was to be the best in the game, I don't know.

Whatever his motivation was and whatever goals he set, it's safe to say he's reaching them.

But for those who think --- and haters who verbalize --- that Arrieta couldn't do it without the help of some performance enhancing substance, I think you grossly underestimate the power of a highly-motivated individual who decided to make a lifestyle change.

Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can email him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.

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