Saturday, February 7, 2009

Call him A-Roid! A-Rod reportedly tested positve for steroids in 2003

It's always something in Yankeeland. Just when I thought the Yankees might have a quiet day for change, Squawker Jon called me to see if I had heard the big news about Alex Rodriguez. According to a Sports Illustrated report by Selena Roberts and David Epstein, A-Rod tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003, back when he won his first MVP. SI says:

Rodriguez's name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball's '03 survey testing, SI's sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

I would have thought that the derogatory nickname for Alex this year would be A-Fraud. Now I'm guessing it will be A-Roid!

If this report is true, I'm pretty angry about A-Rod taking performance-enhancing drugs. I can never be surprised about such things in this day and age, but I am disappointed.

A-Rod hasn't denied the SI allegations:
When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. "You'll have to talk to the union," said Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, "I'm not saying anything."
So if this report is accurate, it really hurts Alex's legacy. I don't care whether it was an anonymous test, or that steroids were not technically banned in baseball back then. The main thing A-Rod had going for him was the perception that he achieved all of his records cleanly, and that he would one day be the drug-free all-time home run record holder. Now he really is A-Fraud.

Sadly, it appears that I'm going to have to put Alex in the same category as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds - already-great players who repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs, were caught doing so, and who have forever tainted their names.

And unlike Clemens and Bonds, who were approaching the end of the careers when the steroid allegations first surfaced about them, the Yanks are still on the hook for another nine years, and $270 million or so, with Alex. Lovely.

Will A-Rod's legacy recover from this? I don't think so. Jason Giambi survived because he has a great personality, and because he was candid and remorseful, as far as these things go. Andy Pettitte was also remorseful and fairly candid, and he also had over a decade of goodwill among Yankee fans to draw from. A-Rod? Not so much.

Selena Roberts, co-author of this SI article, is currently writing a book on A-Rod, to be released later this year. I'm guessing that this will be the biggest Bomber-related bestseller since "The Yankee Years"! I'm also figuring that Jose Canseco, who alleged in his book "Vindicated" that A-Rod was really A-Roid, is feeling, well, vindicated!

I'm sure I will be squawking about A-Rod in the next few days, but in the meantime, what do you think? Leave us a comment!

29 comments:

nutballgazette said...

He told in interviews he never used and never was tempted to use. So I think we can call him A-Liar and all the other nicknames are fair.
Say Goodbye to the Hall Of fame A-Liar

Anonymous said...

What is it about the yankees and cheaters? my goodness, i guess it really is win at all costs! what a shame, another black mark for the bronx bombers.
km

mhochman said...

My wife has been calling him A-Roid for years, and i've been defending him. Makes me look silly.

Ryan O said...

I wouldn't worry about it too much Yanks fans...the report goes on to say that he never took steroids in clutch situations or October.

nutballgazette said...

Give it time. Red Sox players will show up on these reports also
You have to believe that several of the 2004 Red Sox players use including one player now on the Yankees, A player with the # 38 attached to him and a current slugger who is a Free Agent and has very little interest from other teams.
My hope is that none of the 96-to current Yankees players are never mentioned in any of these reports.

Anonymous said...

Well, ladies and gentlemen: please excuse me while I go to my kitchen.

Right now, I am preparing a meal for myself that I don't think will sit well with me. I know it will not digest well and I will suffer with severe agata for quite a while because of it.

What I am preparing is roast crow.

I feel it's a befitting meal for me to consume in light of all I said in my posts yesterday defending A-Rod. Honestly, I did not see today's news coming, but after I heard about it, I got up, went out, shot me the biggest crow I could find, and now I'm going to have no choice but to sit down and dine on it.

Anyone have any good recipies for it so it won't have to taste so lousy?

Anonymous said...

I'm still an A-Rod fan, though, but I'm also very, very disappointed.

Anonymous said...

I suppose I'm really not surprised - with most of MLB juicing. I just held out hope that he was the one guy that didn't need to juice. When he didn't come up in the Mitchell report, I felt a small twinge of vindication for him because of all the backlash he receives.

All I can do now is just really, really hope that he didn't do 'roids after 2003 and during his time with the Yankees. With his talent, he doesn't need any of that crap.

I guess that now, in 2009, steroids in baseball is old news anyway. Now we find A-Rod lied. Shit, they all lied: Bonds, Clemens, McGuire - the whole bunch of them.

I just hope that A-Rod can rise above this and move on.

Don't worry, I still have my crow to eat and I'm sure they'll be plenty of leftovers for quite a while.

Subway Squawkers said...

Nutball Gazette, The Mitchell Report did name a bunch of the late 90s Yankees, including nine members of the 2000 team.

But I don't think anybody can assume any player - or team - is clean any more. Sooner or later, we'll all be eating crow with the emperor!

Anonymous said...

Emporer, I just googled "recipe for crow" and the first site I hit actually had some tasty looking recipes. Maybe eating crow isn't as bad as we've all thought :)

Seriously though - as a Sox fan I love to hate ARod, but I actually thought he was clean too and was pretty surpised to see the news. If it is all true then its disappointing, but I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise.

So the question is how does this impact him? He lets stuff get in his head and this is a bit heavier than getting spotted in a strip joint.

Anonymous said...

Who's next? Pujols?

nutballgazette said...

Lisa and Jon, I stand Corrected.
You are right about The Mitchell Report, I remember saying and I believe you also said that it was amazing the lack of Red Sox Players were mentioned in the Mitchell Report.

Anonymous said...

I'm one of these "entertain me and I really dont care about this roid mess" fans. That may put me in the minority but so be it. Alex gets the same reaction from me that I gave Andy, Jason, Roger and Barry. "That sucks, next."

Anonymous said...

Lisa, you're right: for anyone to pretend to be naive enough to believe that only the Yankees had steroid users and no one else on any other team is either kidding themselves or just piggybacking on the media hype to strengthen their resolve as Yankee haters and deflect any notice off of their own teams.

The Yankees are the most covered team, so naturally the media will expose more dirt on them than on anyone else. Doesn't mean other teams didn't cheat, it's just that right now they're not being covered or discussed.

Scapegoats. That's all the Yankees have become. Why not? It's so convenient. If some other team had won as many championships, they'd be covered instead.

Anonymous said...

Good point, Symphony. And I know better than to disagree with you because 1) you're correct, and 2) I don't feel like getting knocked upside the head with that Superchick megaphone. :-)

Anonymous said...

Paul, those crow recipies you found - can it make crow taste like General Tso's chicken? If so, then it won't be so bad going down.

I'm more concerned about the heartburn I'll get, though..

Anonymous said...

Emperor, you're a smart one! ;)

Anonymous said...

Emperor, I don't think it is the success that you have had that leads to a more intense scrutiny about ped's. they are not scape goats either. look at the big names that are yankees and have been implicated. that is the reason for the attention on the yankees. if ortiz or manny were fingered, the attention would be magnified as well. or someone like pujols as shefan suggested. these guys are superstars. the lights alway shine brighter on them, especially when they screw up. this is a baseball thing right now, not a media vs. the yankees. nobody is naive enough to think that they don't have players using. heck, i wish some of my player took advantage like the yankees do! castillo and schneider could use a little pop in their bat!
km

Ryan O said...

Since so many Yankess are linked to steroids does this make A-Rod a "True Yankee" now?

Emperor i think your being too defensive. Your best bet is to change your favorite team to one that does not use their resources (drugs, money) to compete with an advantage.

Dont worry though this will all go away when A-Rod's contract is over in 9 years.

Anonymous said...

Emp, you could do a remake of the old Alka-Seltzer commercial. You're at the table all decked out in Yankee gear in front of your just finished meal (a book of "How to Prepare Crow" or something similar is in the background so the viewer knows what you've just enjoyed). You then say with a pained look "I can't believe I ate the whole thing".

I count myself among those not naive enough to think that there is a fair share of Sox names on that list, but I agree that its more about ARod's overall star power that makes this so juicy for the media.

Happy Sunday and cheers from Boston!

Anonymous said...

Whoa, whoa - guys, slow down a second. Please, pay attention to what I'm saying.

I'm not saying that the players that were on the Yankees didn't cheat back then. I know they did, and I also know that players from other teams are guilty as well.

What I'm saying is that when the Mitchell report came out, even though it listedmany, many players from all teams, at that point and time the media was pretty much putting the majority of the emphasis on the Yankees,, and then started focusing on the dynasty years.

I'm not making this up, and Ryan, I'm sorry but the Yankees are scapegoats, because it's very fashionable to hate them.

What I was simply trying to add is that if it were a different team that had a dynasty suring the steroid era, then the players on that team would be focused on because they won world series.

A lot of players that were found on the Mitchell report that were using PEDs with the Yankees were using them before they even became Yankees. But nobody comments about that. A-Rosd was using with the Texas Rangers, but since he's a Yankee that's the focus. If Texas had won a WS during those years, the story would be different. This is why I get defensive.

Hey, look, it's just my take on it. You don't have to agree with me, but I have as much right to express my thouhts as you guys do. I think we can all aggree to disagree if that's what it has to come down to. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't feel I'm wrong, either.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Paul - I can also see myself doing that commercial for Alka-Seltzer.

This really sucks, though. It's like this crap just doesn't ever want to go away. She-fan mentioned Pujols. I bet one day his name will pop up, then Manny, then Papi, then Schilling, then Ryan Howard, and the list goes on.

While we're at it, maybe Jeter and Ichiro will come up one day, then Bernie, then Juan Pierre, Garret Anderson, andVladimir Guerrero, and Mark Texeira and Alfonso Soriano. Why not everyone in MLB?? But unless any of those guys are Yankees or were Yankees, most people really won't give a damn.

My point is that everyone is now a potential liar and cheater. Like Lisa said: Guilty by association.

Anonymous said...

Steroids and A-Rod is one topic this Red Sox fan will not crow about. At any given time a name could be released from any team regarding steriod use. This is a shadow cast over all of MLB and the only innocents in this scandal are the fans. And my dislike for A-Rod has nothing to do with his amazing talent. For me, he is someone I wish would disappear from the spotlight. He and Manny should start a leauge of their own. Of course, neither could agree on who would get top billing.

Ryan O said...

Still too defensive Emperor. Your wasting too many calories defending the indefensible. If Arod was still on the Rangers (and i bet you wish he was) this would still be a big deal. He had an interview with Katie Couric last year when he swore he never took steroids. Take an unbiased look if thats possible.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Yeah, okay - anything you say, Ryan. You win.

Anonymous said...

bonds was never a yankee, it was a big deal. Mcguire, never a yankee big deal. palmiero? sosa? never yankees, both big deals.
km

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Ah, whatever. I don't give a crap anymore.

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