By ANTHONY WITRADO At this point in his career, guilty or innocent, Alex Rodriguez has absolutely zero credibility. He is done. It will take a lot of new, contradictory information to cleanse him of this latest stench. Baseball executives, fellow players and, most importantly, fans likely never will believe anything Rodriguez has done/will do is legitimate or free of chemical...
By ANTHONY WITRADO
At this point in his career, guilty or innocent, Alex Rodriguez has absolutely zero credibility. He is done. It will take a lot of new, contradictory information to cleanse him of this latest stench.
Baseball executives, fellow players and, most importantly, fans likely never will believe anything Rodriguez has done/will do is legitimate or free of chemical enhancements. He has done this to himself. And for a man who seems so desperate to be accepted, loved and praised for his on-the-diamond prowess, this is a damning blow.
The Miami New Times repeatedly named Rodriguez, the New York Yankees’ star third baseman, in a report that claims multiple major league players and other athletes bought human growth hormone and other cocktails of performance-enhancing drugs from 2009 through 2012. Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic in Miami, is a now-closed company, and one of its founders, Anthony Bosch, has previous ties to PEDs (he was linked to Manny Ramirez after the slugger was suspended in 2009).
Rodriguez’s attorney, Roy Black, issued this statement Tuesday: “The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true. Alex Rodriguez was not Mr. Bosch’s patient, he was never treated by him and was never advised by him. The purported documents referenced in the story — at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez — are not legitimate.”
Neither is Rodriguez’s good name.
There is no more benefit of the doubt with A-Rod. Believing the worst is the only option. Maybe he thought he could skate on his previous PED admission in 2009, saying he used banned substances only from 2001-03 while with the Texas Rangers. Maybe he thought if he played well enough he could get the public and media back on his side.
If so, he was probably wrong. But these allegations assure his name will forever be trampled, regardless of how many home runs or smiles he accumulates before the end of his playing career.
If you believe the New Times report is accurate and Rodriguez is again guilty of using banned substances, then you believe he used PEDs for such a large chunk of his career that he can’t be seen as anything more than a total product of the dope.
There is a chance MLB’s “just cause” rule in its Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program will not be enacted on Rodriguez or any of the other players mentioned in the report — the league doesn’t need a positive test to suspend a player for PEDs if it believes it has just cause to do so. If an independent investigation cannot produce enough evidence to prove Rodriguez bought PEDs from Bosch, then Rodriguez can’t ever be guilty in the eyes of MLB.
But Rodriguez doesn’t strive to look good in the eyes of the league. For him, it’s different.
Most players who dope do it for the money at the end of the needle. That next contract could be their last, so the risk of using banned substances far outweighs a 50-game suspension for testing positive. The statistics tied to PED use eventually lead to the payout that can set up a player’s family for life.
Screw the respect of their peers or fans, because executives, while they might look down on PED use, pay players for what those drugs may or may not help produce. We see it nearly every season. While Melky Cabrera — he also was named in the New Times report — might have left millions on the table after testing positive last season, his two-year, $16-million contract from the Toronto Blue Jays isn’t chump change.
We’ve seen the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s reaction to suspected PED users. They aren’t getting into the Hall of Fame. But many players who use banned substances don’t give a damn about that. Screw the Hall of Fame, because you don’t get a paycheck for being inducted. Screw the title of being one of the greatest to ever don a major league uniform, because those players still will be invited to card shows once they retire. And they will accept those invites with millions upon millions of dollars stacked in the bank.
That’s all most players care about.
But Alex Rodriguez isn’t most players. He is a special case. He is A-Rod. He is desperate to be accepted as one of the greatest hitters ever. He hates the tarnish. He doesn’t want to be identified as a cheater, regardless of how much money he has made in the sport (the riches probably help, though).
The problem is A-Rod can’t stop smashing his thumb in his car door. He knows the public sees his worth as a productive, superstar baseball player. So, he does whatever he can to get the edge, legal or illegal. He believed that if he thumped enough homers and won a couple more rings, his brutal admission in 2009 would fade into a footnote.
Now, his PED use is nearly the entire story.
His legacy already was tarnished, and that tarnish was from more than just his drug use that he claimed was limited to his days in Texas. Now, nothing short of MLB completely debunking the New Times report and the links to Anthony Bosch will save Rodriguez. And even that might not do it.
Rodriguez is a pariah in the baseball world. Seeing him as anything other than a cheater is nearly impossible. His weird gazes into a mirror, his frosted tips, his celebrity girlfriends and his penchant for writing his phone number on baseballs during postseason games are all just stupid add-ons at this point.
A-Rod no longer has the benefit of the doubt and the fans’ adoration. That is lost forever, and rightfully so if these new allegations are true. And the man who did all of this to be hailed as one of the best can blame only himself.