Please, Alex Rodriguez, do yourself a favor. Call a news conference and tell the truth, the whole truth, about your use of steroids.
If you were using Primobolan and testosterone in 2003, as Sports Illustrated has reported, admit it. If you later stopped using it and regret your earlier use, tell us that. Be honest if you have continued to use and somehow don’t regret it.
Just don’t hide. It’s too late for that.
Come clean for your own good and to lessen the fishbowl hell that will be the last nine years of your 10-year deal with the New York Yankees, or however long you can take the abuse that is coming your way.
Andy Pettitte issued an open apology after his name came up in the Mitchell report, and a lot of people have given him a break and let him get on with his career. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds opted for the stonewall approach, and both are getting dragged deeper and deeper into the criminal court system.
If Rodriguez tries to beat this rap, he will be viewed as a Rafael Palmeiro-style joke, in addition to a cheat.
Palmeiro shook his finger at a panel of U.S. congressmen and said he never had taken steroids. A few months later, he became the first high-profile player to be suspended after a positive test.
Rodriguez didn’t receive a subpoena to appear before Congress. But in the aftermath of Major League Baseball’s internal investigation into steroid use, the Mitchell report, the homer-hitting infielder did a “60 Minutes” interview with Katie Couric in which he was asked if he had ever taken steroids.
“No,” Rodriguez said.
Couric asked if he had ever been “tempted” to use steroids.
“No,” Rodriguez answered.
But he didn’t stop there.
“I’ve never felt overmatched on the baseball field,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve always been in a very strong, dominant position. I felt if I did my work, as I’ve done since I was a rookie back in Seattle, I didn’t have a problem competing on any level.”
On Saturday morning, Rodriguez’s image changed forever.
Sports Illustrated posted a story on its Web site previewing a piece in next week’s issue. It reports Rodriguez was among 104 players who tested positive for steroids at spring training in 2003, when the testing was being done only to determine the level of use throughout baseball.
MLB had promised players anonymity in that first round of testing, and so far Rodriguez’s confidentiality is the only breach. The smoking gun lies in urine samples that were to be destroyed in 2003 but lingered past their expiration date because of a union mistake. Following up on the BALCO scandal, federal prosecutors managed to keep them around, seemingly with Bonds in mind.
Coincidentally, they appear on the verge of being disallowed as evidence in Bonds’ perjury case. Rodriguez won’t find much comfort in this, however.
Rodriguez’s rights have been bruised, if not violated, but that won’t buy him much sympathy in the court of public opinion.
He faces no formal action based on revelations from anonymous sources yet now wears the same scarlet letter as Bonds, Clemens, Palmeiro, Jason Giambi and other stars who have tested positive or have been linked anecdotally to the use or purchase of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
Along with his pile of offensive statistics, Rodriguez has carefully crafted a positive image that recently has been damaged in a nasty divorce and his public dalliance with Madonna. Unlike Bonds, he has attempted to be both historically productive and popular.
Agent Scott Boras told ESPN he had no knowledge of any positive test and his client was out of the country. He dismissed the allegation’s effect on Rodriguez’s image.
“In a worst-case scenario, if they were true, it was one season, and since then Alex has gotten the Good Housekeeping seal the last five years,” he said.
Rodriguez’s posturing caused him to pick up the nickname “A-Fraud” in the Yankees’ clubhouse, according to the new Joe Torre book. His inability to come through in the clutch in his four trips to the postseason for the Yankees has left him hearing boos in his home park.
Most San Francisco fans never really turned on Bonds, cheering his slow climb to 762 home runs even while knowing he probably had been chemically enhanced. But Rodriguez will not enjoy that kind of home-field advantage when the 2009 season begins.
He truly will need to be Superman to get the demanding, often angry fans in his corner at the new Yankee Stadium, which opens in April.
The Yankees themselves are probably the biggest loser in this story, signing him to a new 10-year contract after he had exercised an opt-out clause following the 2007 season.
It clearly helped Rodriguez’s cause that he seemed only five or six years from catching Bonds and holding the record that had passed from Babe Ruth to Henry Aaron in 1974.The contract includes no language that would void it because of steroid revelations. Like Rodriguez himself, the Yankees have made their bed. It’ll be easier for all of them to sleep in it if Rodriguez realizes he won’t be able to hide.
– – –
Are we talking A-Fraud now?
This is not a good time to be Alex Rodriguez. First, his former manager’s book on his time with the Yankees confirms that A-Rod is not exactly beloved in his clubhouse. And now a Sports Illustrated report says he tested positive for two steroids in 2003 while with the Rangers, the year of his first MVP award. Considering the allegations against Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and others — and now this — what’s your feeling on the state of the game?
A. Feeling fine. A-Rod is innocent until proven otherwise, the same as those other guys. It’s warm out, pitchers and catchers report in a week. Let’s play ball!
B. Fix this. The Mitchell report was a start, but the game hasn’t done enough to clean itself up. And now A-Rod, seemingly clean, is entangled. Enough is enough.
C. I’m out. You can’t believe the records. Everyone who’s in the league is on something or they couldn’t make the roster. Bring on the NCAA tournament. And Bears training camp.
Vote at chicagotribune.com/arodpoll
– – –
Balance of power
Starting with his first full major-league season in 1996, Alex Rodriguez’s home run and RBI totals year by year: %% ’96 36 123 ’97 23 84 ’98 42 124 ’99 42 111 ’00 41 132 ’01 52 135 ’02 57 142 ’03 47 118 ’04 36 106 ’05 48 130 ’06 35 121 ’07 54 156 ’08 35 103 %% ———–
Finding more is a snap
Check out a collection of photos of Alex Rodriguez over the years at chicagotribune.com/arodphotos
