The Morning According to Us: The A-Rod Saga Continues

Is this just a big "by association" witch hunt aimed at MLB's highest-paid player?

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We don't know for sure when A-Rod started "juicing." We do know people like to make a big deal out of "by-association" situations, though.

Let us now take on the unenviable task of defending A-Rod. A story is out this morning claiming he might have juiced with the Yankees, and may have juiced as far back as high school. The allegations will be disclosed in full in Selena Roberts tell-all book on Rodriguez, scheduled for release next month. Roberts, of course, is the journalist (currently with Sports Illustrated) who broke the news that A-Rod juiced with the Rangers.

Unlike the previous report, though, this one offers little by way of concrete evidence.

The book quotes anonymous Yankees who believed A-Rod was taking steroids based on the side effects they saw.

In 2005, for instance, A-Rod's nickname in the clubhouse was "b---h t-ts" because of the slightly rounded breasts he developed after putting on 15 pounds in the off-season. A-Rod's alleged condition, known as Gynecomastia, is linked not only to the usage of anabolic steroids, but withdrawal from them. In other words, if A-Rod had Gynecomastia (which so far has not been verified) the condition could have been the result of him quitting steroids.

In any case, the book says no Yankee had the temerity to just ask A-Rod outright if he were using.

Instead what we have in A-Rod's post-Rangers days is steroid-use-by-association: A-Rod seen in 2004 with pitcher Kevin Brown, later named in the Mitchell Report, the two allegedly carriyng on their persons HGH, a claim Brown today denies; quotes from Jose Canseco, saying he is "absolutely" sure A-Rod is taking banned substances these days, but only "probably" sure of what those banned substances are.

Canseco makes a guest appearance in A-Rod's teenage life, too. He was sure back then that A-Rod was juicing because "he could lift almost as much as I could." Two former high school teammates—unnamed, though—say A-Rod took steroids. They say their high school coach knew about it, as well.

A-Rod could have very well been juicing from 16 years of age on; he's already admitted to doing it for a period of his life. But there is nothing here as irrefutable as Roberts' previous story on A-Rod as a Ranger.

The story today is a leaked excerpt of a yet-to-be-published book, a book which we haven't read and a book which may yet support this morning's allegations. But so far, all we have are the allegations, and they're somewhat reckless, especially when they meld into fact.

Here, for instance, is the New York Daily News' headline: "A-Rod took steroids while with Yankees, and as teen, claims new book." The inaccuracy there is the Daily News', and not Roberts'. But to the extent that Roberts, or her publisher, have hyped these allegations hoping to drum up sales, they obscure the far more revealing idiosyncrasies of A-Rod's character: the fact that he is needy, constantly requiring a reassurance of his talent; the fact that he "pitch-tipped;" and the fact that Hooters girls don't like him because he tips poorly.

That's something even we won't defend. When the Hooters girls are against you, so is the world.

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