1. I believe Alex Rodriguez has not yet come close to publicly revealing the whole truth about his association with illegal performance enhancers. I believe new information is going to come in poisonous drips, further eroding his reputation and further disrupting the Yankee universe. The hierarchy of the Yankees must wonder if their cleanup hitter will ever face a suspension or – worse for them – crumble mentally and have his play limited because of it.
At this point, I find it hard to believe that he will actually be a Yankee for all nine seasons left on his 10-year, $275 million contract. This was a marriage made for poor reasons – namely to provide good TV in the future on YES when A-Rod is closing in on all-time homer records. Now all the charm has been robbed from that chase.
Rodriguez is a great player, but a car crash of a human being. He is incredibly reckless in his life, and that reckless life is now being examined closer than ever. Which means more humiliating details are to come. I know many Yankee fans want to move beyond this, but it just is not going to happen because a) A-Rod is too big in the public consciousness. b) He is a roundly disliked player and person. So he has a lot of enemies who are going to be willing to dish on him. c) The steroid issue touches a raw nerve in enough people in this country, including with many former/current players, the federal government and many members of the media.
2. I am actually agnostic to a large degree about illegal performance enhancers for a variety of reasons. I will not go into every reason here. But I will say that baseball is always sensitive to its time and performances are impacted by that time.
For example, would Ty Cobb have had 4,189 hits if players had gloves in his era like they do today or fields were manicured for true hops as pristinely as now? Would Hank Aaron have hit more than 755 homers if he had a strength and conditioning coach or would he have hit fewer if he would have had to face match-up bullpens with closers? Would Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig have been even greater if they were able to take the illegal amphetamines that were so part of the baseball culture from World War II until the recent upgraded drug testing or would they have been worse if they had to compete against players of color?
I see illegal performance enhancers as a scourge, but one that is reflective of this era. Just like racism is a scourge that kept players of color out of the majors until 1947 and amphetamines are a scourge that pepped up an awful lot of guys who I am sure are already in the Hall of Fame.
The other item to remember is that prior to 5-7 years ago a real Wild West mentality infested baseball when it came to illegal performance enhancers: There were few laws, fewer sheriffs and a reality that crime paid. This is not to forgive those who cheated, but merely to remind folks of the atmosphere that existed and really to a large extent motivated the cheating. I think we keep applying 2009 morality and knowledge on a period where the same morality and general knowledge was not in play. I think many guys knew they were cheating, but in the way that a high school kid might smoke a joint: knowing it is wrong, but thinking it a minor infraction.
Lastly, I think much of this problem springs from the Dominican Republic where the steroids have not only been easily obtainable, but the use among those trying to make the majors is – yes, I am going to use this word – understandable. The Dominican is one of the poorest countries in this hemisphere, and I can hardly think of a person faced with the choice of take these chemicals and you can get your family out of abject poverty or don’t and keep sleeping 12 to a room who would not take that shot. Plus, the culture often described to me in the country is one where handlers, known as buscones, take young, promising, uneducated players at an early age and promise the family they will feed, house and train the youngster for free now in exchange for about half of a signing bonus later.
I do believe many of the youngsters have had little idea of what exactly they are being given by the buscones. One long-time scout in the Dominican told me this story: He was incredibly exhausted from a heavy workload and went to a pharmacy for a “B-12” shot (sold over the counter). He said he felt noticeably better quickly and decided to get another one, but just this time he brought it back to the States with him and had a friend take it to a lab to be analyzed, and it turned out the “B-12” syringe was filled with steroids. The scout said to me, “If I thought I was taking B-12, I would think many of these kids probably think they are taking B-12, too.”
I point out my general feeling about steroids believing that there is more gray in this picture than black and white. I think as time goes by there will generally be a more sophisticated understanding of the time. And I only bring this all up now because if A-Rod is indeed continuing to be misleading and we keep getting drips that show his words to be false the cover-up is going to destroy him in a way that the crime probably would not have.
3. To that end, the now-revealed cousin Alex spoke about, Yuri Sucart, is 46. That means in the period in which Alex said that he was using steroids, 2001-2003, Sucart was in his late-30s or early-40s. So that young and naïve thing that Rodriguez was trying to sell falls apart even more. Remember, Rodriguez was not 23-25 as he has suggested. He finished his Ranger seasons at ages 26-28. He had played in Seattle at least parts of seven seasons before going to Texas. He was no wide-eyed kid.
He took steroids to try to be a better baseball player. His cousin has been described to me as a nice guy, but a follower and not someone who would have the intellect or fortitude to push A-Rod toward steroids. Thus, he was probably – at best – a mule who got those drugs from someone who advised him how to use them or – at worst – is being used as a fall guy now.
Again, what is going to doom Alex now is the drip, drip, drip of information that shows his story to be bogus. His dubious credibility will be even more damaged.