The news just gets more and more disappointing for baseball fans. We recently learned of a big doping lab in Miami, Florida. Today, a report from ESPN says that Biogenesis boss Anthony Bosch personally injected Alex Rodriguez with performance-enhancing drugs.
According to the report, Rodriguez got personal treatment – secretive and outside usual hours:
The texts, the source said, usually came late at night, telling Anthony Bosch to come to the house. Bosch would then head to the waterfront mansion on Biscayne Bay, through the gate on North Bay Road, to inject performance-enhancing drugs into Alex Rodriguez.
Procedures were different, though, sources told "Outside the Lines," for the other athletes who were customers of Bosch's Biogenesis of America clinic in Coral Gables, which Major League Baseball considers the center of a widespread doping operation in South Florida. Those athletes, sources said, relied on intermediaries to transport the performance-enhancing drug regimens Bosch provided.
But for A-Rod, the service was always personal: "Only Tony handled A-Rod," one source told "Outside the Lines."
Once baseball's best hope for a clean home run record, Rodriguez has fallen from the best player in the game and one of the more popular players in the game to one despised by most. Despite one admission that Rodriguez used steroids in 2003, fans generally were forgiving. The fans that gave him the benefit of the doubt feel betrayed.
The Yankees reportedly hope to dispose themselves of Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez will not retire, his spokesperson said yesterday. For the Yankees to rid themselves of Rodriguez, they will have to pay him. Despite the previous admission, Rodriguez would only be up for a 50-game suspension because he has no strikes against him thus far. That is what the Collective Bargaining agreement says. It will save the Yankees north of $8.5 but the team will likely eat the rest.
People generally are okay with people making a mistake after an apology. Consistent lying and contnued behavior after being granted forgiveness will not win anyone over. I can see the Yankees swallowing hard and simply releasing Rodriguez, eating his whole contract.
Who will take a broken-down, 38 year-old drug user? I don't know. I wouldn't.
