Baseball fans around the country awoke Saturday morning to a shocking report from Selena Roberts and David Epstein of Sports Illustrated that cited four sources who alleged that Alex Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids while with the Texas Rangers in 2003.
A-Rod's positive test came from a batch of 1,198 samples taken by Major League Baseball as part of a survey intended to determine whether random testing should be implemented beginning with the 2004 season. Of those tested, 104 players are believed to have come up positive for banned substances -- well over the 5 percent threshold MLB deemed necessary for random testing. The current superstar third baseman of the New York Yankees is the only name to have surfaced, as the rest of the results remain sealed tight in a California lab. Rodriguez's results were reportedly obtained by federal investigators seeking additional evidence in the Bay Area Lab Co-Operative (BALCO) scandal, though there is no known connection between A-Rod and BALCO.
The report is not especially shocking insofar as we know that dozens of players, perhaps even a majority, used a variety of performance-enhancing drugs during the so-called Steroid Era. But it is quite a stunner to those who hoped against hope that, some years down the road, a pure and clean A-Rod would slam his 763rd home run, take the crown from the embattled Barry Bonds and restore some semblance of integrity to baseball's record books.
The magnitude of the fallout we're likely to see from the A-Rod news is not yet known, but it could very well be disastrous. On the one hand, this is just a single test taken half a decade ago; on the other hand, it casts doubt upon Rodriguez's MVP award-winning campaign as the Rangers' shortstop that season, and more frighteningly, upon all the other great accomplishments — both past and future — of another one of the greatest players of all time.
A-Rod will not face any reprimand from Major League Baseball for testing positive in 2003 because the league's agreement with the Players' Association at the time mandated that players be protected from both punishment and publicity. Nor will the record-breaking 10-year, $275 million deal he signed with the Yankees last winter be affected, as the contract negotiated by agent Scott Boras has no provisions regarding steroids despite containing lucrative incentives for Rodriguez if and when he passes any of the top four players on the career home run list. But that hardly means A-Rod is off the hook completely.
When confronted by reporters in a Miami gym last Thursday, A-Rod was incommunicado, telling them "You'll have to talk to the union; I'm not saying anything." After conferring with his representatives, Rodriguez finally offered a full apology on Monday, calling his own behavior "stupid" and "naïve." That, however, won't be enough to quiet the media or a fanbase stricken by the news that one of its most respected players used testosterone and Primobolan to boost his performance. Moreover, from a public relations standpoint, this in tandem with Joe Torre's new book, "The Yankee Years" (2009), which reveals that A-Rod had been referred to as A-Fraud in the team's clubhouse, could be extremely troublesome for Rodriguez.
The impact is likely to reach beyond the player and could significantly affect his team on two fronts.
First off, the Yankees invested more than a quarter of a billion dollars in Rodriguez in December of 2007 after being convinced by Scott Boras that he would pay for most of that contract through endorsements and advertising deals while chasing the home run record. Of course, that was assuming he was clean — as he was believed to be until this report was released — which is no longer the case. A legacy tarnished before it was even completed is far less likely to endure, and, more practically, it's far less likely to rake in the big bucks the Steinbrenners were expecting it to.
Secondly, A-Rod has not fared well when facing pressure from the media in the past, and this is the darkest cloud to hang over him yet. Failing to produce in the playoffs or his wife wearing obscene T-shirts to Yankee Stadium pales in comparison to having all of his accomplishments and accolades thrown under the bus. Whether this will impact A-Rod on the field remains to be seen, but it figures to be yet another unnecessary distraction in the home clubhouse at the new Yankee Stadium.
Beyond the player and team, this report also has the potential to bring damage to Major League Baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig will now be forced to weather yet another steroid-related storm, and this one could be the most dangerous of all. The spotlight that earlier this offseason was focused on the lack of suitors for Manny being Manny and the effects that the economic crisis was having on baseball is now going to shift back to the worst possible place, at least from the league's perspective. Baseball hardly needs any more negative publicity, and this will bring it plenty.
Then there's the matter of the 103 names that remain unknown. Odds are that there are at least a few more star players on that list of positive tests from 2003, and even without suspecting anything, the possibility that a new report saying someone like David Ortiz or Albert Pujols could have tested positive is frightening.
Whether your reaction to the A-Rod report is one of horror or schadenfreude, this is a very tough time for Major League Baseball, and the pressure is only going to mount until these names, as well as the reason as to why these anonymous tests were identifiable, are revealed. As the layers of this proverbial onion are peeled, fans had better be prepared to cry.
