From Great to Disgrace: The Alex Rodriguez Case

Image Credit: USAToday.com

By: Kai Jones

Edited by: Dana P. (E.I.C.)

Has there ever been a more polarizing figure in baseball than Alex Rodriguez? If so, Rodriguez is in the top 5 along with Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa. However, Rodriguez may be the most talented player out of those five. Not comparing and contrasting these players, but one thing they all have in common is, they all are looked at as liars by the media. What sets Alex Rodriguez apart from the others is that he's played under a microscope in the pressure cooker, New York City. Not to mention it's THE most popular team in the MLB, the New York Yankees. Since he  arrived to New York, he has seen some of his best and worst career moments. His worst obviously would be the steroid scandals.

Rodriguez came to New York already a polarizing figure because he was looked at as overpaid, despite being the AL MVP before he came to the Yankees. He produced in his first year with his new team, and was a big contributor in their playoff run to the seventh game of the 2004 ALCS. This was also the series where he knocked the ball away from Carlos Arroyo, which kept Jeter at first base and took the team to 2 outs in the eighth inning of a close game that could've decided the series. While Rodriguez won 2 more AL MVPs, he received criticism from the media for being a bad fielder (although he converted from a short stop to third baseman specifically for the Yankees), for struggling in the postseason, and for the way he opted out of his contract. Even worse, in 2007 came the opening of Pandora’s box: famous steroid user Jose Canseco accused Rodriguez of being a steroid user as well.

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Baseball was at it’s highest in popularity from the 1990’s to the early 2000’s because offense was it’s peak. The reason? MLB wasn’t trying to stop the steroids because they did not believe they had a problem. Jose Canseco’s first book: "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Popular" brought heat towards some of the game’s best players. This caused investigations from the MLB in 2003, which then caused US Congress to investigate. After the MLB investigation, they found that they had a problem and mandated testing. In 2006, former Senator George Mitchell started investigating steroid usage in the MLB. This 21-month investigation became known as the infamous Mitchell Report. This was the beginning of Rodriguez’s unraveling. 

Since steroids became a popular subject to the baseball media, Rodriguez constantly denied steroid use. In 2007, Canseco promised his book would unmask Rodriguez as a hypocrite. In 2009, Sports Illustrated attained Rodriguez’s test results from the MLB’s investigation in 2003, which was supposed to be anomyous and destroyed, but was gathered for the Mitchell Report two years. Rodriguez then tested positive in 2003, one of his 3 MVP years. After this article was released, Rodriguez started doing damage control and went on ESPN admitting to steroid use in 2001-2003, but he claimed to be clean since he came to New York. Through this criticism, Rodriguez went on to have his best postseason as a Yankee in which he won the World Series MVP, and of course the first championship of his career. In 2010, Rodriguez came under fire for being a patient of Anthony Galea, a doctor who illegally brought mislabeled drugs including HGH (a banned MLB substance) to America. Galea later cleared Rodriguez’s name by claiming he only prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine to Rodriguez. Rodriguez dodged that bullet, but he couldn't dodge the biggest bullet of his career, the Biogenesis baseball scandal.

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The Biogenesis of America was an anti-aging clinic in Florida. In 2013, the now-nonexistent clinic named several players that it was connected to, and allegedly sold PED’s to Rodriguez. The MLB went on the offense and pressured the owner, Bosch, to release all the players involved in the clinic. Some speculate that the MLB just wanted to finally get Alex Rodriguez, and I somewhat agree. Rodriguez was the one guy who besides media persecution, had eluded punishment in spite of being an admitted steroid user. Rodriguez was still a big name, highly paid player, while legends like Clemens and Bonds have undergone high criticism and legal problems because of their usage. They finally officially got Rodriguez late 2013. Rodriguez was suspended for all of the 2014 season (after appealing from August until the 2013 season was over). Now the situation could get worse as Rodriguez’s cousin and personal assistant are in deep trouble. Yuri Sacart, (Rodriguez’s cousin) is facing federal steroid distributing charges. In addition to that, Sacart is in the hospital after having open-heart surgery. Even worse, Sacart’s wife is threatening to expose every secret the family knows about Alex Rodriguez. The big issue for Rodriguez is the MLB has a policy against distributing steroids, and if Rodriguez is found to have helped his cousin, he could face another penalty from the MLB. With Rodriguez being owed so much money from the Yankees mixed with the combination of the Yankees being embarrassed by Rodriguez, means he will have no help from his team.

This whole situation is muggy and continues to take turns. Not even the writers from The Young And The Restless could have thought about this plot. Will Rodriguez be able to sustain further stains on his soiled name? Can he elude the MLB’s pursuit? Will he be able to collect the 60 million plus that the Yankees owe him? While all these questions are unknown, one thing I am almost sure of is that Rodriguez, one of the biggest offensive weapons in MLB history, will have a heck of a time getting into the Hall Of Fame when this is all over. It really is sad that one of the best players in MLB history has such a stained name and probably will miss being enshrined into the hallowed hall.