Daily Roundup- Sunday, Febuary 8th

My apologies for the no-show yesterday. I’m sure my one fan on the World Wide Web was absolutely destroyed when he saw that my blog had not been updated. So of course I have to come with twice the thunder this morning and BOYYYYYYYYYYY do I!

For those who may not have heard yesterday, the world of baseball was shocked with the revelation that Alex Rodriguez had used steroids according to a report posted on SI.com in 2003 by reporters Selena Roberts and David Epstein. The major details out of it are that not only had A-Rod used testosterone but also an anabolic substance called Primobolan which is usually injected or taken orally “improves strength and maintains lean muscle with minimal bulk development according to steroid experts.” In Kirk Radomski’s book “Bases Load: The Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report”, he says players leaned on Primobolan “in part to avoid detection in testing. Primobolan is detectable for a shorter period of time than the steroid previously favored by players, Deca-Durabolin.”

Well, yet another super star has made an egregious error and this one plays on the most famous sports team in the world. Not only was he recognized as the game’s best, he’s the highest paid player in the the game. Well throw all that out the window Shame-Rod. He’s going to be the world’s most vilified athlete and seen as a joke.
While his contract is incentive laden depending on how many records he ties, its been confirmed that there is no language there to insure the Yankees in case he gets caught with steroids. Of course that may come out to be false when all is said and done but this is more importantly another black eye to baseball. He was supposed to be the Anti-Barry, but now he’s just yet another athlete fallen from grace. I guess there are no heroes in sports anymore.
Also the fact that Gene Orza warned him about using it is also pretty damning considering he still got caught. If you cheat, please cheat responsibly Mr. A-Rod. Good news is, that atleast we can now stop talking about Mr. Torre’s book.



Of course now A-Rod is going to be crucified in the court of public opinion and we start off in the city that loves anything dealing with pinstripe pain and the hammer is wielded by Mr. Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe who tells A-Fraud to look at Barry and NOT do what he did.

By the time A-Rod reads Mr. Bob Ryan, his lawyers and baseball’s Player’s Union will have already briefed him on how to handle the press. The documents, from what I’ve read, are court sealed and are not to be released to the public so the fact that these reporters got their hands on it is pretty remarkable in it of itself. I am just afraid of how this is all going to end with us NEVER KNOWING when he started or when he stopped or if he ever did stop.
Its true that A-Rod better take a good look at Barry. You know the old saying about History, if you don’t learn from it, your doomed to repeat it.

Mike Lupica of the Daily News predictably just wants A-Rod to come clean and tell us, the public, everything he knows.

The funny thing is here, that even if A-fraud came clean, what good would that do? What would it repair in a sport that time and again has proven to be a joke in terms of policing itself and its players? Nothing. In fact, if he does say he messed up, it won’t matter. We now look at steroid users as cancerous members of society not worth a second touch or look. He’s now just another juicer who has to live his life knowing that he made a career defining decision. Like every sin, its great in the short term, but looking back on it, he will learn that for the long term he will be kicking himself.

Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post says, this kind of thing shouldn’t surprise you or anyone else. It’s the kind of thing we’ve come to expect and deal with.

Mike you’re right.


In one of the more interesting takes on this whole ordeal, Wallace Mathews of Newsday, writes that all this steroid talk and Madonna talk and Torre talk only means one thing for A-Rod: another great regular season.

Certain players feast on bad publicity. Some players use that ordeal to make them mentally stronger. However I think this will be tough for A-Rod to do. Not only will he be heckled by Yankee fans who have got to be disgusted that they are paying this guy $300 million for the next 10 years, he will be the roast of many towns when he steps on opposing ballparks. Imagine what will happen the first time he steps up in the batters box in Beantown. Should be must-see television


Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News writes, that the All Rangers Juiced team finally has a shortstop.

Reading that list its amazing that some of the names still shock me. When you see these guys on the television and you think about how big they are, it makes you immediately wonder how much steroids they are using. More than anything else, that’s what the steroid era has done to us.

Finally Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes about A-Fraud’s legacy.

The best line in that whole story was when he was asked about his prospects as a baseball analyst when he retires, he responded by saying he wont be seen again when he is done. Well, now that will happen naturally won’t it.

Getting away from the whole steroid mess, some rumors that have now hit the circuit is that the Suns have decided to break up their superstar team and are actively shopping Amare Stoudemire, Shaquille O’Neal, and even Jason Richardson. Basically everyone not named Steve Nash. Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes about the teams that would work, why it would, and why it wouldn’t and what is to come for the Suns.

Since the loss to San Antonio, since Mike D’Antoni left, since the whole Shawn Marion trade, its been one big tumble down for what was once considered the best show in all of basketball. The seven seconds or less offense was creative, innovating and most of the times devastating for opponents who could neither keep up or would eventually get worn down. Now, its just a portion of history that never yielded the results it was intended to get: an NBA championship and the Phoenix franchise is focused on starting over.


Speaking of eras that ended, the Matt Millen one that still gets Detroiters all worked up. But then again, according to Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press, all that needs to be done is for the owner of the Lions to answer some questions as to why they kept him for that long and perhaps sports fans could get over the Millen era.

Of course if the rumor is true and ESPN does add him to the Monday Night broadcast team, I don’t see how Detroit could ever escape his face and the memory of all the damage he did to that franchise.


I need some Joe Posnanski in my life and I get him. In this particular article he writes about the similiarities between new coach Todd Haley and Bill Belichiek.

Its pretty eerie how alike they really are. Results are still pending on Mr. Haley, though for the sake of that franchise, I hope good things are around the corner.