Sports Illustrated has reported that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steriods in 2003 (see full story here).

2003 was the year major league baseball first began testing for steroids, but not in any official, punitive way. They were randomly testing baseball players to find out whether it would be necessary to begin testing officially; if more than 5% of the tests came back positive, they would implement a mandatory steroid testing program, which obviously they did in 2004.

All of this you can read in the Sports Illustrated story; it's very good and very detailed. Remember also, a couple of A-Rod's teammates from the 2003 Rangers included Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro, two guys who were either implicated (Gonzalez) or actually tested positive (Palmeiro).

What does this mean? To some, it's a shock -- A-Rod was supposed to be the one guy who putting up huge numbers yet remained above the fray (maybe one of two guys - Griffey Jr. has a pretty clean reputation to this point). To others (me included), nothing is a shock anymore.

Here's where I come in on the steroid issue. It was a huge problem in baseball (obviously), until they began seriously testing in 2004. Much of the problem was with players who probably took steroids just to keep up with everyone else, but didn't want to take them. When MLB began testing in 2004, these players were likely more relieved than anyone.

I know a guy who played minor league baseball for a few years and never got past double-A. Years ago, when he was still playing, he called a close friend of his and told him that he was considering taking steroids. His friend told him he was crazy. But the problem was, this baseball player was clean, and he was watching guys who weren't any better than him getting promoted to the big leagues, because they were taking steroids. The difference between playing in the minors and the majors is literally millions of dollars, and sometimes tens of millions. It's hard for me to blame these borderline major leaguers from taking steroids, when the potential financial gain was so great.

This latest news is just another step in identifying the cheaters, and moving past this era. A-Rod might be on his way to breaking Barry Bonds' record. A week ago, a lot of us were pulling for him, so a cheater wouldn't hold the all-time HR record. Now, that appears inevitable, for the foreseeable future.

2 Comments

Ron said:

That's interesting about your friend. It is quite a dilemma. A-Rod is a joke now.

February 7, 2009 6:53 PM

Jabbar said:

Why is this story coming out now. If he tested positive in 2003 why bring this up now. You have to think that someone is trying to cash in on this story. If it was that big of deal why didn't this story surface at the time it happen. Let's look at the season he had at the time he suppose to have tested positive and look at the season he has been having since then. He has had better season since.

February 7, 2009 10:14 PM

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