Madonna Loves Steroids

What do Alex Rodriguez and Jose Canseco have in common? Well let's see, they both:

1. Play(ed) baseball
2. are sluggers
3. played in the American League
4. bang Madonna

and now 5. took steroids.

I, like most baseball fans (including his own), have never really cared all that much for A-Rod. He has bad tendencies like not showing up in October, talking like a d-bag, tanning in the middle of the busiest fucking city in the world with his shirt off and slapping baseballs out of the glove of Red Sox infielders that all really make you want to just punch him.

Yet at the same time, for as tragically douchey as he is, I've always been able to respect the absolute undeniable talent the guy has, and have looked to him as a bastion of hope to be (along with Albert Pujols) the finite example of clean, unadulterated talent in this generation of baseball.

So much for that.

As was revealed in a forthcoming SI article, A-Rod tested positive for performance enhancing drugs during the preliminary round of survey testing MLB administered during the 2003 season. These tests were intended only to canvas the necessity of performance enhancing drug testing and players who tested positive were not penalized in any way.

In fact, these were never suppossed to be revealed publicly. Technically speaking, it wasn't quite cheating yet. It was illegal, but not cheating - go figure.

This isn't the same kind of smoking gun positive, post-2004 test that exists for Rafael Palmeiro and allegedly for Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, but a positive test is a positive test whether it was technically cheating or not.

In the court of public opinion, though, it was cheating. Just as it was when McGwire didn't feel like talking about the past.

So now here we are sitting at the dawn of Spring Training 2009, and one of the top 3 hitters of all time (Bonds), one of teh top pitchers of all time (Clemens), two additional members of the 500 home run club (Sosa, McGwire), a member of the 3,000 hit club (Palmeiro) all have serious steroid allegations or hard proof of steroid usage against them.

And now, our generation's hope, the guy we looked to when Bonds passed Hank Aaron and said, "well, yeah, Bonds is a cheater, but at least we have A-Rod to break it someday" about is also a cheater.

We still have plenty examples of guys that have no steroid dirt around them to look to: Manny Ramirez, Pujols, Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn to look to as either hitting legends or potential future home run kings, but the sobering thing is that a week ago A-Rod was on that list, too.

These allegations against A-Rod are the most sickening of the steroid era.

None of us were really all that shocked when it came out McGwire and Sosa were probably on roids, just disappointed. We've known Bonds had been on the cream, the clear and whatever else well before he passed Hank. Clemens' allegations are also sobering, but let's be honest no one feels as connected to or as involved in pitching records as they do hitting.

But A-Rod?

Aside from Jose Canseco claiming he knew A-Rod was using, there was no dirt on him whatsoever. And to be honest, who hasn't Canseco accused of using?

Another baseball mega-star goes down to the plague that is the steroid era. A-Rod will likely hold or come close to holding plenty of career records in a few years including the holiest of all - the career home run record.

Barry Bonds may not be the home run king in a decade, but after hearing this, it's likely the crown will still be soiled by the same stink that Bonds covered it with.