The Life and Times of A-Fraud

The first time I heard the name Alex Rodriguez was during my sophomore year in high school. I was working as the sports editor of my school newspaper and to say I had an unhealthy obsession with baseball was an understatement.

It was in May of 1993, about a week or so before the annual Major League Baseball Amateur draft, and I was reading an article about Rodriguez, who was a sure fire lock to go first overall. He was a scouts dream. He hit for average and power. He had blazing speed, a great arm and played stellar defense at the premium shortstop position. The Seattle Mariners were the fortunate benefactors, picking first that year, and young Alex would start showing off his abilities at the major league level just two years later.

                                                                    Seattle days: Long before it all went wrong.

At the age of 20, the Mariners anointed Rodriguez their everyday shortstop for the 1996 season and he didn't disappoint. He won the American League batting title with a .358 average. Led the league with 54 doubles, smashed 36 home runs and had 123 runs batted in. Alex's journey to the Hall of Fame seemed well on its way.

He left Seattle after five outstanding seasons via free agency and signed the biggest contract in the history of sports (10 years/$250 million) with the Texas Rangers. His home run totals surged to 52 in '01 with Texas, then 57 in '02 and back down to a humble 47 in '03. Yet the Rangers finished in last place in the NL West all of those years and Rodriguez was still searching for a World Series title to add to his list of accomplishments. Enter the New York Yankees. Texas swapped Rodriguez for Alfonso Soriano and a player-to-be-named-later. The best player in the world was heading to the center of the baseball universe where names like Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle and Jeter shine forever in immortality. The stars seemed in near perfect alignment.

Rodriguez continued to post gaudy offensive numbers when he arrived in New York. He won two AL MVP awards along the way, but the whispers of performance enhancing drugs around MLB included Rodriguez. He'd vehemently deny using them in 2007 during an interview with Katie Couric on 60 Minutes, but as more and more players around the league admitted their guilt over PED usage, the innuendos would continue around Rodriguez. He would eventually admit to using anabolic steroids during his first three years in Texas. He cited "an enormous amount of pressure to perform" as his reason for using. Later that same year, Rodriguez would help the Yankees win the World Series, gaining him the championship that had eluded him all those years.

Fast forward to today. MLB suspended 13 players linked to the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic for use of PED's. 12 of them received 50 game suspensions. Number 13, and yes that's the number he wears on the back of that pinstriped Yankee jersey coincidentally, was Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez was hit with the harshest sentence of 211 games (the remaining 49 games of this season and the entire 162-game, 2014 season). MLB's statement explained that his discipline was based on the use and possession of numerous forms of performance-enhancing substances, including testosterone and human growth hormone. Furthermore, his discipline under the Basic Agreement is for attempting to cover up his violations of the Program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the Office of the Commisioner's investigation.

                                                                              The Post always says it straight.

Not only a fraud and a liar, but he tried to cover the whole thing up. Truly amazing. Why not try and save your little remaining dignity and just take the suspension and admit everything. Plenty of major leaguers have taken that route, and eventually people will forget. It's the group of players that won't admit it, that will forever be tarnished. Barry Bonds. Roger Clemens. I'm looking at you. Just admit it Alex, you did a lot of wrong. To your fans, to the game of baseball and to the teams that paid you hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. Apologize and maybe, just maybe, you will be forgiven. I doubt it, but I also doubt you would give a truly heart-felt apology anyway.

In typical A-Rod fashion, he immediately appealed the suspension and was in the Yankee lineup for the first time this year tonight, batting clean up. In his first at-bat, he hit a 'clean' single. Unfortunately, for a guy who seemed destined to be a Hall of Famer from the start, there's nothing that will truly ever be considered 'clean' about you again.

This week in stupid: Riley Cooper

For those of you that don't know, Riley Cooper is a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles and also, as his own words will show you, an ignorant, racist asshat.

                                                                 How long before that first concussion cheap hit?

You see, Cooper was at a Kenny Chesney concert this past June, consuming massive quantities of alcohol throughout the day. He then proceeded to go nuts and drop an N-bomb because he wasn't allowed backstage. I mean, really, who wouldn't let Riley Cooper backstage? His biggest claim to fame thus far is being Tim Tebow's roommate while at the University of Florida. He should have name dropped his old buddy Timmy there and saved himself a boat full of headaches. Pun intended.

Cooper's exact quote was, "I will jump that fence and fight every n****r here." The best part is that he points directly at the camera filming him while saying this. You're in the NFL, you schmuck. The most popular sports league in the United States right now. Did you really think that this wasn't going to land you in a steaming pile of trouble? This rates at the absurdly high end of stupid. How anyone in professional sports that shares their day-to-day with many other athletes from varying walks of life could use a racial slur is beyond me.

The silver lining here, if you could call it that, is that Cooper is going to get blown up eventually by a member of an opposing team's defense. I'd be willing to wager more than once. Marcus Vick, brother of Eagles' quarterback Michael Vick -that's right, Cooper's teammate- offered a $1,000 bounty to the first free or strong safety to light him up.

Moral of this story. If you play a violent, contact sport you should keep your racist thoughts to yourself because they are bound to get you knocked out on the field.