A-Rod at 40: The best and worst from the controversial Yankee slugger
Worst – Much Ado About Steroids
To say that Alex Rodriguez has been a lightning rod for controversy would be an understatement. While he’s had his fair share of questionable incidents on and off the field, there is no doubting that the biggest thing fans hold against A-Rod is his involvement with steroids. And for Rodriguez, they fall in the “Fool me one, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you” category.
In 2007, A-Rod was at the center of the Jose Canseco firestorm created by his book, Juiced. In the memoir, Canseco stated that he himself had seen Rodriguez using steroids when the two were teammates with the Texas Rangers. A-Rod flatly denied the accusations, first to the media and then through a sit-down interview with Katie Couric.
That story fell apart when his name was included in a 2003 drug survey as one of 104 MLB players to test positive for steroids out of 1200 tested. The tests were reportedly sealed and anonymous, but the list was unsealed during the infamous BALCO investigation by the U.S. government and subsequently leaked to the media in 2009. Knowing he had no choice but to admit his own wrongdoing, Rodriguez admitted to using them while only with the Rangers from 2001 to 2003, but had been clean since.
However, clean living wouldn’t suit Rodriguez well as he became embroiled in the 2013 BioGenesis scandal.
Rodriguez was one of 13 players implicated in the scandal, including Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz, and Jhonny Peralta among others. Those players were all suspended for the majority of the 2013 season, with Braun receiving the second harshest penalty of the group. The worst of the deal went to A-Rod, who was found guilty of not only using steroids but also of trying to cover-up his involvement by buying evidence to thwart the MLB investigation. Bud Selig passed down a 211-game suspension for the crime.
Rodriguez was the only member of the group to appeal his suspension, even attempting to take the case to court and suing both Major League Baseball and the Players Association for trying to blackball him in the scandal. A-Rod would eventually drop his suit and his appeal, after basically alienating himself from the game and his fellow players. However, he was able to get it reduced to just the 2014 season, in which he sat out and was basically forgotten.
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