ESPN Must Be Juiced By Latest A-Roid Get

Trading Scoops With SI.com



When I caught wind that A-Roid (wisely, I might add) fessed up to taking steroids following the Saturday mega-scoop by SI.com, I naturally headed to that Web site, assuming that's where the latest news was.
How naive.
Seems Alex Rodriguez wasn't going to flay himself to the reporters who had outed his propensity for juicy juice back when he was with the Texas Rangers from 2001-03.
Nope, that honor was reserved for ESPN, which got Peter Gammons to Miami pronto, so A-Roid, er, Rod could say he was really, truly, genuinely sorry for being naughty -- even though Major League Baseball had no way to sanction him.
SI.com, at least, cited ESPN in the lead for its latest story, though its original dispatch may be what most fans will remember most, as they remember where they were when they heard about the implosion of the player they thought could be the real home-run king, not that no-goodnik Barry Bonds.
Alas, no.
Now comes the time for everyone to take a dump on A-Rod, justified or not. ESPN's Jayson Stark and Buster Olney have already wasted no time. Tim Kurkjian's surprised A-Rod fessed up so fast.
Sure, it sucks. But before we lump Rodriguez with Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens into the Cooperstown discard file, let's at least remember the kind of numbers he put up before and after he admitted juicing (assuming, of course, those were the only three years he took performance-enhancing drugs). The guy still has prodigious gifts. But will any of that matter even a farthing of the hundreds of millions the Yankees will pay him is very much an open question.
The asterisk is just above the 8 on the keyboard.