A-Rod To Speak With Feds, Hysteria Ensues

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Alex Rodriguez stated yesterday that will be speaking with federal investigators regarding Dr. Tony Galea, a doctor connected to HGH who has ties to A-Rod’s rehab doctor. Of course, this set off a firestorm among some Yankees columnists, despite the fact that Bud Selig has noted that he does not believe there in anything to worry about for the sport in reference to Dr. Galea. Of course, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran will be speaking to investigators as well, but the NY media did not see an opportunity for sanctimony in regard to those players. Let’s look at the worst overreaction, from Ian O’Connor, who famously penned a column last spring advocating that the Yankees dump Alex Rodriguez:

So yes, technically, this is about someone else. It’s about Galea. It’s about a doctor who reportedly used HGH for years and yet still found his way into the inner sanctums of megastars the likes of Tiger Woods.

But no, realistically, this isn’t about someone else. It’s about Alex Rodriguez. It’s about a once-in-a-generation ballplayer who cheated the game, cheated the fans and cheated himself, and who now is discovering that even a World Series ring and ticker-tape parade can’t absolve him of his not-so-venial steroid sins.

Investigators want to know if Rodriguez went back to playing boli-ball.

You would be hard pressed to find a more hyperbolic bit of text than the one cited above. A number of players have been questioned, and more are likely to be approached. If A-Rod had wished, he could have refused to speak with the investigators. Instead, he is being open about his connection to Galea, and has stated on a number of occasions that he has nothing to do with this and will simply be discussing “someone else.” While it is possible that A-Rod comes out of this entire situation looking bad, we have absolutely zero evidence at this point by which to make any sort of determination.

O’Connor is simply taking the opportunity provided by a story that places HGH and A-Rod in the same paragraph to throw some more barbs at Alex. For O’Connor to try and turn this into another steroid frenzy about A-Rod when he is simply one of many players who have had some incidental contact with Galea is irresponsible. Of course, it is hard to expect much journalistic integrity from a scribe who allowed his anti-ARod column from last year to be removed from the internet due to its embarrassing lack of perspective.

This is the sober moral of the Alex Rodriguez story. His presumption of game-day innocence is much like a baseball hit way out of the park.

He’s never getting it back.

The same could be said of any modicum of respectability and credibility that O’Connor had after the A-Rod column fiasco of 2009. After this disaster, he’s never getting it back.

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