An Important Detail In The Newest A-Rod Controversy

A few days ago, I wrote the following about the story connecting Alex Rodriguez to a doctor under investigation for distributing HGH:

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.

Since that point, Galea has said that he did indeed treat Alex for inflammation, and prescribed anti-inflammatories. One question that I have been asked repeatedly is that if Alex was simply getting anti-inflammatories, why obtain them from a shady doctor in Canada? Why not go through typical medical channels? To answer this question, I point to one small detail that seems to have been glossed over by those attempting to turn this into a huge story before any information is available:

The nature of A-Rod’s relationship with Galea, the Toronto physician who was arrested in October after authorities found illegal drugs in his assistant’s car during a stop at the U.S. Canadian border, is unclear. Mark Lindsay, a Canadian chiropractor who managed the Yankee third basemen’s rehabilitation after hip surgery last year, is an associate of Galea, however. Galea and Lindsay are principals at a Toronto sports medicine clinic called Affinity Health. Galea is being investigated in both Canada and the U.S.

To be clear, Dr. Lindsay and Galea worked together, and Lindsay was the doctor whom the Yankees and surgeon Dr. Marc Phillipon approved to take care of A-Rod’s rehab. Furthermore, Lindsay himself is apparently not approved to write prescriptions in the US, and needed someone such as Galea to deal with anything that required a scrip. As such, the perception that A-Rod went looking in the seedy underbelly of the medical world for treatment is silly and unfounded. He almost certainly was referred to Galea by Lindsay, who was the doctor in charge of the medical treatment related to his hip. While it may have been stupid of Alex to go to a doctor that was not directly approved by the Yankees, that does not mean that he went to Galea to get HGH.

If there was something illicit going on between Alex and Galea, it will be exposed in time. Until that time, let’s not jump to conclusions that are not supported by the available information.

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