Is Bloodsport this “generation’s” Game of Shadows?

July 3, 2014

Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis, and the Quest to End Baseball'sSteroid EraBlood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis, and the Quest to End Baseball’s Steroid Era, by Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts, is set to come out next Tuesday. Needless to say, it’s already getting some buzz.

Unlike books by, say Joe Torre, Mariano Rivera, Mookie Wilson, or even Selena Roberts’ 2009 release, A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, there’s no real point int trying to pick out the most salacious bit of dirt and play it up in excerpts. People have been saying for years that MLB has been complicit in allowing the PED epidemic because the added power game put fannies in the seats. The whole fish stinks so it’s hard to pick out one moment that’s worse than the next.

But as an example of the hypocrisy, an excerpt in the latest Sports Illustrated points out that in 2007, MLB actually gave Rodriguez a “therapeutic use exemption (TUE) to take certain medical substances otherwise banned.” That was the year Rodriguez won his third MVP award, based on a season that included leading the American League with 54 home runs, 156 RBI, 143 runs scored, a .645 slugging percentage, and a 1.067 OPS.

Here’s the NY Times take. And the NY Daily News. And the NY Post.

So for MLB to put the screws to him now seems…something.

Given the media consumer’s short attention span, is Bloodsport this generation’s Game of Shadows?

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