The Mets Police

One thing I've learned is that where there is smoke there is fire.

If you hear A-Rod was at the zoo with three unicorns and a zebra, there might not have been unicorns but it's likely A-Rod and some animals will be involved.  

Jose Canseco is looking for an apology from baseball about his steroid allegations a few years back.   That will happen after hell freezes over for the second time (after global warming melts the first freeze).   Not a chance.

However, he probably deserves to be less crapped upon that he has been.  There is not much honorable about Jose but he did correctly name a few names in his books including A-Rod.   Canseco's version doesn't include a mystery cousin and a trip to the DR, but he did name the name.

Maybe he got lucky.  Maybe baseball is so messed up I could pull five baseball cards out of a hat and be right about three players.   Maybe Jose does know what he's talking about after all?


www.metspolice.com

Driving home yesterday I was listening to The Michael Kay Show, and a caller brought up a very interesting question and hypothesis.

Just when did A-Rod know that he had tested positive?

Let's follow this time line.

2001, A-Rod signed a 10-year deal with the Texas Rangers that would take him through the 2010 baseball season.

2003 - MLB conducts random testing for steroid use. A-Rod tests positive, along with 103 others. The union however does not destroy the results.

2004 - The FBI seizes the 2003 test results in a raid connected with their BALCO investigation. At this point therefore some people know about A-Rod's positive test.

July 2007 - Jose Canseco says he is writing a new book on steroid use in baseball and says A-Rod will be in the book. Canseco calls A-Rod a "hypocrite."

October 2007 - A-Rod opts out of the final 3 years of his contract and negotiates a new 10-year deal with the Yankees.

February 2009 - With 9 years remaining on his contract, A-Rod admits to using steroids.

So here is the hypothesis. A-Rod and his agent Scott Boras knew his name was on that list. They also knew that once the FBI got a hold of that list, the names would eventually leak out. There were already rumors about A-Rod, when Canseco, riding the "I Told You So" train added his voice to the mix. The walls were crumbling.

If A-Rod hadn't opted out of his contract in 2007, next year would have been the final year of his contract. It is extremely unlikely he would have gotten anything close to the deal he did sign with the Yankees - both in terms of dollars and years. By conveniently opting out when he did, he guaranteed his continued baseball career and income well past the point where his steroid use would become known.

Given A-Rod's disingenous nature, it really wouldn't shock me if he and Boras were this conniving.

www.metspolice.com

The text of A-Rod's apology reads much better than it sounded. On tv it just seemed like he needed to get in the words naive and stupid as many times as possible.

Does anyone actually use the phrase loosey-goosey when not apologizing to Peter Gammons? Is that a phrase Alex uses when clubbing in Miami.

Question to everyone: what are you mad at? Why do you care anyway? Root for the guy or don't. Watch the games or don't. At the end of the day it's just television programming for the summer.

People were much less interested in steroids before a surly black man put up the biggest numbers.

Jeter's quote still bothering me. The correct answer would have been "no." (Read down the blog if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

I guess Jose Canseco is less of a crazy-talker than people made him out to be.

I really look forward to getting back to Mets talk around these parts but (a) its hard story to ignore and (b) the Mets don't do anything good or bad and I can only wax poetically about Lee Mazzilli so many times.

Of the 103 players left on the list none were Mets right? I have an idea about one but I'll get lynched if I voice it.
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Back Back Back opens tonight at the Manhattan Theater Club.

The play is a fictionalized inquiry into the strange saga of former Oakland A's teammates Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. The daring and talented playwright tosses in a third teammate, the lesser known shortstop Walt Weiss, as a pretty good device to get some of his own points across.

Read more here.

Don't forget that nobody knew these guys were on steroids.  You couldn't tell.  Also Sammy Sosa of the Cubs got a ticker-tape parade in New York City for hitting the second most home runs ever.  Disgrace.