The continuing s*** show that has become Alex Rodriguez's professional career

At this point, Alex Rodriguez could be accused of drowing puppies in a bucket of children's tears, and it would barely register on my radar screen.

Nothing I hear about this guy can shock me.

Since it came to light in February that A-Rod used performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003, he has been made a pariah, representing everything that is wrong with professional baseball. He was supposed to be baseball's last remaining light, the golden boy who was supposed to break Barry Bonds' home run record without the help of a single supplement. Many considered the steroid era in baseball to be over - all the heavy hitters had been chased from the game, and there was a new policy in place to punish those who did test positive. The new era of hitters (Pujols, Howard, Ortiz, Texiera) were doing it without steroids, and A-Rod was supposed to be the poster child.

Now we hear that A-Rod has allegedly been using steroids since high school, and if that wasn't enough, he allegedly used subtle gestures to help his 'buddies' get hits during games that had already been decided, hoping that they would reciprocate and help him pad his stats. What the hell? How can someone so talented be such a dumbass? Even if this weren't entirely true, A-Rod's bed has already been made - he will never again be adored or even respected by baseball fans.

I've heard the argument that A-Rod is a scapegoat, and that he is getting unfair attention while others who used steroids during that period have not been outed. You can certainly apply that argument to the alleged pitch-tipping that he participated in during his days in Texas - I'd love to find out who helped him break out of his slumps.

But a player of A-Rod's caliber to test positive for steroids? He has to be the scapegoat. When a player with less talent or who makes less money tests positive for steroids, fans usually forget about it because that player ultimately does not have a significant impact on the game, or more importantly, its history. We can live with a guy like Alex Sanchez testing positive for steroids, but Alex Rodriguez, the game's best player?

Baseball is America's pastime, and fans are very protective of its history and legacy. We all want to believe that when we watch baseball, we are witnessing something special. Something we can tell our grandkids about. Something that will be talked about for years to come. How do we explain that the best player of our era was a cheater? It casts doubt on even the post-steroid era.

I'm not sure whether these allegations are completely true, but I know that they're not fabricated. If they were, I think A-Rod would be taking some sort of legal action against the writer(s) of this book. Hey, it's not like he can't afford the legal fees.

I guess it's only fitting that in an economy marked by corporate greediness and cheating the system to get ahead, baseball's supposed best player would do the same thing.