???Ay, dios mio.
???So the results are in - A-Rod used steroids.
???Alex Rodriguez was baseball's golden boy. He's the man who was supposed to carry the game on his back as its heroes, one by one, fell into a steroid-enhanced needle pit. Instead, he has urinated on the game and solidified his asterisk-marked spot in the Hall of Fakes.
???It really is a sad day to be a baseball fan.
???Sure, Bonds, McGwire, Clemens and the countless others did so much to taint baseball's image, but we thought we were over that. Even with all of the court cases in procession and suspensions given out last season courtesy of everyone's Bud Selig, there was still some sense of dignity within the game.
???We've had our Jeters, Griffey Jr.s, our Joneses and A-Rods -our heroes- the people that we looked up to growing up and hoped to reminisce with our children about on how they made our dreams believable, even if we were just a 5-foot-7-inch white kid from South Buffalo.
???And now, thanks to a leaked 2003 steroid test that was never meant to be released, one of baseball's biggest names has to be taken off that list.
???Part of me feels bad for Mr. Rodriguez.
???That 2003 test was a precedent, a supposedly anonymous examination of approximately 1,200 players in a time when there was no penalty for using steroids. It was how the league would eventually find and deal with a problem-and tarnish the image of its biggest names.
???Courtesy of Barry "bloated head" Bonds and his perjury trial, those sealed tests were opened and now the world knows that A-Rod's a cheater, too. Though it may be in the past, his positive test came during his MVP season with the Rangers. How comforting.
???What a great lesson to send out to children-by sticking a needle in your butt and injecting growth hormones and steroids throughout your body, you can be an MVP, too!
???This is just the icing on A-Rod's crap cake. Ever since he's been in New York, he's choked whenever we needed him to swallow. Joe Torre recently stated in his book The Yankee Years that his teammates felt that he was "A-Fraud."
???The media blew his spot and his marriage deteriorated as he was used by Madonna, music's haggard and brick-faced Methuselah, who dumped him for a younger, prettier Latino. It's even been reported that he supposedly has "the hots" for Derek Jeter.
???And now this.
???He has outright refused the fact that he ever took steroids on multiple occasions. He looked directly into the camera, into each and every fan's eyes and told a bold-faced lie.
???That's exactly who we want representing America's once pure pastime-a rule-bending adulterer with deceit in his eyes and Barry's little helper running through his veins.
???One can only wonder how Rodriguez will deal with this backlash and his new, classless image.
???Maybe he'll grow a super-stache and put up decent numbers before he slowly disappears like everyone during that last game of hit-around at the end of The Sandlot.
???Maybe he'll man up and admit his wrongdoing; but taking into consideration his refusal to comment, that's unlikely.
???Here's what he should do-apologize to his fans and the game itself, hold his head low in the spotlight as the brim of his N.Y. cap casts a shadow of disappointment on his face, stand behind the support of his captain Derek Jeter and ultimately devote 100 percent of who he is to helping the Yankees finally bring a championship back to New York.
???New York is a forgiving city, especially when there's gold involved. No matter what negativity A-Rod brings to the Yankees, they still have Jeter, the classiest player in the league at the helm. He's everything every little boy with a dream aspires to be. He is the New York Yankees. He is America's pastime.
???And if Jeter ever tests positive, I swear to God-I'm done.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
