Grudge match
vs.
In 2013, then-MLB Commissioner Bud Selig (left) and then-CEO Rob Manfred (above left) aggressively targeted A-Rod and others tied to the Biogenesis scandal, including sportsagent brothers Sam and Seth Levinson (above right), who repped many tainted players, and ex-University of Miami coach Lazer Collazo (right), who was accused of recruiting users, according to the new book “Baseball Cop.”
A-ROD didn’t take these aggressive efforts lightly, firing back with intimidating tactics of his own.
A-Rod’s scorched-earth defense involved in tailing several MLB officials. ci One of them was Rob Manfred, fr who took no chances with his hi own safety and immediately arranged ar for 24/7 security.
We in the DOI all knew what type ty of person A-Rod was, and that th type of action came as no surprise. pr We weren’t too concerned about ab the threats, either, because in our line of work, threats were a common co occurrence. But Manfred fr and his boys had a different reaction: re They put MLB’s security department de on high alert. Someone on would accompany Manfred wherever w he went.
Manfred made a trip to Fenway Park Pa during that time, and I was asked as to keep an eye on him from a distance, to make sure no one was w following him and his security ri detail. At one point, he spotted te me and came over to ask if I was all right. I told him yes and asked as how he was doing. “I’m OK,” he said. “Hopefully, this will all al be over soon.” Nothing ever came ca of the threats, but they did cause ca some agita.
For all this reckless animosity, the big names came out fine. ARod was suspended in 2014, but is now a successful broadcaster. Manfred still rules the sport, with hopes to expand MLB into new cities. Dominguez writes that the two have even become chummy in recent years. They have even been seen hugging on the field. Dominguez says the efforts to make Rodriguez the fall guy, and A-Rod’s subsequent defensive moves, may have all boiled down to posturing and self-preservation. “It’s in both of their interests to make nice,” Dominguez said in an e-mail, adding: “I don’t believe for one second it was about the PEDs. It was about public image.”
During the 2015 World Series assignment for Fox, A-Rod was seen embracing Manfred behind the batting cage at Citi Field before Game 3 between the Mets and the Royals, and during AllStar Week in A-Rod’s hometown of Miami in 2017, Rodriguez posted a photo of himself and Jennifer Lopez in between Manfred and Manfred’s wife, Colleen, everyone with their arms wrapped around one another and the grinning Manfred parked next to J.Lo. One big happy family.
STILL, even after all this bitterness, the scourge of PED use is as rampant as ever, alleges Dominguez, who — especially after MLB set a record in 2017 for most home runs hit in one season — initially guessed that 20 percent of current players used them until he was convinced the real number was much higher.
Three trusted baseball sources Dominguez talked to in 2017 — one an informant close to the game, one a baseball coach who had been part of the Biogenesis investigation, the third a doctor who had done time in prison for PED distribution — all said the game remains as dirty as ever.
Their estimates were wildly disparate based on their individual experience, but each of them was unequivocal in their judgment that baseball remains affected by performance-enhancing drugs.
The coach guessed that at least 30 to 35 percent are on some type of performance enhancer; the doctor said that in his professional opinion, 70 percent of players today who have been in the majors for at least a year are using performance enhancers of some type; the informant, who regularly deals with professional athletes, estimated that 90 percent of current baseball players “use something.”
The doctor, who has done research on the use of peptides, a popular banned substance among athletes that is a building block for protein, also pointed to the 2017 season total for home runs, which had broken a 17-year-old record.
“Think about it, how would so many guys [have been] using anabolic steroids and now they beat the home-run record, beat the pants off of it?” the doctor asked. “How does that happen? Did they change the trajectory of the ball? Did they do something to the inside of the ball? There’s definitely something going on. I would say 70 percent of players who have been in the league a year are using upper-echelon PEDs that can’t be detected. The word has floated downstream, and they’re on them.”
Adapted from “Baseball Cop: The Dark Side of America’s National Pastime” by Eddie Dominguez with Christian Red and Teri Thompson. Copyright © 2018. Available from Hachette Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group Inc.