A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

THE JUICE IS ON THE LOOSE: A week ago, when the Alex Rodriguez steroid news was breaking, I cautioned people that they shouldn't condemn Rodriguez too harshly without asking difficult questions about their own favorite players, because it's naive to think that the (supposed) scourge of steroids tainted every team but one's own. Cue the carefully worded insinuation of another shoe dropping: The New York Daily News links Rodriguez to someone named Angel Presinal (a guy who traveled with Rodriguez throughout 2007, three years after Rodriguez supposedly quit steroids, and who has been banned from every MLB clubhouse because he tried to ship steroids to Juan Gonzalez in Canada). Presinal, the Daily News reports, also "has worked with some of the game's biggest stars," including Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vlad Guerrero, Bartolo Colon (here the Daily News is using the term "biggest star" literally), and Adrian Beltre, as well as admitted users/Mitchell Report listees Juan Gonzalez, Miguel Tejada, and Jose Guillen. The love of a few Seattle fans (including me) for Adrian Beltre is strong, but Pedro and Papi? The day the Daily News (the New York Daily News, it bears emphasizing) firms up its insinuation against those guys is the day the Boston media collectively changes its tune from "Yankees = cheaters" to "let's put this steroid stuff behind us and concentrate on moving forward."