Mike Celizic

Of all the allegations in Selena Roberts’ allegation-ridden book about Alex Rodriguez, the most serious one is the one that’s gotten the least coverage: In blowout games, A-Rod tipped his pals on opposing teams about what pitches were coming. The object was to help them pad their stats and the expectation supposedly was that they’d return the favor so he could pad his.

This is one of those “if this is true” statements that over-populate the book. Others in that category include the suspicion that A-Rod used steroids in high school and HGH with the Yankees. Roberts, who did confirm that A-Rod tested positive for performance enhancers during supposedly anonymous testing while with the Rangers, doesn’t have any smoking guns on any of the other charges, just the suspicions of players and associates — many of them unnamed.

Anyway, if it’s true that A-Rod helped opposing players get hits in blowout games, it would be grounds for a lengthy suspension. I seriously doubt that it will come to that. There’s no way that commissioner Bud Selig, who said he intends to investigate all the charges, is going to get anyone to admit to this one, just as there doesn’t appear to be any way we can prove any of the other serious allegations in Roberts’ book.

Most of A-Rod’s old teammates on the Rangers, where he supposedly engaged in this behavior, have said they can’t believe he did such a thing. Some have said it’s possible. Roberts found some who say they think it’s true.

I’m going on reviews and excerpts of the book, not the entire thing. I don’t like reading books that make me want to take a shower after finishing each chapter. But I’ve spent enough time around the Yankees and A-Rod to know that it all sounds like things A-Rod is capable of doing.

A-Rod is consumed with two things: being liked and being seen as the greatest player in the history of the game. Tipping pitches accomplishes both goals. It makes him popular with the players — one assumes they were important ones — he was helping. And it helps him get a few more hits to add to his records.

The fact that a mop-up pitcher gets hurt wouldn’t matter. Why should A-Rod care about a pitcher who’s only there to pitch in lost causes?

We know the answer to that. You can do a lot of things in baseball, but the one thing you don’t do is give up your own pitcher to help an enemy hitter. If a pitcher wants to groove a pitch to a hitter, as Denny McLain once did for Mickey Mantle, that’s the pitcher’s choice. If you tip off another hitter so he can hit one out, that’s stealing from your own pitcher, your own teammate.

So this isn’t really about cheating. It’s about integrity. In baseball, where there’s a long history of cheating, there’s a difference. You cheat to help your team win, not to help another guy pad his statistics.

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