If New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez took performance enhancing drugs during the team's 2009 run to the World Series championship, his former teammate Johnny Damon believes it diminishes the feat that the team accomplished when it defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in six games to earn baseball's crown jewel.
When asked if the potential of A-Rod cheating in the World Series would tarnish the win, Damon had the following to say:
"Well I haven't really gotten to think that far, but if that's how he was able to hit in the postseason, like he did that year, then yeah, absolutely," Damon said during an interview on Sirius XM's MLB Network Radio according to ESPN.
Rodriguez is in the midst of appealing a 211-game ban, which was supposed to stretch from Thursday through the 2014 MLB regular-season, for violating the MLB's drug agreement and labor contract due to his connection with Miami anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis. Biogenesis was responsible for selling PEDs to Rodriguez, Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun and 13 other major and minor league players.
Most players received and agreed to a 50-game ban, while Braun, who failed a urine test in 2011 but got off on a technicality, received a 65-game suspension and A-Rod received the harshest penalty of 211 games due to having more "misdeeds" counted against him than the others.
While A-Rod has admitted to using steroids during his time with Texas, he maintains that he has been clean as a Yankee. While Damon isn't saying Rodriguez is definitely guilty, the subject of PEDs does make the former Yankees outfielder think back to that 2009 team.
"I mean, then you start saying, 'Well was anybody on their team cheating?' There's just so many different factors that determine if a team wins, and A-Rod was such a determining factor. He was the MVP of the ALCS, so yeah, he played a huge part, and over the years, a lot of guys that have been winning awards, I mean, they're linked to something." Damon said during the interview with Sirius XM.
Rodriguez went on a tear in the 2009 postseason, hitting .365 with six homers and 18 RBIs en route to the Yankees 27th World Series title.
Despite the suspension announced last Monday by the MLB, A-Rod will most likely play for the rest of this season and the playoffs if the Yankees make it, because arbitrator Frederic Horowitz isn't expected to hear the slugger's grievance until November or December at the earliest.
Rodriguez has played in three games this season after returning from off-season hip surgery in January and struggling through a set-back with a Grade 1 quad strain this past month. His three games have all been losses, as the Yankees were swept by the Chicago White Sox.
Whether the 2009 World Series is tainted or not, the 2013 Yankees are a far-cry from that team, dropping 14 of the their last 20 games, and falling to 11 1/2 games out of first place in the American League East.
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