Tenorio: Latest juice on A-Rod: He probably didn’t return his library books on time, either!

Alex Rodriguez has faced some stinging accusations lately.First, his former manager with the New York Yankees, Joe Torre, came out with a book that claimed teammates called him “A-Fraud.” Next, the Sports Illustrated website reported this past weekend that Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003. One wonders what the next disclosure will be: Randy Johnson writes tell-all saying A-Rod didn’t return his library books on time!The speed and suddenness of these charges are almost enough to make sports fans believe the standard version of events: A-Rod, the man who would make baseball forget its suspect former star, Barry Bonds, has instead stained his own legacy. On Monday – the day Rodriguez told ESPN’s Peter Gammons he took banned substances for a few seasons earlier this decade – the New York Times reported that “the fact that he is now admitting he took performance-enhancing substances for several seasons will damage his image and his legacy as a player.”What the media overlooks, however, is that if A-Rod deserves blame, so do MLB commissioner Bud Selig and his organization. For it is they who, both implicitly and explicitly, have created a culture under which steroid users can flourish.Rodriguez told Gammons that he “wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time.” He did that by excelling in a category that baseball prizes over all others: Home runs. In his three now-suspect seasons with the Texas Rangers, A-Rod hit 156 round-trippers – 52 in 2001, 57 in 2002, and 47 in 2003, all of which led the American League. Homers helped him realize his dream of greatness: In 2003, he became the AL MVP.Pro baseball makes much ado over its power hitters. Since 1985, it has held a Home Run Derby as part of All-Star festivities. This makes sense; fans like the long ball. “The Labor Day game in which Mark McGwire tied (Roger) Maris’ (single-season) record in 1998 produced the highest rated non-football broadcast in ESPN history,” CNN reported. “The next night when Fox aired an extra game in which McGwire broke the record, it was watched in nearly 13 percent of US households, or better than Fox saw for the first two games of that year’s World Series.” And while Bonds drew skepticism because of steroid allegations, over 43,000 people watched him surpass Hank Aaron’s career record in San Francisco. It’s understandable why players like Rodriguez might want to sell their souls so they can hit more homers.Add to this temptation the mixed messages from management. In 2003, pro baseball randomly tested players for steroids under conditions favorable to the athletes. The results for the 104 who tested positive, the Times reported, “were to remain anonymous with no penalties imposed.” And, the newspaper added, “because the test took place before baseball imposed any penalties, (Rodriguez) is not in danger of a suspension. Nor is he ensnared in any legal proceedings.” The MLB policy, then, was to issue “Get Out of Jail Free” cards instead of suspensions, which the NFL had the guts to do to human growth hormone user Rodney Harrison for one-quarter of the 2007 regular season.So A-Rod takes the heat, and detractors will arise if and when he passes Bonds’ career home-run mark of 762. (Rodriguez currently has 553.) Fine. He did, after all, break the rules. But if A-Rod’s critics want to stain his statistics with an asterisk, they should also hand out asterisks to the 103 other major-leaguers who tested positive for steroids in 2003. And MLB merits an asterisk of its own, for creating, unintentionally or not, the conditions for this controversy.It’s too bad, because the furor over A-Rod obscures the fact that he’s been pretty dependable for the Yankees since he arrived in the Bronx five years ago. He’s outlasted busts like Carl Pavano, Randy Johnson, and Ivan Rodriguez, and even if he chokes in the postseason, at least his regular-season totals helped the Yankees reach the playoffs in all of his New York se