A-Rod Charity Not So Charitable

Alex Rodriguez' not-profit charity was discovered to have given far less of its income to charitable causes, according to a Boston Globe review of 50 athletes. In this report, a 2006 charity poker tournament organized by Rodriguez and rapper Jay-Z raised $403,862 for the A-Rod Family Foundation. IRS reports indicate that just $5,000 of that total went to Jay-Z's Shawn Carter College Fund however, and a measly ninety bucks went to a Miami Little League team. The report says "the organization then stopped submitting financial reports to the IRS, and was subsequently stripped of its tax-exempt status."

This is more bad news in an offseason full of it for the embattled Yankees third baseman. He recently needed arthroscopic surgery on his hip to repair a torn labrum and impingement that will keep him out of action until mid-July at the earliest and threatens to end his season, or even career. Rodriguez suffered through his second straight down year, batting just .272 with 18 home runs and battling various ailments. He struggled mightily in the postseason, especially during the American League Championship Series where he batted a paltry .111 and was benched three times.

Rodriguez was also named once again in connection with performance enhancing drugs, allegedly receiving steroids from a South Florida-based dealer named Anthony Bosch. Rodriguez was implicated alongside major names in baseball such as former National League MVP Ryan Braun, Gio Gonzalez, Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz and Bartolo Colon. According to reports, Bosch ran Biogenesis of America and in an ESPN report Bosch "is listed on state incorporation documents filed in 2009 for what would have been an online pharmaceutical business, but an associate told "Outside the Lines" that legal concerns voiced by his attorneys killed the venture." Rodriguez denied the allegations in a statement saying "the purported documents referenced in the story -- at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez -- are not legitimate."