Alex Rodriguez has someone prominent in the issue of performance-enhancing drugs supporting his cause. But that's not necessarily a good thing.
Neither is the fact that the same person claimed that half of Major League Baseball players are using PEDs.
BALCO founder Victor Conte went on Jim Rome's Showtime program and said Rodriguez approached him in May of 2012 and asked whether Conte could help him with "legal performance enhancement," according to an excerpt of his interview with Rome.
Conte, however, said that former NFL player Bill Romanowski, who was one of the clients that Conte supplied steroids, set up the meeting with Rodriguez. Conte added that Romanowski and A-Rod scoped the building to make sure no one else was in the building.
"It was kind of bizarre that they didn't just mosey on in," Conte said. "... I told (Rodriguez) straight up, 'What is this about?' He said, 'Performance enhancement, legal performance enhancement. So I was very clear about ... 'Listen, I have no interest in anything from the dark side."
While Conte spoke up for Rodriguez, the same couldn't be said about half of the rest of Major League Baseball. He told Rome that he thought half of today's big-league players were taking performance-enhancing drugs.
He told Rome he thought baseball's drug program was "inept."
"Well, if I define that as the entire calendar year, including the offseason," said Conte, "I believe it's about 50 percent.
"Listen, performance-enhancing drugs work, I know that," he added.
Which is why Conte and BALCO reportedly supplied PEDs to such athletic athletes as Romanowski, sprinter Marion Jones and MLB's all-time home run leader, Barry Bonds.
Because of Conte's tainted past, the question is whether anybody - especially Major League Baseball officials - find any merit in his claims.
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