Those who are regulars here at the Highbrid Nation know that I’m a baseball fanatic.  Its kind of in my blood…similar to the steroids which helped slugger Alex Rodriguez elevate his game to near immortal status during his time in Texas as a Ranger.  I’m not breaking any news here by telling you that Alex Rodriguez aka A-Roid was outed this past weekend by a Sports Illustrated article.  He subsequently went on ESPN with Peter Gammons sporting a severely sunburned face and red eyes to not only admit to his use but offer a heartfelt ho-hum apology. 

The culture of the sport and divine power of Baseball’s Player’s Union in the 80′s. 90′s and into the early part of this decade provided a fertile foundation for rampid steroid use.  As the list of dirty players gets longer, as news of failed tests are leaked, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of what happened and surprisingly there is a geographical concentration of use.  Along with California’s Bay area, home to BALCO, the Texas Rangers ballclub could be considered ground zero for the most egregious use of the drugs.  Not surprisingly, our former President, George W. Bush may have had something to do with this culture.

In April 1989, a time believed to be the onset of steroid use in baseball, Bush bought the Texas Rangers and served as managing general partner for five years. He actively led the team’s projects and by the time he sold his shares in the Rangers in 1998 he was able to turn a profit of $15 million from his initial $800,000 investment.  Clearly he had benefited from the success of the now flourishing game in what was then deemed the juiced-ball area.  What we later came to find out was it wasn’t the ball that was juiced.

While I’m not insinuating Bush actively bought steroids for players or even endorsed them, that’s silly, he did however obviously benefit financially from its use.  The Texas Rangers were a perennial last place team during that era but set attendance records at Arlington Stadium filling the stands with a bevy of offensive firepower which now of course is in question.  Although Alex Rodriguez’s tenure with the team did not intersect the Bush regime there is a connection.

In 1989, The year Bush bought the team, The Texas Rangers acquired the services of Sammy Sosa, Raphael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez.  While Juan Gonzalez has never been accused or linked to steroids baseball experts have long since attributed his super human statistics to performance enhancement.  Ironically (or not) his tenure with the team corresponds EXACTLY to that of George Bush (Texas Rangers 1989-1998) .

Sammy Sosa (Texas Rangers 1989) has not only been caught with cork in his bat but when supenoed to testify at the 2005 Congressional Steroids hearings he pretended that his English was too poor to understand the questions.

And there’s Raphael Palmeiro (Texas Rangers 1989-1994, 1999-2003).  He not only lied to Congress adamantly denying he ever took steroids but he later failed a steroid test months later testing postitive for Stanozolol.  And who was A-Rod throwing the ball to at first base when he won his first MVP award?  The liar, the cheater, his good buddy Raphael Palmeiro.

While Sosa only stayed one year with the club both Palmeiro and Gonzalez were teammates with admitted steroid cheater Jose Conseco (Texas Rangers 1992-1994) whose gone so far as to say he even personally injected Palmeiro with steroids.

Is it a stretch to think that this culture of filth lead by owner George W. Bush extended beyond his watch?  Money was being made, records were being broken and the arrival of Alex in Arlington provided the perfect opportunity for Raphy to teach young A-Rod some tricks.

This is quite a lot of drama to have taken place under the nose and watch of a man this country would later entrust not once but twice to be its fearless leader.  While I’m sure we’ll never find evidence linking him to any wrongdoing in the steroid scandal his hands are clearly not clear.  If CONGRESS is seriously interested in getting to the bottom of the steroid ordeal in baseball perhaps in addition to the BALCO folks they should pop Dubya on the stand.  Oh but then they’d need to wait in line wouldn’t they.