A-Rod and performance-enhancing drugs

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Bill Ritter's daily take on the news.

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Bill Ritter
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January 29, 2013 (WABC) -- What was the old Al Franken book? "Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them."

I was thinking of the now-U.S. Senator's book today when news came that the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez had been mentioned in a newspaper report about a now-shuttered performance-enhancing drug supply lab to baseball players.

One line in the story claimed that A-Rod had used the drugs last season.

You'll recall that the one-time-star player had insisted when he "came clean" in 2009 that he had stopped taking steroids and other performance enhancing drugs years ago.

If this is true, then it raises more questions that could possibly be answered in this space. Will the Yankees ever want A-Rod back? He's already set to miss at least half this season with his hip surgery recovery. Is there a clause in his $25 million or so a year contract that would give the Yanks an escape valve to opt out if, say, the Commissioner found that he was a liar and he used drugs?

And then there's the other question on fans' minds: If he used those drugs, why didn't he perform better?

We'll have the latest on the latest drug scandal in baseball, and what it means for Mr. Rodriguez and the Yankees, at 11.

Also at 11, an unsolved murder is getting new attention. Gay rights activist Lou Rispoli was murdered in October, beaten by two men in what may have been a bias crime. Tonight, cops are handing out sketches of the suspects. Who are these scum, and why did they do this to a man respected by so many, and doing such important work?

We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the Arod story and the night's sports. I hope you can join Liz Cho (in for Sade) and me, tonight at 11.

BILL RITTER

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