Blood Sport by Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts
The 2014 baseball season is over, which means that famed Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez has completed his suspension from Major League Baseball for his use of performance-enhancing drugs. He’ll be back in 2015. The story that led up to this unprecedented punishment is one filled with as much intrigue, spying, and double-crossing as a John Le Carré novel. Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts have the inside scoop on this latest PED scandal in baseball in Blood Sport.
Alex Rodriguez, eternally known as A-Rod, appeared to be a squeaky-clean superstar on the rise, mashing home runs and trampling long-held records in his path. After failing several drug tests administered by Major League Baseball, however, A-Rod’s association with a Florida “nutrition” clinic called Biogenesis came under serious scrutiny. The clinic’s owner, a fraudulent “doctor” by the name of Tony Bosch, was exposed as a provider of PEDs for several well-known professional athletes, including (sigh) Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun. How the MLB and its commissioner, Bud Selig, gathered the evidence against A-Rod to support his punishment is a fascinating and shocking tale.
Blood Sport is top-notch history and journalism, to be certain, but it’s also a real page-turner.