Did A-Rod Take Steroids As A Yankee?

Selena Roberts new book alleges that A-Rod took steroids or HGH while he was playing with the Yankees, and started doing steroids as far back as high school. I can't say that I'm too surprised.

In addition, an unnamed major-leaguer is quoted as saying Rodriguez and steroid-tainted pitcher Kevin Brown were seen together with human growth hormone - HGH - in 2004.

Brown, who was named in the Mitchell Report on steroids, denied through a lawyer that he ever shared the hormone with the highest-paid player in baseball.

Two other anonymous Yankees said they believed A-Rod was using based on side effects they saw - and a clubhouse staffer said management wondered if he was using banned substances.

"No one ever asked Alex directly that I know of, but there was a lot of suspicion in house," the employee is quoted as saying.

... "Was he on steroids in high school?" he said. "I think probably so. I worked out with him when he was 18. He could lift almost as much as I could."

Rodriguez put on 25 pounds of muscle between his sophomore and junior years, and word was that his connection was a dog kennel owner.

A former high school teammate told Roberts the future No.1 MLB draft pick was on steroids and his coach knew it.

Another student said the son of coach Rich Hofman admitted he saw Rodriguez use steroids.

[Tracy Connor/ NY Daily News]

Burning Down The House

Jim Farber/ NY Daily News "So many people were working so hard," she says. "New York is such a hard city to live in and people are so busy. But, in this case, people stopped to get behind a cause, which was incredible."

As things started to look bleak, Stein traveled with Kristal to Las Vegas to scout out possible new locations for the club - all of them on a suitably scuzzy side of town.

"He easily could have gone to Planet Hollywood or the Hard Rock Cafe, and they wanted it," she says. "Hilly had a vision of the place. He wanted the club to be in a part of town young musicians could afford."

Stein believes CBs would have ended up in Vegas had Hilly lived. Though the movie documents Kristal's sad end, it finishes on a hopeful note: with the installation of CBs' innards at the New York annex of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Chris Russo banned from Citi Field and Yankee Stadium

Bob Raissman wrote a great article about Chris Russo's ban from doing radio shows at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. His ban even extends to Met and Yankee spring training sites in Florida.

"What (ticks) me off more than anything else is after I went on with Stern - where I was predictably put in a tough spot - Mike goes on his show and says, 'I don't view those (satellite) guys as competition,'" Russo said Thursday. "Hold it now. Time-out. If you don't view me as competition, then why can't I be at the freaking ballparks?"

The answer to that question, according to WFAN operations boss Mark Chernoff, whom Russo accused of acting in a "petty" manner, has nothing to do with emotions or rivalries - only money.

"We pay millions and millions of dollars for the rights to the teams. As part of the deals we get that exclusivity," Chernoff said Thursday. "That's what we are selling to our advertisers. If we allow another radio station in (the stadiums), what we're selling becomes saleable for someone else. That makes absolutely no business sense."

[NY Daily News]