Alex Sanchez came up with an odd thank-you gesture toward his coach and teammates for granting him a spot in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' starting nine this week: He tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
Manager Lou Pinella's response to Sanchez's test results might make for an interesting show.
Sanchez, a veteran center fielder, signed a $500,000 minor league deal with the Devil Rays during the off-season, and he is expected to fill the void left by Rocco Baldelli's injury and Carl Crawford's lack of experience in center.
But Sanchez's failed urine test will cost him some of that salary, to the tune of $30,864.20, over 10 days.
However, the role that Sanchez plays makes the situation curious. He is not a power hitter; in fact, he has never hit more than two home runs in a season during his four-year career. Instead, Sanchez steals bases. He swiped 26 last season for the Tigers, in only 79 games.
Yet, maybe this is where the answer lies: The speedster suffered a hamstring injury in July that ended his season, and career, in Detroit. Perhaps seeking quicker recovery, Sanchez tried to slip the enhancers through the new, porous MLB testing policy.
Whatever the reason, Sanchez got caught.
The only thing in this situation worse than a player caught cheating is that Sanchez is letting Bud Selig, Donald Fehr and every steroid junkie who does not get caught this season come off smelling like roses.
Selig and Fehr pled their case in front of Congress last month, but their assurances that the new system would work seemed to fall on deaf ears. Senator John McCain was among the most vocal of congressmen, loudly voicing his mistrust in baseball.
Selig suggested that time would prove the capabilities of the MLB testing system; Sanchez proved him right. Now baseball has the government off of their backs and can go on policing themselves with however much ineptitude they desire, for a few more years.
As if Selig's victory is not enough, baseball's cheaters have won, too.
Surely, any player, perhaps Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi or Sammy Sosa, who has hidden his steroid use throughout his career can go on doing so this year, too.
And if Bonds or Giambi can carry on their ruse during the 2005 season, then what says that they have ever used steroids? How could they have used performance enhancers under baseball's toughest testing policy? And, if the players do not use them now, then they certainly can claim that they have never used steroids before.
Bonds, Sosa and Giambi can lay off of the juice for 160 more games and wipe the stain off of their careers. Baseball fans know that if each of those players survives the season without a positive test, each will parade that clean slate before the media until the day of his death.
Maybe baseball fans should get together, sign an oversized thank-you note to Sanchez and hold hands and pray for the remaining integrity of their game.
