A-Rod's Banned Drug Mule Spotted On Yankees Road Trip

Major league baseball is looking into New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez's relationship with his steroid-supplying cousin Yuri Sucart after the admitted drug mule was spotted at the team's San Francisco hotel during the Yankees series against the Oakland A's.

Like bedbugs and Katie Couric, Sucart isn't easy to get rid of.

According to a team source, Sucart was seen at the St. Regis Hotel Tuesday night during the Yankees two-game series across the bay.  Sucart has been banned by the Yankees from any team-related activities after Rodriguez admitted that his cousin supplied and injected him with performance-enhancing drugs while he was with the Texas Rangers in 2001-3.

The source said Sucart, Rodriguez's mysterious "trainer" and "personal manager,"  has accompanied the Yankee third-baseman on numerous road trips over the past two seasons and the Yankees and MLB aren't too happy about the donkey's alleged resurrection.

Sucart was Rodriguez's constant companion during A-Rod's playing days with the Rangers, the Seattle Mariners and the Yankees.  He was banished, by the Yankees in 2009, from any Yankees team flights, stadiums or training facilities where the team was located.  Unofficially, Sucart's banishment does not apply to team hotels or sitting in the stands as a spectator.

After a 2009 Sports Illustrated story reported that Rodriguez tested positive during a 2003 drug test, he confessed how Sucart would pick up the steroids (or "boli" as it is sometimes called) in the Dominican Republic and inject the drug into both him and his cousin when he played for the Rangers in 2001-3.

Since 2003, Major League Baseball has had it's own ban on personal trainers and managers who are not affiliated with the teams and is once again looking into A-Rod's questionable relationship with Sucart.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman had no comment on the allegations, but can't be too happy about his star player bringing another distraction to the team.  MLB is already interested in the miraculous "stem-cell procedure" that has revived Yankees starting pitcher Bartolo Colon's arm.

The 48 year-old Sucart has seen better times since his Yankee banishment.  He is in foreclosure on several real estate properties according to his lawyer and feels he took the rap for A-Rod's misdeeds.

"Everybody wants a scapegoat," the dejected Sucart once said.

Maybe that's a step up from being a mule.

Mediocre AL West Means King Felix Won't Be Going To Yankees...Or Anywhere

The New York Yankees have been drooling all over Seattle Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez for three years.  Rumors circulating about the Yankees swiping King Felix from the Mariners are just that--idle talk.  New York has a better chance of putting Keith Hernandez in pinstripes this season.

Every summer, while the Mariners wallowed in last place and New York chased another playoff spot, the whispers about the Yankees getting Hernandez before the July 31 trading deadline got louder.  This year the Mariners will put a gag on it.

Unlike last year, when the hit-challenged Mariners were going through the motions by June, red hot Seattle now finds itself in the midst of a division race and no need to unload their ace.

The Mariners have won nine of their last 10 games and are tangled up in the wide-open AL West race which separates all four teams by only 2 games.  

Hernandez, the 25 year-old righthander, is one of the most valuable commodities in the majors and there isn't one team that wouldn't want him.  Once a team has an arm like his, you don't let it go.



Combine  Hernandez with the Mariners latest phenom, Michael Pineda, and you've got one of the best 1-2 punches in the American League for the next few years.  The Mariners GM, Jack Zduriencik, would be run out of town for trading away Hernandez--the foundation of the team for three more years.

The Yankees, meanwhile, are still looking for their front-line starter and an rotation identity.  CC Sabathia has been his usual work-horse self.  A.J. Burnett has reverted back to his bi-polar ways while Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon are low-rent pick-ups who have been capable four and five starters, but both are susceptible to their aging arms fading down the stretch.  That leaves the Yankees young guns--Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova.

Comparing Hernandez and Pineda to the Yankees youngest arms can only make Yankees GM Brian Cashman cry.

Nova has held his own in his first season in the starting rotation,  but has not shown the unbridled potential of a Pineda. And then there is Hughes.

Hughes was supposed to be the Yankees' wunderkind, but has been troubled by dead arm troubles.  Hernandez is the same age as Hughes but it seems like the Mariner pitcher is Hughes' grandpa.  Hernandez was nineteen when he broke in to the majors in 2005 and seems to have gotten better every year.  Hughes was shuttled between the bullpen and limited innings during that same time and doesn't even come close to having the body of work his Seattle counterpart has.

Hernandez went 19-5 in 2009 and, even on last year's pitiful Mariners team, went 13-12 and picked up the Cy Young Award for his efforts.

Hughes seemed to be living up to his potential in 2010.  He won 18 games last year, but struggled after the All-Star break.  His troubles continued into 2011 and, unless he can regain his fastball, he is only a shell of what Hernandez is.

Hernandez signed a 5-year $78 million contract which keeps his talent in Seattle through 2014.  Until then, Yankee fans can only dream about King Felix coming to the Bronx.  On the bright side, he'll only be 28 and still in his prime.

The Twilight Saga: Rising Sun

By Photos and story by Tony Mangia

SEATTLE'S ICHIRO SEEMS TO HIT FOREVER

He broke in as a rookie at age 27 and took the American League by storm--leading the league in batting and stolen bases. The Japanese import led his team, the Seattle Mariners, to a record 116 game winning season in 2001, while being voted both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player--an unprecedented debut. The rightfielder with the soccer-like single name continues to defy all his long-surrendered critics and take his fabulous career into the gloaming. One can only hope Ichiro gets a chance to showcase his skills one more time in a national stage like the playoffs. Maybe it is the fans who'll bask in the privilege of seeing one the game's most exciting players shine on network television beyond his tenth All-Star game.

Ichiro Suzuki may one of the greatest rightfielders baseball has ever known. He is definitely the finest and most athletic this generation has to offer. Nine straight Gold Gloves and nine straight 200 hit seasons attest to his durability and consistency. A rifle arm, blazing speed and occasional power makes Ichiro a demon in every aspect of the game--in the field, on the base paths and at the plate. The right-throwing and left-hitting Ichiro is chasing 4,000 professional hits and his 262 hits in 2004 broke a single season record that stood for 84 years. Don't forget his record of 41 consecutive steals without being caught.

Detractors may consider Ichiro's first years in Japan's Pacific League no more than stat-padding--sort of like the NFL's Warren Moon's, which include his inflated CFL statistics but, even if you took Ichiro's statistics for his first nine-plus years in the AL, the Hitsman has numbers that scream Hall of Fame. Does 350 stolen bases and over 2,000 hits in America mean anything? He still keeps runners at bay with his 50 mm sniper arm and don't call him just a slap-hitter. You should see the bombs in batting practice.

The Seattle Mariners haven't seen a playoff since losing the ALCS to the Yankees in 2001 and had high aspirations at the beginning of this season. Felix Hernandez finished last year with a sparkling 19-5 record and another ace, Cliff Lee, made the startling decision to leave the NL champions Philadelphia Phillies and head for the grunge city--giving the Mariners (on paper) one of the best one-two punches in the majors. All-around good player Chone Figgins came over and consigned himself from leadoff to second while bringing more sure hands to an already good defensive team. The team got out of the gate slow and the power hitters, Seattle's favorite son, Ken Griffey Jr. and always a risk, Milton Bradley have failed miserably. The streaking Mariners just took two of three at Yankee Stadium but remain 14 games behind the ever-improving West Division.

Ichiro's current contract ends in 2012. This decade's premier leadoff hitter is still batting .330 this year and once said at his last contract signing, " I'm going to do my best to play ten more years here." That leaves seven more years for fans to enjoy the 37 year-old's pre-swing contortions and idiosyncrasies and they're well worth the wait.