These are allegations: Every year from 2009 through 2012, the Miami New Times reported, Alex Rodriguez purchased illegal performance-enhancing drugs from a South Florida gentleman named Anthony Bosch.
These are facts: During that same period, following his memorable confession tour in February 2009, A-Rod spoke regularly to young people about the evils of using illegal PEDs.
Should those allegations become facts, well … in case you didn’t intensely dislike A-Rod already, try reconciling the dual images of him preaching clean living to youngsters while continuing to inject, ingest and rub anything he could find for an edge.
Yeesh.
We’re far from that point, however — we might never get there — and that’s why Don Hooton, the man who recruited A-Rod following his ’09 downfall, has rightfully sat on the bench. For sure, Rodriguez won’t be doing this gig anytime soon, yet he hasn’t been formally suspended.
“I’d rather not go there right now,” Hooton, the president of the Taylor Hooton Foundation, told The Post yesterday. “We’ve got to let this thing play out.
“We have not spoken with him or his folks, his team [since the story emerged on Tuesday]. We were caught off guard. I’m sure somebody knew what was going on, but we didn’t.”
Hooton created the foundation in February 2004 and named it after his son, who committed suicide in 2003, at age 17, and had used anabolic steroids to try to gain an edge in high school baseball. The mission was to help educate young people about the perils of using illegal PEDs.
When A-Rod addressed reporters at (then) Legends Field in Tampa on Feb. 17, 2009, discussing his illegal PED usage from 2001 through 2003, Hooton sat among the crowd and watched, and A-Rod vowed to work with Hooton to right his prior wrongs.
Rodriguez followed through on that promise. In August 2009, when I interviewed Hooton at Yankee Stadium, Hooton sang A-Rod’s praises.
“Just watching him around kids, the way they react to him,” he said. “I’m extremely excited about things to come.”
The relationship kept going.
“Alex and I have travelled to schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, and other venues roughly a dozen times a year” since 2009, Hooton wrote yesterday in an email. There were no upcoming appearances booked on the calendar, Hooton said, because Rodriguez has been focusing on rehabilitating from his hip surgery.
The hip injury gives both Hooton and A-Rod a convenient out until this mess is resolved. Obviously, neither man would benefit from an A-Rod school visit right now.
“We are not in a position to make a judgment or rest to the guilt or innocence of A-Rod or the other [players identified in the story],” Hooton said. “We’ll wait on the commissioner’s office to render that judgment. I hope he’s innocent.”
The Taylor Hooton Foundation has developed a strong working relationship with Major League Baseball in general and the Yankees in particular.
If the worst-case scenario emerges for A-Rod, if these
charges are proven true, then the Hooton Foundation shouldn’t take much of a hit. Hooton meant well by going to Rodriguez. There are other players who can help.
There is massive A-Rod fatigue throughout the industry. The Yankees and MLB used to clash regularly over myriad issues. Now they share contempt for A-Rod and a wish that he would go away.
That’s not the way it works; A-Rod, just like anyone else, is innocent until proven guilty, and I wouldn’t bet much at all on this ending poorly for him.
Nevertheless, if it turns out he did one right thing while doing another wrong thing, he will wind up enhancing his least favorite nickname: A-Fraud.
kdavidoff@nypost.com