There's still many unanswered questions about Alex Rodriguez's legacy. (Photo: Joe Camporeale, USA TODAY Sports)
Story Highlights Alex Rodriguez was prepared for the inevitable hammer to drop from MLB But Biogenesis is only the latest clinic to taint professional sports Further measures must be taken to provide effective deterrents for other cases
CHICAGO - They got Alex Rodriguez.
Major League Baseball got the other dirty dozen, too.
They were publicly flogged in a press release, letting the world know that 13 players were cheating without being caught by a urine or blood drug test.
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Rodriguez got a 214-game suspension that he plans to appeal.
The others got a 50-game suspension, and immediately surrendered.
Their images will now be forever tarnished, and no one will suffer more than Rodriguez, who prepared for the inevitable when we talked for nearly an hour last month.
MLB'S HAMMER COMES DOWN: A-Rod and a dozen more suspended
"I know what people are going to say,'' Rodriguez told USA TODAY Sports. "They're going to say, "This is a bad guy. This is an evil guy. He's a prima donna. Look what he's done.
"Sometimes, you just want to say, "Uncle, already.
"I mean, damn, do people really believe I'm doing this?
"What is going on?''
Well, what's going on is that Major League Baseball just spent more money in this drug investigation than all of the investigations combined in the history of the sport, to simply expose the cheaters.
Today isn't the end.
It's only the beginning.
Now is the time Major League Baseball and the players association must sit down and hammer out an agreement that increases the first time drug offense penalties from 50 games to an entire 162-game season.
MLB officials have the hammer, and now they must use it, using Rodriguez as the $86 million example of what can go wrong when you have pockets full of cash and can buy the best drugs available.
GALLERY: A-ROD THROUGH THE YEARS
Let's be honest, here.
Just like when BALCO was shut down, you knew there were other laboratories ready to pounce on the opportunity.
And just like Biogenesis was shuttered, you don't think there are hundreds of mom-and-pop operations around the country, ready to dispense the best drugs to your favorite players?
(And in this case, "mom-and-pop" is hardly exaggeration; let's not forget Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch was in business with his father, Pedro.)
If we didn't have a disgruntled employee leak the documents of some of the games' biggest stars to the Miami New Times in January, maybe the operation is still going on, just by a different name.
We can rant and rave and be disgusted that cheating still is going on, no matter how stringent the testing, but we also have to face the reality that this isn't necessarily about the money.
Rodriguez already had a 10-year, $275 million contract, signed back in 2007.
He didn't have to cheat. If he were on performance-enhancing drugs at the time, he certainly could have gotten off them, knowing he and the next five generations of his family are set for life.
No, this was a need to fulfill greatness.
This was a need driven by fear of failure, of ego, of knowing that if he's being paid as the best player in baseball, then dammit, he better play like it.
Rodriguez admitted in 2009 that he only used performance-enhancing drugs during his days as a Texas Ranger, from 2001-2003.
Really, who knows if he was ever clean?
Rodriguez can be manipulative and deceitful, but he can also be charming, and he insists he is clean.
Then again, so did Ryan Braun, until he fessed up and is sitting out the rest of the season.
"I have a responsibility, I have a job to do,'' Rodriguez told us last month. "And I just don't believe in giving up. That's the way I'm wired. I love competition. I love the game.
"Most people wouldn't want the confrontation. They wouldn't want to get back into it. Most people would say, get me the expletive out of here.
"But I'm the (expletive) crazy man that goes, "I want to complete.' I don't hear people saying, "This guy is nutty, but it's somewhat admirable.
WHAT NOW?: Money lost, time served, and the future for banned players
"This is who I am. I just love baseball. I love the game, the pureness of it.''
The pureness of it?
Yes, those words came right out of his mouth, and he even insists that the sport must be 100% clean.
"You're not supposed to engage in that kind of stuff, first of all,'' Rodriguez says. "It's not like in the past. We have blood tests now. Nobody is hiding [expletive] from them.
"I know they're dying to catch someone, but the bottom line is those people who are doing that, are getting caught. The test if [expletive] working. There is no way around it. They test for everything under the moon.
"The notion that people are doing this [expletive] and getting away with it is so untrue. If you're doing it, you get caught.
"To risk anything like that, that's on you.
"That's just crazy.''
GALLERY: MLB SUSPENSIONS
Maybe one day Rodriguez will tell us why he went crazy himself, ruining his reputation, and severely tarnishing his legacy as one of the greatest players to put on a uniform.
Then again, maybe we're crazy to believe he'll ever tell us.
We're not so crazy to think that today marks the end of anything.
