Steroid cloud hovers over A-Rod

Chipper Jones thinks the Yankees standout will face suspicion.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

NEW YORK — Chipper Jones’ comments dragged Alex Rodriguez back into the steroids conversation just two weeks after Jose Canseco hinted that A-Rod would be a hot topic in his next book.

Although Canseco said he had “other stuff” on Rodriguez that would appear in his follow-up to 2005’s “Juiced” — a project which hasn’t even been green-lighted as of yet — he didn’t specifically say it related to steroids, telling a Boston radio station on July 28, “Wait and see.”

Scott Boras, A-Rod’s agent, told the New York Daily News, however, that if Canseco had any drug-related information about Rodriguez, he would have used it in his first book.

“Due process and evidence will win out,” Boras told The News. “He’s already made reference to Alex but made no allegations relating him to performance-enhancing issues he made to other players.

“I don’t know what [Canseco’s] doing, but the evidence from his last book is clear,” Boras said. “He mentioned Alex [in the book], but he mentioned a laundry list of players whom he connected to performance-enhancing drugs, and Alex wasn’t one of them.”

A day after Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record, Jones — the Braves’ star third baseman — said that A-Rod will likely face suspicion about steroid use if he makes a run at Bonds’ record in the coming years.

“I think it will follow him,” Jones said Wednesday. “If I had to pose a guess on A-Rod, I would say no. But I don’t know. He’s going to have to answer the questions. And that goes for everybody that approaches the number.

“It’s just so farfetched, the numbers that those guys are putting up. And a lot of it comes from the era that they’re playing in.”

Unavailable for comment

Rodriguez bolted the Yankees’ clubhouse late Wednesday without answering questions, but Boras believes that Jones’ thoughts relate to the sport as a whole, not Rodriguez specifically.

“From reading Chipper’s comments, it appears that any great player in today’s game is going to have to deal with the unfortunate cloud that has been placed on the game in recent years,” Boras said. “It’s an unfortunate and troubling issue that baseball has to deal with.”

If Canseco does make any steroid accusations about A-Rod, it won’t be easy for Rodriguez to distance himself from them. Canseco’s first book caused a stir two years ago, as he accused several players, including 500-homer club members Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, of using performance-enhancing drugs.

“There’s been a lot of validation to some of the things that Jose Canseco has said over the years,” Jones said. “At first when it came out, a lot of people didn’t want to give him a lot of credit for it. But a lot of it has been proven true. Now, when he opens his mouth, people listen.”

Conseco attacks A-Rod

During the radio interview last month, Canseco called A-Rod a “hypocrite,” saying that he “was not all he appeared to be.”

That statement echoed Canseco’s thoughts from “Juiced,” when he painted Rodriguez as being “better at politics than any politician I’ve ever seen,” saying that A-Rod’s clean-cut image was a mirage.

“The perception of Alex is that he’s the clean boy — that he doesn’t do anything wrong,” Canseco wrote. “He’s always careful and does everything right. I know some reporters don’t like him because he’s such a boring interview, the one guy who always gives a politically correct answer.

“So why do they keep coming back? Because they’re waiting for him to make a mistake and slip up. And someday he could: He’s not the saint he’s perceived to be. Eventually the media will find something nasty to write about Alex Rodriguez, because trust me, they’re looking for it.”