FanHouse ARod

Remember when Major League Baseball did "diagnostic" steroid tests to determine if there was enough usage to start a league-wide testing program? And how they said that the results of those tests would never become public? Well, Barry Bonds' results leaked out earlier this week and today, Sports Illustrated is reporting that Alex Rodriguez was among the 104 big leaguers that tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003.

So after Monday night's Jays-Yanks mash-up, which saw the Jays throw behind A-Rod, Jorge Posada and Matt Stairs get plunked, and a couple hard slides, I predicted further high-jinks for Tuesday. And the lads didn't disappoint.

For those keeping score, the bad blood runs back to May, when A-Rod pulled his now-classic "Mine!" manuever in Toronto. The Jays were perfect gentlemen during their next series in New York, apparently choosing to wait till the Yanks were up in the Great White North to exact their revenge.

During last night's game, things got ugly fast, with Josh Towers drilling A-Rod in the leg to kick off the third, causing the benches to empty as A-Rod tried to advance toward the mound before being restrained.

"It was heated," Joe Torre said. "I'm just glad we didn't come to blows; it could have gotten ugly. I guess yesterday wasn't a mistake. [A-Rod] got thrown behind yesterday, so this other thing probably set him off a little bit."

A few innings later, Roger Clemens, never one to shy away from retailiation, hit Alex Rios in the back, earning an instant ejection while the benches cleared yet again.

Interestingly, one of the most animated characters on the field was Yanks base coach Tony Pena, who spent the better part of the game jabbering at Towers, prompting a post-game war of the words.

"I was like, 'What is this guy running his mouth for?' He's a quitter," Towers said. "He was managing a team (the Royals in 2005) and he quit in the middle of a season, because he couldn't hack it. Hey, he's going to run his mouth at me? It had nothing to do with Alex."

"I don't care," said Pena when informed of Towers' comments. "I have no comment. Just let him talk."

Don't miss Part Three, kids. Tonight at 7:07pm.

In the pantheon of cheap moves, that bit where A-Rod yelled "mine" to distract Blue Jays' third-baseman Howie Clark looms large. That was back in May, and Clark and the Jays have said they've put it all past them.

But today, with the Yanks visiting Toronto, the Jays sent a message that they're still kinda upset, as starter Jesse Litsch fired a pitch behind A-Rod's legs to start the second inning. A-Rod stared out at the mound while his teammates hit the dugout's top step, but nothing else came of it.

For the rest of the game, the two teams seemed on the verge of a good ol' afternoon donnybrook. Resident geezer Matt Stairs got plunked by Luis Vizcaino, Jorge Posado was hit by Brian Wolfe, and A-Rod tried to take down John McDonald with a slide (as depicted in the photo accompanying this post). But, sadly, no punches were thrown, and no warnings issued. After the game, Joe Torre said he didn't think the Jays were sending a message with that pitch to A-Rod.

"They played us four games at our place," Torre said. "Unless they didn't care about doing it there and they did it here, that doesn't make sense."

At least there's still two more games to go. Plenty of time for all sorts of hi-jinks.

The last time the Blue Jays and Yankees squared off, A-Rod expanded his cheap manuever repertoire by infamously shouting "mine" as he rounded the bases, fooling Jays' third baseman Howie Clark into laying off a pop fly that he thought shortstop John McDonald just called for.

Well, more than a month has past. And as the Jays head to Yankee Stadium to square off with A-Rod again, they appeared to have put it all behind them.

"No one's here to pick fights," said McDonald, shrugging off the idea that Toronto might retaliate. "I think it might've been made into a bigger deal than it was on the field. ... Howie and I have talked about it already. We talked about it right after the game. If we had just caught the ball, it wouldn't have mattered."

"That was almost two months ago," said [Manager John] Gibbons, unwilling to offer much more on the subject. "We forgot all about that it was so long ago. That's all I have to say about it."

Okay, so everyone's saying the right things. But with the Jays dropping tonight's series opener and falling a couple games behind the Yanks in the East, they may need to take a page from A-Rod's book if they want to climb back into the race.