Update: Here’s the Sickpigs conception of A-Rod today — NSFW

If you’re going to sell a book about anyone in sports, it’s imperative that you make that person look like a total asshole. Selena Roberts has taken her cue with the inclusion of new allegations in her soon-to-be-released book about Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. I’d give you the title of it, but if it was written by a woman, it’s probably not any good anyway. From the NY Daily News (via Yankees Daily):

A former high school teammate told Roberts the future No.1 MLB draft pick was on steroids and his coach knew it. Another student said the son of coach Rich Hofman admitted he saw Rodriguez use steroids.

Hofman said it was news to him. “Whatever he was doing, he was doing it somewhere else,” he said.

In one shocking disclosure, the book accuses A-Rod of “pitch tipping” when he was with the Rangers – letting a friendly opponent at the plate know which pitch was coming in lopsided games. Rodriguez expected players he helped would do the same for him when he was having an off night and needed to get his batting average up and it wouldn’t affect the outcome of the game.

The pitch-tipping thing blows me away–but who were these “friendly opponents,” anyway? Why out A-Rod and A-Rod alone? It’s accusations like this that make “investigations” in baseball seem like smear campaigns, passed off as cautionary “think of the children” rhetoric that makes everyone think that The Evil Steroid Era In Baseball is coming to an end. Please.

Oh, and Roberts also says A-Rod got gynecomastia in 2005 and everyone started calling him “Bitch Tits.” That’s the kind of baseless defamation I can get behind.