Most important, if you remember that skinny rookie in 1995, and you remember what A-Rod looked like by the time of those allegedly positive tests in 2003, it doesn't take long to conclude he got that way by using something other than a bowl of Wheaties and a pile of Flintstone chewable vitamins every morning.

So what does that say about the 345 home runs he collected from 1995-2003

(14 more than Hank Greenberg, 13 less than Yogi Berra, 14 less than Johnny Mize, all of them Hall of Famers thanks to their slugging)? What does it say about the 990 RBIs he amassed (exactly as many as Ernie Lombardi, 20 more than Larry Doby)? And what does that mean about whatever final totals he accrues in both, the numbers he holds so dear, the numbers that were going to guarantee him a permanent place in baseball's firmament?

To the end, we have wanted to believe in A-Rod, partly because we had to believe in him, because everyone wants The Era to go away.

But it will not dissolve that easily. It is like grape juice on a white dress. It may fade incrementally. It will never disappear.

New York Yankees News News » A-Rod report shows we wanted to believe too hard
A-Rod report shows we wanted to believe too hard
This shouldn't surprise us, of course, because after all we've learned about baseball and the Steroid Era, nothing should surprise us. The rule of thumb, if you are smart, if you've been duly hardened by the revelations that keep smacking us in the face like an out-of-control speed bag, is this: A-Rod steroid shake-up Greenberg: Celts as deadly as LeBron Brooks: Avery return good for Rangers Kernan: Mets OF has rebound visions More from The New York Post