AMERICA AT LARGE:Sometimes the punishment does not fit the crime

THEY WERE born three years apart at opposite ends of the United States, but beyond that and the fact each had reached the top of his chosen sport, it probably would have occurred to no one that Alex Rodriguez and Antonio Margarito had much in common at all.

But in the space of just a few days this month, A-Rod and Margarito each assumed a prominent place in the pantheon of fallen idols.

Rodriguez, the highest-salaried baseball player in the land, had been considered a sure-fire future Hall of Famer, but that was before revelations surfaced of his having tested positive, in 2003, for testosterone and the anabolic steroid primobolan.

For two days Rodriguez attempted to discredit the charge, but, in the face of overwhelming evidence, he recanted and owned up to having juiced for what he claims was a three-year period, an experiment in chemistry he attributed to youthful indiscretion.

Literally a day after Rodriguez confirmed that he had used performance-enhancing drugs between 2001 and 2003, the members of the California State Athletic Commission, by a 7-0 vote, elected to revoke Antonio Margarito’s boxing licence for one year for having attempted to turn his gloves into a pair of lethal weapons prior to his fight last month against Shane Mosley in Los Angeles.

Margarito’s trainer, Javier Capetillo, was also suspended for a year for having employed what appears to have been a rock-hard substance believed to have been plaster of paris underneath the boxer’s hand wraps.

The ban must be respected in all other US boxing jurisdictions, but it leaves Margarito free to fight, for instance, in Mexico – and Capetillo would presumably be free to work his corner.

Although the 10-year, €250 million contract extension he signed with the New York Yankees last year makes Rodriguez the highest- compensated practitioner of America’s national pastime, he is, or was until the events of the past couple of weeks, better known elsewhere in the world to readers of the gossip pages for his role as Guy Ritchie’s cuckold. (And when the spit did hit the fan, sending A-Rod into damage control mode, the platoon of spin doctors employed to redeem his image included Madonna’s manager, Guy Oseary.)

Born in 1975 in upper Manhattan’s Washington Heights, Rodriguez moved with his parents back to the Dominican Republic at the age of four, before returning to America, this time to Miami, where he became the most highly-sought high school player in the land.

The number one pick in the 1993 draft, he became the Seattle Mariners’ starting shortstop at 18. A 12-time All Star with the Mariners, Texas Rangers and Yankees, he played for the US in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, but will switch uniforms and play under the colours of the Dominican Republic in next month’s Classic in Puerto Rico.

Margarito is commonly described as “a Mexican welterweight”, which is accurate, but he was actually born in Torrance, California, in 1978 and holds American citizenship – a fact which came to his promoters’ attention only a few years ago when they were filing papers to secure him a work visa.

Between 2001 and 2008, Margarito won world titles on three occasions. His latest reign ended on January 24th when, shortly after the plaster casts were removed from his gloves, Mosley beat him like a drum for the nine rounds the fight lasted.

Rumours had dogged Rodriguez for years, but until Sports Illustrated revealed the positive 2003 test on its website on February 7th he had steadfastly dismissed the allegations.

Over his three years, all with the Rangers, in which he now admits using steroids, Rodriguez hit 157 home runs, the highest total of any comparable period in his career, but so outrageously out of line with his career numbers.

In his final three years in Seattle he hit 125 homers; in his first three with New York he hit 129.

In other words, there is no obvious reason to disbelieve his claim that the experiment ended six years ago.

Margarito’s history, on the other hand, would seem to argue against the notion that his attempt to cheat was a once-off phenomenon.

Half a dozen years ago he was 26-3, but had stopped just 17 of his opponents. Since then, despite having faced a significantly more difficult class of competition, he managed to knock out 10 of the last 11 men he beat, a list of victims that included former champions Miguel Cotto and Kermit Cintron (twice).

Since neither man has lost to, much less been knocked out by, another boxer, the suspicion is that the Mosley fight may not have been the first time Capetillo doctored Margarito’s glove, but just the first time he got caught with concrete fists.

If anything, Margarito’s transgressions may have been worse than Rodriguez’s, because at least A-Rod wasn’t endangering anyone other than himself, but an amazing number of people who should know better have offered the feeble defence that the loaded gloves were a boyish prank akin to a baseball pitcher throwing spitballs, or to Angelo Dundee exaggerating the rip in Cassius Clay’s glove against Henry Cooper.

The dope in the hat who advertises himself as a “boxing historian”, for instance, told the Los Angeles Times that “ ‘gamesmanship’ is a much better word than cheating. You’re trying to wink and sometimes you play games to ensure you do”.

Rodriguez somewhat absurdly claimed this week that he didn’t even know he was using steroids. According to A-Rod, he and a cousin regularly purchased a substance he knew only as “boli” back in the Dominican Republic, and injected one another over a period of three years.

His excuse? “I was young. I was a kid. I was dumb. I was stupid,” said A-Rod.

Dumb and stupid, yes, but a kid? By his account he was 26 when he started fuelling his body with steroids, and 28 when he stopped.

Margarito’s explanation is even more disingenuous.

“I’ve never cheated,” insisted the boxer, who claims he didn’t know what his trainer was putting under his gloves.

Following a similar glove-tampering episode that ended the career (and, possibly, the life) of Billy Collins at Madison Square Garden 26 years ago, boxer Luis Resto and trainer Panama Lewis were jailed and banned from boxing for life, making Margarito’s punishment a mere slap on the wrist by comparison.

And Rodriguez gets off even easier. Since steroids were not specifically prohibited in 2003, he won’t be disciplined at all.

At least not until five years after his playing days end and his name comes up on the Hall of Fame ballot.