Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer has written a long feature for ESPN The Magazine on Alex Rodriguez, and in it he describes Rodriguez’s last year, how he’s dealt with his suspension, and how he hopes to return to the game.

The article has many fantastic details, but perhaps most stunning is that Rodriguez now believes that Tony Bosch, the former Biogenesis owner who was just sentenced to four years in prison, may have given him placebos. Rodriguez says that he had his two poorest seasons as a pro while he was consulted by Bosch, and uses this as evidence that he wasn’t taking anything, just the victim of a con man.

From ESPN The Magazine:

Rodriguez thinks often about that first meeting with Bosch. Shaking his hand, taking what he gave with the other hand, which might have been sugar and lies — his numbers went down for two years. He laughs: Only he, only a dope like he, would do that stuff and have the two worst statistical seasons of his career. And now … Yuri’s wife is calling him the devil. He gazes balefully at the TV, at his face on the screen, at the words below his face: A-FRAUD.

The entire article is worth a read, especially for details on Rodriguez’s commitment to attend college. Rodriguez has secretly toured 60 colleges, he says, and is eager to finish school and get a degree.