Will A-Rod Boost Don Hooten's Mission?

When Alex Rodriguez did his big "I'm sorry for cheating" presser, he made repeated mention of working with someone named "Don" and "Don's foundation." A-Rod was talking about steroids activist Don Hooten, whose 17-year-old son's suicide was related to his steroid use. Hooten has long partnered with Major League Baseball to fight PEDs. A-Rod's admission and references to Hooten gave Hooten the opportunity to get the sort of exposure he could never get on the strength of his story alone.

The question now is whether A-Rod actually meant what he said. Is he actually going to help Hooten keep kids off the demon drugs? If Hooten's budget is any indication, A-Rod's help could be a boon in a merely financial sense:

The foundation has a program called "Hoot's Chalk Talk" that makes presentations at middle schools, junior highs and high schools. Hooton said about 50,000 kids so far have seen the program, "but on the other hand we've got millions of kids to reach."

To do that, the foundation will need more than its current $700,000 budget, most of which comes from a five-year contract with Major League Baseball that pays $500,000 annually. Hooton said the goal is to get the annual budget in the range of $3 million to $5 million in order to reach 10,000 schools nationally.

In other words, Alex Rodriguez could double the yearly budget of Hooten's foundation without even blinking an eye. And of course, if Bud Selig wants a little public relations coup of his own, he could dump some of his yearly salary -- something above $18 million next year after his most recent raise -- into the foundation. Voila! There's $3 million, no problem, and A-Rod and Selig get to pretend to care about steroids. That's what we in the dishonesty business call a win-win.