“Eccentric, exacting, and self-destructive — Alex Rodriguez is baseball’s Howard Hughes. He didn’t just shoot steroids or rub on cream like his predecessors, he took his banned substances intravenously while breathing from an oxygen tank, or while laying in a hyperbaric chamber.” Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts with the untold and insanely weird story of A-Rod’s doping habits.

+ “Dear Greg: Lance won’t say it but I will. I apologize.” Mark McKinnon published a belated, open letter to Greg Lemond.

+ “I made the biggest mistake of my life.” As Ray Rice apologized for the violence against his fiancee (now wife), I wondered about the connection between pro football and domestic violence. FiveThirtyEight looks at the numbers.