Superstar slugger Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is among 13 players suspended Monday for using banned muscle-builders to boost their strength. Major League Baseball announced Monday morning that a dozen players accepted 50-game suspensions. Rodriguez, nicknamed A-Rod, got the toughest penalty: a 211-game suspension, eliminating him from the 2014 season and forever linking his legacy to one of the worst scandals in baseball history.

The 38-year-old third baseman, a three-time most valuable player, didn't fail drug tests to detect steroids or other prohibited substances -- but admits using performance-enhancing drugs as a Texas Rangers player from 2001-03. He vows to appeal the suspension and is expected to file a union grievance through the Players Association if Commissioner Bud Selig won't let him play while the case is under review.

The penalties arise from a January article in a Miami newspaper telling how A-Rod and other players got muscle-builders from a South Florida clinic called Biogenesis. Selig and league executives believe Rodriguez interfered with their inquiry. A Milwaukee Brewers player, Ryan Braun, was suspended last week for 65 games.

Alex Rodriguez says: "It's not time for me to hang it up, . . . I have a lot more fight in me."

Sportswriter says: "A-Rod has lawyers. He runs through them the way he runs through his blonde girlfriends.”—ken Rosenthal, Fox Sports

Columnist says: "If the Players Association really wants to clean up the game, it should do as little as possible to fight for him. He has been anything but forthright and truthful." – Pat Caputo, sports columnist at The News-Herald in Southgate, Mich.