"Detroit Rubber" seems like a show that should be on regular TV and not just YouTube's LOUD channel, but that's where it is right now. It chronicles the lives of the guys who run the Burn Rubber shoe boutique in Royal Oak, Mich., just outside of Detroit. If you suspected that this was the dopest spot to get the freshest kicks in greater Motown, you ain't trippin' . And your intuition was rewarded when Detroit Tigers slugger Prince Fielder and family walked into the joint in Episode 1.

Nice, right? However, conflict happens when Fielder makes a request — for a pair of ultra-rare Air Jordan version "4.5" retro sneakers (size 13) — that were made in 2005 exclusively for Eminem's entourage. (Yes, these blueberry beauties are a real thing, for those of you not obsessed with gym shoes.) Perhaps 50 pair of these Jordans were manufactured, and the shoes can cost up to $10,000 on the secondary market if you really get carried away.

And Fielder said he needed to have them in 12 hours, because he was leaving for the World Series and he needed new shoes. Hey, it's the World Series. It's like a best-of-seven Academy Awards Red Carpet out there.

Still, store owners Rick Williams and Roland Coit doubted they could fill the order.

{SPOILER ALERT}:

(@annyu16 on Instagram)

On Monday, The Stew posted about John Axford of the Milwaukee Brewers signing the belly of a pregnant fan, and we wondered how unusual of a request it was. Well, how does former major league slugger Mark McGwire signing a fan's prosthetic leg sound?

(AP)The New York Yankees better hope Alex Rodriguez heals up from hip surgery and starts hitting home runs again for the next five summers. Because there's almost zero chance they can void the remainder of his contract, which is worth $114 million, regardless of the details published Miami's New Times newspaper Tuesday that identify Rodriguez as having bought performance-enhancing drugs as recently as 2012.

Unless the Yankees somehow sue him successfully, the worst A-Rod could get is a 50-game suspension from the league as a first-time offender under the framework of baseball's drug policy. And even that is extremely unlikely because Rodriguez, who has denied the legitimacy of the story, hasn't failed a drug test. That's the mechanism for punishing players.

No matter, an ESPN story says the Yankees "are looking at about 20 different" ways A-Rod might have violated the terms of his contract. And yet, the story's own sources say the Yankees would be pursuing a legal dead end if they tried to void it:

"Baseball's drug policy was specifically written so that teams can't do things like this," one of the sources said. "You can't use this to try to get out of the last years of a contract."

And then there's this:

"You can't go home again" is a figurative saying in the United States, meaning once you leave the nest for the first time, it's never quite the same once you happen to go back. For athletes who defected from Cuba, ones such as major league right-hander Jose Contreras, "You can't go home again" has had a harshly literal meaning.

Since defecting in 2002, Conteras has made a lot of money pitching in the U.S. for the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. But unlike foreign players from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, he could never buy a ticket home because of political barriers. Making the separation even tougher for Contreras: Being unable see his mother, who has been in a hospital recovering from a limb amputation. No matter that Contreras was one of the most successful and famous Cuban athletes of the past 20 years, nicknamed "The Bronze Titan" by Fidel Castro himself — defectors weren't welcome.

Starting on Jan. 14, that began to change, and Contreras has become the first high-profile athlete to take advantage of immigration changes in Cuba that allow political defectors to visit home. CNN did a terrific feature on Contreras, including the video of him playing in a pickup game during his return:

(AP)In response to the New Times of Miami PED/Anthony Bosch story published Tuesday, New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has issued a complete denial. Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals did likewise and Texas Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz, through his lawyer, had no comment.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post gets the honors of reporting A-Rod:

“The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true. Alex Rodriguez was not Mr. Bosch’s patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him. The purported documents referenced in the story — at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez — are not legitimate.”

A-Rod's name was mentioned 16 times in Bosch's records, saying he bought testosterone, HGH and another substance banned by Major League Baseball as recently as 2012. As recently as 2009, A-Rod denied using PEDs after 2003. Rodriguez repeated those denials Tuesday.

Gonzalez, a new name to the steroid association game, also issued a denial after his name came up five times in Bosch's records. Amanda Comak of the The Washington Times has Gonzalez's statement:

(@janemlb)

Are either of these Oakland Athletics outfielders is using hair-enhancers? Nobody is saying for now. On the right, the Afro of Coco Crisp (or "Co-Fro") appears to be in mid-season form. Angela Davis is jealous, it's so kinky. Further, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Crisp and Josh Reddick (on the left) have entered into a beard-growing contest. There's no way Crisp can catch him, unless he somehow links his Afro to his cheeks, thereby inventing the FaceFro.

Reddick's hillbilly beard screams "Get off muh land!" but don't worry, folks. He doesn't bite. Hard.

[Also: Alex Rodriguez the biggest name in new PED report]

At Oakland's FanFest over the weekend, Crisp said the A's were in good shape to fend off the Rangers and Angels again in the AL West (and don't forget about those Houston Astros!). The key, Crisp says as quoted by the Chronicle, will be how new personalities will interact in the clubhouse.

(Getty Images)Major League Baseball apparently has another doping scandal on its hands, this time centered on a clinic in the Miami area instead of BALCO and the Bay Area. Many of the names listed in the New Times of Miami story, published on Tuesday morning, are old hat when it comes to PEDs: Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon, for example. The details on A-Rod, however, are new. The report says the New York Yankees star bought HGH as recently as 2012, along with testosterone creams and an insulin-like growth factor, all of which are banned in MLB. That would contradict A-Rod's PED confession from 2009, when he said he hadn't touched drugs since 2003.

Then there's the new blood.

In addition to players already associated with PEDs, or even suspended because of them, slugger Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers and left-hander Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals appear in the records of lab operator Anthony Bosch. Yahoo! Sports' own Jeff Passan describes Bosch as "a self-styled biochemist seen frequently in Latin American baseball circles."

The Texas Rangers knew this story was coming and don't have much of a comment so far. Gonzalez has issued a denial, saying he's never used PEDs and doesn't know Bosch. Major League Baseball says its investigation is "ongoing."

Based on the information published, it's too early to determine if any of these players will be punished by MLB. Cabrera, Colon and others have already served 50-game suspensions for positive drug tests. Learning how they got the drugs that led to their suspensions might be useful, but it might not be punishable if they keep passing drug tests.

Regarding Cruz, the New Times writes:

(@kristnanne19 on Twitter)

@johnaxford Thanks for the autographs & for reassuring that signing my belly wasn't the strangest request you've had! twitter.com/kristnanne19/s…

— Kristin Corcoran (@kristnanne19) January 28, 2013

To be specific, Axford signed the T-shirt over the apparently urgently pregnant belly of Kristin Corcoran of Milwaukee. Signing her actual belly, or another body part, would have been a stranger request, especially with the 5-year-old boy in the Ryan Braun shirsey standing there in front of thousands of people at the Milwaukee Brewers' "On Deck" winter festival over the weekend. But, signing a big ol' belly is just the sort of person request players often fulfill for diehard fans at these gatherings.