"The Tampa Tribune is going to run what sounds like a crazy story about Elijah Dukes in tomorrow's editions, and there is a preview up now on its Web site. Dukes, the Nationals' former right fielder who was released last spring training, is now rapping in his home city of Tampa, having evidently halted a comeback in baseball that took him briefly to the independent Newark Bears last summer. He calls himself Fly Eli, and he mines his troubled past for material.

The most salacious part of the upcoming story has little to do with his rap career. He makes some pretty wild accusations and claims. An example:

He says he was blackballed by baseball after he came forward last year with allegations that fellow ball players were smuggling drugs onto chartered aircraft, using drugs in hotel rooms after flights and how he would sometimes smoke marijuana before home games when he played for the Washington Nationals.

Dukes struggled mightily after the Nationals released him last year. He was depressed and didn't see it coming, according to one source close to Dukes. He had not recently found trouble outside of baseball, and he didn't think the Nationals would release him solely on the merit of his ability. But Mike Rizzo decided he had better baseball options, and no other team took a chance on him.

Once he finally recovered, Dukes joined the Bears. But he arrived out of baseball shape, and he showed up late for the second half of the team's after missing a flight. It may have been his last chance to make it in baseball, and he could not take advantage."