Parents' Guide to Screwball

In SCREWBALL, the highest-paid baseball player in history and the multi-million-dollar South Florida doping support system that supplied him were brought down over a $4,000 debt owed by a fake doctor to a gullible, spray-tanning-obsessed hanger on. Yes, Screwball is a documentary, but given the circumstances, it's almost by necessity also a comedy. Famous ball players flock to unlicensed physician Tony Bosch, who has a nutrition, weight-loss, and anti-aging "practice" through which he dispenses human growth hormone, testosterone, and other performance-enhancing drugs while wearing a white lab coat labeled "Dr. Tony Bosch." He devises micro-dosing protocols designed to avoid detection by Major League Baseball (MLB) drug tests. Lawyers, doctors, high school students, and cops are also among his large clientele. He travels with slugger Alex Rodriguez, injecting him in gas stations and other hidden spots, until he tests positive. Miraculously, ARod gets a wrist slap suspension and the story is swept mostly under the rug, until ARod appeals his suspension, pays to get his hands on evidence against him, which is when MLB starts throwing bribe money around, and Bosch, spending $6,000 a month on cocaine, goes on 60 Minutes and arouses the attentions of federal drug agents. Note that owing to the childishness of the cast of characters, the director was inspired to hire 8-to-10-year-olds to reenact scenes described in the interviewees' voices. The actors lip sync to colorful adult language that includes "f--k," "s--t." and "ass." Note that Bosch was indicted by the feds on charges related to delivering illegal enhancement drugs to minors, the high school athletes whose parents brought them to Bosch for that extra performance edge.