Thread: Sources tell SI Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003

In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated.

Rodriguez's name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball's '03 survey testing, SI's sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. "You'll have to talk to the union," said Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, "I'm not saying anything."

Phone messages left by SI for players' union executive director Donald Fehr were not returned.

Though MLB's drug policy has expressly prohibited the use of steroids without a valid prescription since 1991, there were no penalties for a positive test in 2003. The results of that year's survey testing of 1,198 players were meant to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner's office and the players association. Rodriguez's testing information was found, however, after federal agents, armed with search warrants, seized the '03 test results from Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., one of two labs used by MLB in connection with that year's survey testing. The seizure took place in April 2004 as part of the government's investigation into 10 major league players linked to the BALCO scandal -- though Rodriguez himself has never been connected to BALCO.

The list of the 104 players whose urine samples tested positive is under seal in California. However, two sources familiar with the evidence that the government has gathered in its investigation of steroid use in baseball and two other sources with knowledge of the testing results have told Sports Illustrated that Rodriguez is one of the 104 players identified as having tested positive, in his case for testosterone and an anabolic steroid known by the brand name Primobolan. All four sources spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the evidence.

Primobolan, which is also known by the chemical name methenolone, is an injected or orally administered drug that is more expensive than most steroids. (A 12-week cycle can cost $500.) It improves strength and maintains lean muscle with minimal bulk development, according to steroid experts, and has relatively few side effects. Kirk Radomski, the former New York Mets clubhouse employee who in 2007 pleaded guilty to illegal distribution of steroids to numerous major league players, described in his recent book, Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report, how players increasingly turned to drugs such as Primobolan in 2003, in part to avoid detection in testing. Primobolan is detectable for a shorter period of time than the steroid previously favored by players, Deca-Durabolin. According to a search of FDA records, Primobolan is not an approved prescription drug in the United States, nor was it in 2003. (Testosterone can be taken legally with an appropriate medical prescription.)

Rodriguez finished the 2003 season by winning his third straight league home run title (with 47) and the first of his three MVP awards.

Because more than 5% of big leaguers had tested positive in 2003, baseball instituted a mandatory random-testing program, with penalties, in '04. According to the 2007 Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball, in September 2004, Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players' union, violated an agreement with MLB by tipping off a player (not named in the report) about an upcoming, supposedly unannounced drug test. Three major league players who spoke to SI said that Rodriguez was also tipped by Orza in early September 2004 that he would be tested later that month. Rodriguez declined to respond on Thursday when asked about the warning Orza provided him.

When Orza was asked on Friday in the union's New York City office about the tipping allegations, he told a reporter, "I'm not interested in discussing this information with you."

Anticipating that the 33-year-old Rodriguez, who has 553 career home runs, could become the game's alltime home run king, the Yankees signed him in November 2007 to a 10-year, incentive-laden deal that could be worth as much as $305 million. Rodriguez is reportedly guaranteed $275 million and could receive a $6 million bonus each time he ties one of the four players at the top of the list: Willie Mays (660), Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755) and Barry Bonds (762), and an additional $6 million for passing Bonds. In order to receive the incentive money, the contract reportedly requires Rodriguez to make extra promotional appearances and sign memorabilia for the Yankees as part of a marketing plan surrounding his pursuit of Bonds's record. Two sources familiar with Rodriguez's contract told SI that there is no language about steroids in the contract that would put Rodriguez at risk of losing money.

Arguments before an 11-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena are ongoing between government prosecutors and the players' association over the government's seizure of the test results from the Long Beach lab. The agents who collected the material had a search warrant only for the results for the 10 BALCO-linked players. Attorneys from the union argue that the government is entitled only to the results for those players, not the entire list. If the court sides with the union, federal authorities may be barred from using the positive survey test results of non-BALCO players such as Rodriguez in their ongoing investigations.

Let's go Yankees!

Just another asterisk. Baseball is dead. Bunch of ******* douches.

Wow, he was my favorite player too.

NBD. So long as the NY's Golden Boy (Jeter) stays outta trouble, there shouldn't be too much downfall for this.

Originally Posted by atwater27

Just another asterisk. Baseball is dead. Bunch of ******* douches.

Sounds like professional sports in general! I loved playing baseball in HS (left field, center field) but I never watch MLB! I stopped watching NBA after John Stockon retired and NFL is becoming less passionate each year I watch. Back to topic, A-Rod, Bonds, Meche, and the list goes on are a bunch of overpaid douches!!

Originally Posted by Broncospsycho77

NBD. So long as the NY's Golden Boy (Jeter) stays outta trouble, there shouldn't be too much downfall for this.

....................A-Rod is done.............at least his reputation is.....whatever that is worth....

Oh well.....he will continue to make his millions of dollars.....

it never helped him shake that he's a pro at choking

Not surprised in the least. I figured he was doing steroids back when he was with the Mariners. Dude got pretty big over one winter prior to Spring Ball. Makes me sad. Always liked Alex.

Another stat freak that won't make the Hall.

As I said on my Mariners board:

There were clean players who were making sure to take clearly banned and testable supplements that year so that it would show up in their tests, because they wanted drug testing.

MLB had written a provision that if fewer than 5% were using they were gonna scrap the drug testing.

The poor clean guys who were watching the roiders and HGHers destroy their numbers and cost them money and years in the league would have taken Special K and Crystal for a year if it meant getting mandatory drug testing implemented.

Players were at first going to refuse to take the test, because a refusal would pop up as an automatic failed test.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...;pagewanted=all

When the White Sox players briefly rebelled against the steroid testing last month, it was the first public indication of disagreement among the players.

According to three members of the White Sox organization and a baseball executive, the rebellion occurred while two baseball administrators stood next to urinals in the clubhouse bathroom in Tucson, patiently waiting for more than an hour to conduct baseball's first round of tests for steroids.

In an adjacent room, some members of the team were shouting and exchanging angry words. First baseman Paul Konerko, Gordon and more than a dozen other players were threatening to boycott the test. Their strategy was simple: they knew that by refusing to participate, their result would be recorded as positive for steroids. Their goal was to skew the results beyond the 5 percent threshold and force adoption of mandatory random testing.

Sandy Alomar, the team's veteran catcher, chastised some of the dissenters, telling them it was their duty to take the test. Finally, saying they were feeling pressure from the union, the players walked into the bathroom, where the officials dispensed dipsticks for urine tests.

Alomar said he was opposed to the players' idea because a failed drug test, even one that was failed on purpose, would brand some of the young White Sox players as steroid users.

''I understand the point that was trying to be made, but I was upset at how some of the veteran guys were trying to pull some of the young guys into this,'' Alomar said. ''They would have been branded, and if their names showed up on some steroid list, they would have had to answer questions about it. That wasn't fair to them.''

When asked about the incident recently, Gordon said he had strong feelings about what he views as an inadequate steroid-testing program in baseball, but he declined to go into detail, saying that he preferred to discuss it with the union first.

When they were basically told to stand down and just take the test, several players found other ways to fail it on purpose.

I'm still looking for the article that mentioned that players admitted off the record to taking supplements that they knew would score a positive on the drug test without actually being steroids. And it's been mentioned to me in other ways.

And now what Alomar said would happen to them looks like it very well could - that the list will come out and all those guys will be 'roiders forever more.

The ones who fell on their sword to make sure the cheaters weren't going to get around the drug testing have my respect, so there will be guys on that eventual list that I refuse to crucify. Since I dunno who they were, I'm gonna have to refuse to crucify anyone.

I don't think A-Rod was one of those guys, but I really hope the list of names of all those guys doesn't come out, because there are some of them who were "cheating" on purpose for the good of the game, and I wouldn't want to see them rolled up in this.

And I still think that HGH is gonna be put on Wheaties in 30 years in some form of anti-aging. They say it has no effect...but I kinda have to believe that's a lie. You see what Stallone looks like at 62 and you go, "Holy CRAPJACKERS, that's some fountain of youth in a bottle he's got there."



And once it survives the FDA in some form, I do think it's gonna go from illegal use by world-class athletes to legal use by average septagenarians. Once that happens, what do you do about making things illegal in sports that are doctor-recommended in regular life? Argument for another day, I guess.

~G

G Money, valid points.

And if true, string up Bud Selig.

I'm disgusted by the report on A-Rod.

That being said, why were none of the 103 names released?
I'm not holding my breath waiting on that one.

I also want to know the names that Dana Stubblefield provided to the feds in exchange for receiving 2 years probation (as opposed to being sent to prison) in the Balco case. Word has it that big names were included in his list of NFL players and trainers involved with steroid use. I can practically guarantee that, with the heat on MLB, none of those names will be released.


This has been an awful weekend. I was looking for an article on the work pitching guru Tom House had done with Yankees prospect Ian Kennedy and stumbled across this article:

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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...ds-house_x.htm
Posted 5/3/2005 12:27 PM Updated 5/3/2005 3:58 PM

Former pitcher Tom House describes past steroid use

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Former major league pitcher Tom House used steroids during his career and said performance-enhancing drugs were widespread in baseball in the 1960s and 1970s, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

House, perhaps best known for catching Hank Aaron's 715th home run ball in 1974 in the Atlanta Braves' bullpen, said he and several teammates used amphetamines, human growth hormone and "whatever steroid" they could find in order to keep up with the competition.

"I pretty much popped everything cold turkey," House said. "We were doing steroids they wouldn't give to horses. That was the '60s, when nobody knew. The good thing is, we know now. There's a lot more research and understanding."

House, a former pitching coach with the Texas Rangers and co-founder of the National Pitching Association near San Diego, is one of the first players to describe steroid use as far back as the 1960s.

He was drafted in 1967 by the Braves and pitched eight seasons for Atlanta, Boston and Seattle, finishing his career with a 29-23 record and 3.79 ERA.

House, 58, estimated that six or seven pitchers per team were at least experimenting with steroids or human growth hormone. He said players talked about losing to opponents using more effective drugs.

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I'll admit that I was both foolish and naive. I knew good and well that one of my earliest favorite Broncos, Lyle Alzado, used steroids in the 60's and 70's. I knew that steroid use has been widespread in the NFL since the 70's. Fool that I was, I was under the impression that steroid use in MLB began in the 80's. I was way, way offbase. Having formerly differentiated MLB play from the 70's ("clean") to the 80's and beyond ("dirty"), I've been thrown for a loss.

Note to football only fans crying about PED use in MLB while pretending the NFL was clean: get off your high horse. Neither sport is clean, nor has it been for years. I don't care whether you like or loathe MLB, but get rid of the double standard. It doesn't work. Alzado and Romanowski were the only 2 Broncos who used steroids? Sure.... and Rodney Harrison + Shawne Merriman were the only other 2 AFC players.

Screw all baseball players! They all use steroids, period! They are still in the closets.

Yeah, that type of double standard. Exactly.