Alex Rodriguez. (AP)
An explosive report in the Miami New Times on Tuesday asserts that Alex Rodriguez purchased illegal performance-enhancing drugs from an anti-aging clinic in South Florida over the prior four years.
The newspaper obtained records from Biogenesis, a clinic that has closed and was owned by Anthony Bosch, the son of a prominent Florida physician who was linked with slugger Manny Ramirez when baseball suspended Ramirez for illegal PED usage in 2009. According to the newspaper, the records repeatedly mention A-Rod, as well as many other well-known baseball players. A-Rod, of course, confessed in 2009 to using illegal PEDs while with Texas from 2001 through 2003 and has repeatedly said that he hasn’t used anything since.
Rodriguez’s spokesman denied the report hours after it was released.
“The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true,” Citrik and company incorporated said in a statement.
“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.”
This could lead to A-Rod getting suspended by baseball if this evidence is able to be obtained and authenticated, but that’s quite a few steps away.MLB released a statement Tuesday in light of the report and said they are in the “midst of an active investigation.”
“We have the best and most stringent drug testing policy in professional sports, we continue to work with our doctors and trainers to learn what they are seeing day-to-day and we educate our players about the game’s unbending zero-tolerance approach,” the statement read.
“We remain fully committed to following all leads and seeking the appropriate outcomes for all those who use, purchase and are involved in the distribution of banned substances, which have no place in our game. We are in the midst of an active investigation and are gathering and reviewing information. We will refrain from further comment until this process is complete.”
The Yankees will not act upon this information until Major League Baseball vets it, according to an industry source, and that figures to take a while.
“We fully support the Commissioner’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program,” the team said in a statement. “This matter is now in the hands of the Commissioner’s Office. We will have no further comment until that investigation has concluded.”
And what is this information? According to the clinic’s records obtained by the newspaper, A-Rod — identified in the records as “Alex Rodriguez,” “Alex Rod” or “Cacique,” the name of a pre-Columbian Caribbean chief — paid $3,500 in 2009 for what is identified as “1.5/1.5 HGH (sports perf.) creams test., glut., MIC, supplement, sports perf. Diet.”
Both human growth hormone and testosterone cream are banned by baseball.
Another record links “Cacique” to IGF-1, a banned substance in baseball that stimulates insulin production and muscle growth.
A-Rod’s infamous cousin Yuri Sucart, who was purported to be A-Rod’s drug mule from 2001 to 2003, is also identified on the records, having paid Bosch $500 for a weeklong supply of HGH in 2009.
Another page from a notebook labeled “2012” features this wording: “He is paid through April 30th. He will owe May 1 $4,000… I need to see him between April 13-19, deliver troches, pink cream, and… May meds. Has three weeks of Sub-Q (as of April).”
Elsewhere in his notebooks, the newspaper reports, Bosch writes that “Sub-Q” refers to his mixture of HGH, IGF-1, and other drugs.
Other baseball players identified in the clinic’s records are former Yankees Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon, both of whom were suspended from baseball last year; Washington pitcher Gio Gonzalez and Texas outfielder Nelson Cruz.