A Rod Tested Positive for Steriods in '03

From MSNBC:

Alex Rodriguez reportedly tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003, when he won the American League home run title and Most Valuable Player award.

Rodriguez's name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball's 2003 survey testing, according to Sports Illustrated.

Not really surprised. Not because I harbor some special hate for Alex Rodriguez but I kind of figured everyone was doing when it came to baseball and steroids.

There's a Sports board for this.

What is baseball - is that like Madden with a stick and a smaller ball?

gargamello wrote:

is that like Madden with a stick and a smaller ball?

Judging by the amount of 'roids, probably a lot of smaller balls.

The sad part is that this means Jose Canseco was right all along.

Who exactly administer the steroid tests and who gets the result?

Does this mean the positive result just became available some 6 years later? or does this mean that the result was available all along? or does this mean everyone who's in the know (Selig, owners, managers, etc.) knew all along and there was a huge cover-up?

When they said this this afternoon, I was thinking "They tested X number of players, A-Rod was one. Therefor.." I was surprised, but given baseball these past several years, I wasn't shocked.

I think I found the answer to my own question above -

From Yahoo:

"We are disturbed by the allegations," MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred said in a statement. "Because the survey testing that took place in 2003 was intended to be nondisciplinary and anonymous, we cannot make any comment on the accuracy of this report as it pertains to the player named."

Said the union: "Information and documents relating to the results of the 2003 MLB testing program are both confidential and under seal by court orders."

"Anyone with knowledge of such documents who discloses their contents may be in violation of those court orders," the union added.

Baseball's drug policy prohibited the use of steroids without a valid prescription since 1991, but there were no penalties for a positive test in 2003.

As part of an agreement with the players' union, the testing in 2003 was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

The results of the testing of 1,198 players were meant to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner's office and the union. SI reported Rodriguez's testing information was found after federal agents, with search warrants, seized the 2003 results from Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., in Long Beach, Calif.

I can forgive him doing that in '93 when he was young and rather niaeve (I'm too lazy to look up the proper spelling).

I wonder if we'll know when he actually stopped. For some reason, I'm a Red Sox fan that likes A-Rod despite his faults. He's an amusing character to me. A bumbling superhero, the Hancock of baseball.

Ugh, this pretty much sums up my feelings on the situation (ESPN's Jayson Stark, my third favorite baseball writer):

"The all-time hits leader (Mr. Peter E. Rose) won't be in the Hall of Fame.

The all-time home run leader (assuming that's where A-Rod's highway leads him) won't be in the Hall of Fame.

The man who broke Hank Aaron's career record (Barry Bonds) won't be in the Hall.

The man who broke Roger Maris' single-season record (Mark McGwire) won't be in the Hall.

The man who was once the winningest right-handed pitcher of the live-ball era (Roger Clemens) won't be in the Hall.

The man with the most 60-homer seasons in baseball history (Sammy Sosa) doesn't look like he's headed for the Hall, either.

And who knows who's next? Who knows what other names are lurking on that list of seized urine samples? Who knows whose career and reputation will be fed through the shredder in the next big scoop? And the next? And the next?

I keep reading those previous seven paragraphs, trying my best to fully comprehend them. I'm not really succeeding."

"So weep not for what A-Rod has done to himself.

Weep for what he's done to his sport."

I really, really hope they never dig up any dirt on Frank Thomas, my hero growing up, or Albert Pujols, the player of the steroid era I have the most respect for.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Ugh, this pretty much sums up my feelings on the situation (ESPN's Jayson Stark, my third favorite baseball writer):

"The all-time hits leader (Mr. Peter E. Rose) won't be in the Hall of Fame.

The all-time home run leader (assuming that's where A-Rod's highway leads him) won't be in the Hall of Fame.

The man who broke Hank Aaron's career record (Barry Bonds) won't be in the Hall.

The man who broke Roger Maris' single-season record (Mark McGwire) won't be in the Hall.

The man who was once the winningest right-handed pitcher of the live-ball era (Roger Clemens) won't be in the Hall.

The man with the most 60-homer seasons in baseball history (Sammy Sosa) doesn't look like he's headed for the Hall, either.

And who knows who's next? Who knows what other names are lurking on that list of seized urine samples? Who knows whose career and reputation will be fed through the shredder in the next big scoop? And the next? And the next?

I keep reading those previous seven paragraphs, trying my best to fully comprehend them. I'm not really succeeding."

"So weep not for what A-Rod has done to himself.

Weep for what he's done to his sport."

I really, really hope they never dig up any dirt on Frank Thomas, my hero growing up, or Albert Pujols, the player of the steroid era I have the most respect for.

That is pretty ridiculous all of the "great" players who are unlikely to make the Hall.

I grew up in the Chicago area and was a big Frank Thomas fan. I doubt there's much reason to dig up dirt on him, but I doubt he didn't take something. Pujols taking something, on the other hand, would surprise me.

A-roid.

I really don’t care if the every player in the game is revealed as having used steroids.

I love the game of baseball.

Sure, all the cheating sucks, but when you take the following factors into consideration, can you expect anything less? When you pay people to play a game, pay them according to their performance, and then consider that these players only have a limited time to play (10-15 years), players will find any way possible to get the most amount of money during that time. Strike while the iron’s hot so to speak.

Ever since McGwire and Canseco I figured steroids were being used. Does anyone remember these guys when they played for US Baseball in 84? McGwire was a beanpole. It just didn’t make sense. Even Bonds; his first 4 years in the league he didn’t hit over 25 home runs. Then he jumps to the mid-30’s, upper 40’s and one season has 73? Give me a break. It’s not brain surgery either to consider that as Bonds' home runs increased, his stolen bases decreased.

The steroids do not lessen my love of baseball and my desire to enjoy the game on it’s highest level. It does however mean that I will never buy MLB merchandise (I already have my 15 year old Yankee hat and Mattingly and Rivera jerseys) or pay money to see a game (okay, I may take my unborn son to see at least one game at Yankee Stadium some time in his life). I’m perfectly happy watching the Yankees on YES for free. What I watch baseball for are the Yankees-Red Sox games.

I’m not on the payroll. Neither ARod or Jeter pay my bills or send me Christmas cards. My emotional involvement is with the game, not the players. So ARod and Jeter can do whatever they like and it will have zero effect on me. Long after they’re gone I will continue to watch and love baseball. It does mean though, that all baseball loving fans need to get behind the Jeter's and the Pedroia's and shun those who have cheated.

This is seriously way too much drama to be involved in for a game I love so much. I hate General Hospital and other soap operas but I still watch TV.

stauf7 wrote:

A-roid.

Ster-rod?

* News just across the wire is that he's now admitted to taking steroids to Peter Gammons on ESPN? Hmm I wonder how it will spin?

This will be a big story for the entire season, but I hope the fact that the COO of the baseball players union was tipping off players of upcoming drug tests does not get lost in the noise. That is a *big* deal in my mind.

A-Rod's interview with Gammons is on SportsCenter tonight, if you're interested.

Anywho, I did see one comment on this that I liked, that Selig needs to be held culpable, in part, for the (arguably) rampant use of PEDs under his stewardship.

I'm glad A-Rod came clean right away. I can't say I've ever been much a of a fan of the guy, but I give him kudos here. He probably took a look at the whole Clemens thing and decided to come out with the truth. Fans - even Yankee fans - have been pretty forgiving to players that man up in this situation (see Pettite and Giambi). I bet it doesn't get too bad until he starts getting closer to some records.

I'm pretty sick of all this fall from grace BS we go through every time another name pops up. There was no doubt in my mind that McGwire and sosa were using steroids back during there HR race. In fact, if you asked people at the time, most assumed they probably were. But the fact is, fans were eating this up, and ecided not to ask questions, even though it was freaking obvious what was going on.

Around that time I had read an article in ESPN the Mag, about the pressure on guys in the minors. If you had a guy that was 25, he could use steroids to boost production enough to get a few years at the major league level, and then retire with some cash. Or, he could toil away while someone else using the steroids got the fat paycheck. Teams did tell players to use them, but we are kidding ourselves if we are going to sit here and believe that managers, GMs, and Bud Selig were not completely aware of the use of steroids by hundreds of players. Maybe not specifically, but enough to know better than to ask questions they didn't want answers to. I put fans in the same boat. We all knew it, and shrugged it off as, "If you're not cheatin', you're not tryin'."

What Selig, the GMs, and mangers didn't foresee was the negative reaction fans would have when it became an open information that their sacred records of baseball were now being broken by cheaters. They got a glimpse of it when the Andro stuff popped up on McGwire.

But really, I think the fans were being disingenuous. They wanted to believe in the lie, and were only hurt when someone told them Santa Claus wasn't real. They would have gladly enjoyed the exploits of steroid users if the governement hadn't gotten involved in the distibution of controlled substances. That's the only reason it blew up.

At this point, I'm going to wonder what was wrong wit the players that didn't use the juice. Didn't they want to help their teams win?

caustic77 wrote:

I'm glad A-Rod came clean right away. I can't say I've ever been much a of a fan of the guy, but I give him kudos here. He probably took a look at the whole Clemens thing and decided to come out with the truth.

Uh what? He's denied for years taking steroids. He denied it on a national interview with Katie Couric just a year and a half ago. The only reason he said he did it now is because he could not lie any more because the proof was released.

LeapingGnome wrote:
caustic77 wrote:

I'm glad A-Rod came clean right away. I can't say I've ever been much a of a fan of the guy, but I give him kudos here. He probably took a look at the whole Clemens thing and decided to come out with the truth.

Uh what? He's denied for years taking steroids. He denied it on a national interview with Katie Couric just a year and a half ago. The only reason he said he did it now is because he could not lie any more because the proof was released.

I think caustic was saying that he was glad that Arod didn't stretch this out, now that iti has been released. Why let the players take an anonymous test if the players were going to be expected to crack the moment Katie Couric askes if they used?

kaostheory wrote:

That is pretty ridiculous all of the "great" players who are unlikely to make the Hall.

I grew up in the Chicago area and was a big Frank Thomas fan. I doubt there's much reason to dig up dirt on him, but I doubt he didn't take something. Pujols taking something, on the other hand, would surprise me.

I actually doubt Frank did either. Dude was 6'5" 280 at 20 in the minors, that kind of body doesn't need more bulk to generate his kind of power.

Prederick wrote:

A-Rod's interview with Gammons is on SportsCenter tonight, if you're interested.

Anywho, I did see one comment on this that I liked, that Selig needs to be held culpable, in part, for the (arguably) rampant use of PEDs under his stewardship.

MLB tried to implement a PED testing system in 1993 (very shortly after Bud's start as commish) but it was shot down by the MLBPA.

Is it just me or does A-Rod have a "oompa-loompa" thing going on?

Rat Boy wrote:

Video.

Once again, the best parts are the posts underneath. You were beaten to the Oompa Loompah referrence by a poster. Hilarious.

A-Rod played it as best he could have. If he truly only used them in Texas it doesn't really diminish my respect for his talents to be honest.

He could give George Hamilton a run for Tan-King too!

It was loosey goosey times guys!!! not sure what I was taking!

Considering my favorite baseball player growing up was Jose Canseco it doesn't really disappoint or surprise me. The Juice was telling the truth the whole time!!! everyone just had to listen.

edit: this keeps getting better the more I watch.

Its hot in Texas!

jowner wrote:

It was loosey goosey times guys!!! not sure what I was taking!

Considering my favorite baseball player growing up was Jose Canseco it doesn't really disappoint or surprise me. The Juice was telling the truth the whole time!!! everyone just had to listen.

edit: this keeps getting better the more I watch.

Its hot in Texas!

As a NoCal youth and a life long fan of the A's, Canseco sucks.

Isn't McGwire accused of using a substance that was legal when he was playing?

SwampYankee wrote:

I can forgive him doing that in '93 when he was young and rather niaeve (I'm too lazy to look up the proper spelling).

I wonder if we'll know when he actually stopped. For some reason, I'm a Red Sox fan that likes A-Rod despite his faults. He's an amusing character to me. A bumbling superhero, the Hancock of baseball.

LOL...I love the analogy. Yes, he is the Hancock of baseball. That figure everyone wants to love but has difficulty because of the things he does. A-rod did steroids during a time when everyone did them. Yes, I believe anyone hitting over 40 homeruns during that period is suspect. Does this mean he isnt one of the greatest players of our time? Not at all. I highly doubt he did roids with the Yankees and managed to win 2 MVPs and hit over 50 in 2007 and I would bet he wouldnt dare do roids in '07. This is a terrible period for baseball, but one that needs to be put to rest. Every sport has its issues. I mean if football can survive all its been through, then any sport can:)

SwampYankee wrote:

He could give George Hamilton a run for Tan-King too!

You don't get points for being tan king when you're hispanic. George Hamilton didn't get that mellow sunset glow from genetics. He had to work for it, baby.

Also, A-Rod is playing this exactly right. Get caught, apologize, say you only did it for a short time. If he continues this way, he'll start submitting himself to drug tests voluntarily and make speeches to kids about how important it is to "play clean." Then he'll go home and screw a couple of super models in his giant house on top of a mattress stuffed with $1000 bills.

Three years is hardly a short time to be doing steroids >_>

Furthermore, he averaged 12-13 more home runs in those three years than all of his other major league full seasons.

Funkenpants wrote:
SwampYankee wrote:

He could give George Hamilton a run for Tan-King too!

You don't get points for being tan king when you're hispanic. George Hamilton didn't get that mellow sunset glow from genetics. He had to work for it, baby.

Also, A-Rod is playing this exactly right. Get caught, apologize, say you only did it for a short time. If he continues this way, he'll start submitting himself to drug tests voluntarily and make speeches to kids about how important it is to "play clean." Then he'll go home and screw a couple of super models in his giant house on top of a mattress stuffed with $1000 bills.

Sounds way better then lying your teeth out in front of a grand jury.

I'm honestly more interested to see what other names come out!!

Ulairi wrote:
jowner wrote:

It was loosey goosey times guys!!! not sure what I was taking!

Considering my favorite baseball player growing up was Jose Canseco it doesn't really disappoint or surprise me. The Juice was telling the truth the whole time!!! everyone just had to listen.

edit: this keeps getting better the more I watch.

Its hot in Texas!

As a NoCal youth and a life long fan of the A's, Canseco sucks.

Isn't McGwire accused of using a substance that was legal when he was playing?

Theres such a large cloud over Mcgwire that people don't think he will ever make the Hall. I'm honestly going with if Canseco said he did it and they were hitting home runs then well they did it.