A-Roid

[Zombo]

Sources tell SI Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003 Story Highlights

Rodriguez tested positive for Primobolan and testosterone while with the Rangers

Under the 2003 survey testing, there were no penalties for a positive test

Rodriguez was one of 104 players who tested positive that year

 

By Selena Roberts and David Epstein

 

 

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 Baseballby 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.

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/base...ex.html?eref=T1

 

[Zombo]

I think this great news for the rest of the guys ... Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Mcguire, etc ... people are just going to say "**** it", they were all using, let them in the Hall (eventually).

 

It was "the steroid era", put a mental asterisk by it and move on....

 

Zombo

[We need Tom Tupa]

A-Rod tested positive in 2003. Not football, but huge sports news:

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/base...ex.html?eref=T1

 

[heckofajobbrownie]

And there are 103 more where that came from.

 

MLB is such a joke when it comes to this stuff.

[Cowsrus]

Okay, this really toasts my cheese. A-Rod used steroids along with 103 other players testing positive and because there were no penalties in 2003, he gets to keep that years MVP award and rake in $300,000,000? I just don't understand. If MLB prohibited the use of these steroids without a perscription, why were there no penalties? To me that just seems pointless. Not allowed but no reprecussions if you do. Am I not understaning this or is there something wrong with that?

I get they can't take the titles away since there were no punishments before 2003 but still, seems wrong to get an award for something in part because you had help that other players didn't have and competed honestly for.

And IF Orza informed him of the upcoming random testing, then does that mean he might have still been using? I am sorry but this whole steroid thing makes me mad. It is unfair, unethical, illegal, immoral and just not right and it seems he will get away with it because he could at that time. Again I ask, why say no, no you can't use steroids but we're not going to do anything about it. I think madatory testing may be a good thing. If they have nothing to hide then what's the problem? No harm, no foul.

There is madatory testing for drugs in other job areas so why not Baseball? Why should they be exempt? Because they produce for teams and owners and bring in big bucks? At what cost? they're cheating. And let's not forget what they're doing to themselves. Let's ask Lyle Alzado what steroids can do to a person.....oh wait! Lyle died from brain cancer due to steroid use. Wrong, wrong wrong. Shame on them. They would be suspended, fined, jailed or all three if it were other drugs like cocaine (Darryl Strawberry) or anything else that had an impact on their playing ability. Just because the steroids make them stronger and better does not mean it is not an impact.

The preceeding rant was only my humble opinion and not necessaraly the views of The Browns Board or the members.

 

Heidi

 

[JohnG71097]

For the record, have you ever used steroids, human growth hormone or any other performance-enhancing substance?" Couric asked.

 

"No," Rodriguez replied.

 

Asked if he had ever been tempted to use any of those things, Rodriguez told Couric, "No."

 

"You never felt like, 'This guy's doing it, maybe I should look into this, too? He's getting better numbers, playing better ball,'" Couric asked.

 

"I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I've always been a very strong, dominant position. And I felt that if I did my work as I've done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level. So, no," he replied.

 

But the Mitchell Report named names, including at least 16 current and former Yankees, like superstars Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens.

 

What's Rodriguez's reaction to this investigation?

 

"Katie, you're putting me in a tough spot. I mean, these are guys that I play with. They're my teammates. If anything comes of this, I will be extremely disappointed. And it will be a huge black eye on the game of baseball," he told Couric.

 

"It sounds like this is rampant. According to the Mitchell Report, every single club has a player using banned substances. Did you ever witness or hear about or even suspect this was going on?" Couric asked.

 

"You hear a lot of things. I mean, I came in 1993. And you heard whispers from the '80s and '90s. But I never saw anything. I never had raw evidence. And, quite frankly, I was probably a little bit too naïve when I first came up to understand the magnitude of all this," Rodriguez replied.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/13/...in3617425.shtml

[Guest Masters]

Just more of him being A-Fraud.

[Guest ATENEARS]

MLB is such a joke when it comes to this stuff.

 

Are they? Or are they just the front runner at testing and bringing it to light?

 

 

[heckofajobbrownie]

Look at what happened here. Instead of just testing and suspending, they tested to see if this was something they really needed to start monitoring. (You'd think whether or not you should find out if certain players are cheating is a question they could have answered right way.) So in 2003, players took a test that would be entirely confidential if it came back positive. And 104 players came back positive, one being A-Roid. (You can find out how this became known, but it had to do with a mistake by the union and the investigation into Barry Bonds.)

 

So after all these players come up positive, MLB still decides to go with an anonymous test. If you tested positive under their initial testing regime you would not be suspended, nor would your name be made public. Only if you tested positive again would there be any sanctions.

 

That policy lasted only a year after public and Congressional pressure urged MLB to devise a program with some teeth.

 

So they were dragged into a real testing regime. Knowing what we know now, it would seem that they didn't think they could go public with the idea that a serious percentage of the players, including some very big names, were on the juice, so they decided to try to give everyone a slap on the hand and keep the whole thing quite. "Okay, just don't do it again or it's going to be embarrassing for both of us."

 

McGuire, Canseco, Clemens, Sosa, Bonds, Pettite, A-Rod...

 

Clearly, this is a pretty widespread phenomenon, mostly due to ineffective policing.

 

Now, are you asking me if NFL players are also on the juice, and that everyone in the NFL/all of the fans are content to live under the delusion that a guy who weighs 270 can really run a 4.5 on his own?

 

Sure. No arguments there.

[Guest mz.]

I've seen fast-food eateries with better management and organization than the MLBPA.

 

Forget for a second that everyone in MLB is juiced. Not even the point anymore because, well, who gives a shit. How the hell does Gene Orza let these prelim 2003 tests come to the surface? Orza may actually be Retarded.

[ballpeen]

Are they? Or are they just the front runner at testing and bringing it to light?

 

I agree....roids is a problem in all sports.

 

Would have fit in well on the tribe board....a few of us talk baseball on a regular basis

[DawgTracker]

When you look at his face from his rookie year to now it doesn't seem possible that it is the same person. Isn't that a symptom of steroid use, swelling of the face and head? Remember when Bonds added a couple of hat sizes?

[ballpeen]

Yep....they usually end up with a head the size of a whole picnic ham.

[Oldcrow1945]

Okay, this really toasts my cheese. A-Rod used steroids along with 103 other players testing positive and because there were no penalties in 2003, he gets to keep that years MVP award and rake in $300,000,000? I just don't understand. If MLB prohibited the use of these steroids without a perscription, why were there no penalties? To me that just seems pointless. Not allowed but no reprecussions if you do. Am I not understaning this or is there something wrong with that?

I get they can't take the titles away since there were no punishments before 2003 but still, seems wrong to get an award for something in part because you had help that other players didn't have and competed honestly for.

And IF Orza informed him of the upcoming random testing, then does that mean he might have still been using? I am sorry but this whole steroid thing makes me mad. It is unfair, unethical, illegal, immoral and just not right and it seems he will get away with it because he could at that time. Again I ask, why say no, no you can't use steroids but we're not going to do anything about it. I think madatory testing may be a good thing. If they have nothing to hide then what's the problem? No harm, no foul.

There is madatory testing for drugs in other job areas so why not Baseball? Why should they be exempt? Because they produce for teams and owners and bring in big bucks? At what cost? they're cheating. And let's not forget what they're doing to themselves. Let's ask Lyle Alzado what steroids can do to a person.....oh wait! Lyle died from brain cancer due to steroid use. Wrong, wrong wrong. Shame on them. They would be suspended, fined, jailed or all three if it were other drugs like cocaine (Darryl Strawberry) or anything else that had an impact on their playing ability. Just because the steroids make them stronger and better does not mean it is not an impact.

The preceeding rant was only my humble opinion and not necessaraly the views of The Browns Board or the members.

 

Heidi

 

Wow, Well written Heidi! I agree completely.

 

It's good to see some passionate about the difference between right and wrong instead of the "Ho hum" attitude that so many seem to have about this kind of thing. Good for you!

 

[Oldcrow1945]

When you look at his face from his rookie year to now it doesn't seem possible that it is the same person. Isn't that a symptom of steroid use, swelling of the face and head? Remember when Bonds added a couple of hat sizes?

 

 

Jim Thome?

[DeadWombat]

Saw this on the news this morning.

 

 

 

2003

[Beanpot]

I think this great news for the rest of the guys ... Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Mcguire, etc ... people are just going to say "**** it", they were all using, let them in the Hall (eventually).

 

It was "the steroid era", put a mental asterisk by it and move on....

 

Zombo

 

Agree with every word, especially the mental asterisk part.

 

I understand being upset by the idea that an athlete would use performance enhancers, legal or not, to...well...enhance their performance. Truthfully, it pisses me off that it happened. But there are a ton of people out there who are asking for real asterisks to be placed next to the career record of any player who tested positive for roids. To me, that just demonstrates a lack of linear thinking. Record books are filled with snapshots of moments that actually did happen. They're simply that - a recording of events. Doesn't matter if the events occurred when people were prohibited from playing due to race or when the rules allowed for fans to be part of the field of play or when the height of the mound was altered to make the game something different that it once was.

 

As for Arod, eff him. I hope this little circus causes him to go all Steve Nebraska before every damn road game.

 

Jamey Newberg (Texas Ranger blogger) had a nice post today that looked at past Arod quotes:

 

From A-Rod’s infamous April 2004 ESPN The Magazine article, written shortly after he’d engineered his way out of Texas and to New York:

 

“I hit rock bottom in the middle of the [2003] season. I remember driving home with my wife, Cynthia, after a game and telling her, ‘I just don’t see the light. Where is the light? What am I in this for?’ I would have never gone to Texas if they had told me, ‘Alex, it’s going to be you and 24 kids.’ Never.”

 

----------------------------

 

“There is a difference between image and reputation. Image is nice; reputation is developed over an entire career. Reputation is what I'm searching for.”

----------------------------

 

“I've had kind of a weird ability that the more chaotic things are around me, the better I play. My comfort level is probably in the eye in the storm, perhaps.”

 

http://www.newbergreport.com/article.asp?articleid=1252

 

Beanpot

[Thomas5737]

When you look at his face from his rookie year to now it doesn't seem possible that it is the same person. Isn't that a symptom of steroid use, swelling of the face and head? Remember when Bonds added a couple of hat sizes?

 

Isn't that HGH? Which isn't tested in the NFL either, it has to be tested from blood and I think only the olympics use blood tests.

[Thomas5737]

I've seen fast-food eateries with better management and organization than the MLBPA.

 

Forget for a second that everyone in MLB is juiced. Not even the point anymore because, well, who gives a shit. How the hell does Gene Orza let these prelim 2003 tests come to the surface? Orza may actually be Retarded.

 

I'd be willing to bet that the % of MLB players taking illegal performance enhancing drugs is well less that half of what it is in the NFL. The NFL testing is an even bigger joke, but nobody cares because nobody cares if they use. Baseball records and history are sacred, NFL is a now league, you aren't even looked down upon after a failed test. There will never be an issue with an NFL player not making the HOF because of positive test(s) but it is very likely that Big Mac, Clemens, Bonds, Sosa, Palmeiro, A-Rod and such players will never get a 50% vote for the HOF, which is much less than is needed for acceptance.

[Guest mz.]

The NFL testing is an even bigger joke, but nobody cares because nobody cares if they use. Baseball records and history are sacred, NFL is a now league, you aren't even looked down upon after a failed test.

 

I don't agree at all. The NFL is a WAY better run org than MLB.

 

And if you believe in the depth of the testing in the NFL, tell that to Pat and Kevin Williams of the Vikes, as well as all of those Saints, who were suspended for taking water pills.

 

[dencyguy]

I don't agree at all. The NFL is a WAY better run org than MLB.

 

And if you believe in the depth of the testing in the NFL, tell that to Pat and Kevin Williams of the Vikes, as well as all of those Saints, who were suspended for taking water pills.

 

Perhaps, but there is also the matter of fan perception. When Rodriguez tests positive, and when everyone assumes that Bonds and Clemens juiced, then there is a sense of outrage because baseball is much more of a numbers-driven sport; thanks to folks like Bill James, you can even compare players of different eras based on their statistics. Steroids has the potential to throw a monkey wrench into all of that, even though the outraged masses have to ignore the fact that their "clean" heroes of the past spent their pregame hours taking as many greenies as they could without their hearts exploding.

 

Football isn't as much of a numbers game, and the fans have a better sense that it's more about entertainment than, I dunno, national identity or moral uplift than baseball (which is why I don't care much for baseball...well, that and the whole "boring" thing). That's why Alex Rodriguez is ripped for juicing--and people will demand that he be stripped of his MVP--while Shawn Merriman ends up in the Pro Bowl after getting caught doing the same thing.

 

Dennis

[CIMO.]

I think I'm in the boat with most baseball fans in thinking, "I don't care anymore, let's just be done with this." Like we talked about in the Travis Hafner thread, it wouldn't surprise me at all if anyone was found out to be juicing. I think we've gotten to the point where all the horse steroids and everything else making players like Bonds and Sosa triple in size, and the fact that 30 and especially 40 homers is a real milestone again is pretty encouraging. But I'm still pretty confident thinking that a majority of the players are still taking something. I'm hoping that whatever is going on, it's in the interest of getting/staying healthy...not just having someone shove a needle in your ass to hit a couple (or 20) more dingers a year or add a few MPH to your fastball.

 

The fact that it's A-Rod doesn't interest me...Zombo and Bean nailed it with the mental asterisk.

[SoCalBrownsFan]

Cheaters never win.......

[hoorta]

Perhaps, but there is also the matter of fan perception. When Rodriguez tests positive, and when everyone assumes that Bonds and Clemens juiced, then there is a sense of outrage because baseball is much more of a numbers-driven sport; thanks to folks like Bill James, you can even compare players of different eras based on their statistics. Steroids has the potential to throw a monkey wrench into all of that, even though the outraged masses have to ignore the fact that their "clean" heroes of the past spent their pregame hours taking as many greenies as they could without their hearts exploding.

 

Football isn't as much of a numbers game, and the fans have a better sense that it's more about entertainment than, I dunno, national identity or moral uplift than baseball (which is why I don't care much for baseball...well, that and the whole "boring" thing). That's why Alex Rodriguez is ripped for juicing--and people will demand that he be stripped of his MVP--while Shawn Merriman ends up in the Pro Bowl after getting caught doing the same thing.

 

Dennis

 

The problem with baseball is they let the inmates run the asylum for too long. I'm pretty much done with the sport. The question has to be asked, who wasn't juicing? All those "records" don't mean squat in my book anymore. Would be nice if the MLB moguls had the cajones (they don't) to emulate what track & field does- first offense you're gone for a couple of years, second offense you're done for life. And please toss all the proven cheaters records in the trash while you're at it ala Ben Johnson. Bye bye Bonds, Sosa, McGuire, Clemens, Pettit, and A-roid.

 

[Beanpot]

The question has to be asked, who wasn't juicing? All those "records" don't mean squat in my book anymore. Would be nice if the MLB moguls had the cajones (they don't) to emulate what track & field does- first offense you're gone for a couple of years, second offense you're done for life.

 

I ask that question while watching every sporting event. Not really, since I don't much care about the answer, but I find it silly when people point to athlete A as a cheater and athlete B as clean. Good luck with that belief system.

 

Not sure why you think it would take "cajones" for MLB to emulate track and field (wait - did you just hold up track and field as an example of how to handle steroids??) but it would take a lot more than balls to impose the same penalties on an individual sport as you did on a team sport with one of the most powerful unions on earth.

 

Posnanski takes a ton of hits here in the comments section, but I agree with just about every word:

 

I’ll admit, right up front, that I’ve never felt on solid footing when it comes to baseball and steroids/HGH/performance enhancers (to be known as simply STEROIDS for the rest of this post). Never. I’ve never known how outraged I was supposed to be about players using steroids in order to get stronger so that, presumably, they could play better. I’ve never known how much better they could play. I’ve never had a good guess how many players actually used. I’ve never known why ballplayers taking steroids were more morally corrupt than ballplayers taking amphetamines. I’ve never grasped why baseball players taking steroids were in some way different from football players taking steroids. I’ve never understood how big a role steroids played in the obvious offensive surge of the 1990s. I’ve never known quite what to think of the bloated offensive numbers compiled by players who, by our best guess, took steroids. I’ve never fully grasped why certain players became pariahs for using while others were treated with something closer to kindness. I’ve never had a good feel for how we are supposed to carve up our anger among Bud Selig, baseball management, the players union, players, the media, steroid designers and, of course, Michael Bolton. I’ve never even known if we were really supposed to be all that angry in the first place.

 

So, all that said, I predictably have felt out of step on this Alex Rodriguez story from the start. When Sports Illustrated first broke the story that A-Rod failed a drug test back in 2003, my initial reaction was that it was unfortunate, a bit sad, a black eye for baseball, all that. But I was not quite ready for the level of moralizing that would follow. Of course, you can find pretty much every opinion you want these days — and there were numerous measured and interesting thoughts about the A-Rod story — but it sure seemed like most places I turned I found stories about A-Rod as Judas, the man who betrayed a nation, the man who had lost his place in the Hall of Fame, the man who deserved to be released by the venerable New York Yankees,* the man who had made all the children in all of America lose their innocence and faith in the great American pastime. It seemed a bit much.

 

*I will say: I’ve never been entirely sure when the Yankees became the bastion of purity. That seemed to be at least one of the themes of the early A-Rod coverage — that somehow he had besmirched the impeccable history of the New York Yankees. As far as I can tell, the Yankees tradition began with Babe Ruth, who would get chased on trains by naked women wielding knives. Mickey Mantle was an alcoholic; Whitey Ford was his carousing partner. George Steinbrenner pled guilty to obstruction of justice and later paid a gambler for dirt on Dave Winfield. Billy Martin was a five-tool rogue. Even just talking steroids: Brian McNamee was the Yankees strength coach, Roger Clemens was a Yankees pitcher, and we know at least one of them is lying. And so on. Not a knock — every team has its past. Just saying I’m not sure that A-Rod betrayed some sort of saintly Yankees code.

 

I guess at the end of the day, my own views about some of the more heated reaction to A-Rod more or less mirrored that of Bill James, who sent me an email summing up. He wrote:

 

In 36 words:

 

1) Baseball allowed a situation to develop in which it was in the self-interest of players to use steroids.

 

2) Now we are very angry with people because they did what the system rewarded them for doing.

 

That seems about right to me. I don’t discount what A-Rod did, or dismiss it as some youthful indiscretion — I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing and knew it was wrong and knew that there was almost no chance he would get caught. I suspect he and many others were driven by the same insecurity, ambition, greed or petty jealousy that drive lots of people to push limits on any level (to cheat on taxes, speed on highways, drive home after drinking too much, smoke pot, cut in line, whatever). And I do believe that Baseball was complicit — I’m blown away by the insincerity of baseball executives who say now that there was some sort of vague anti-drug rule on the books going back years. Irrelevant. Having a drug rule without any enforcement is pointless; it’s like the law in North Carolina that says that bingo games cannot last longer than five hours unless held at a state fair. It seems clear to me that while using steroids without the use of a prescription is technically against the law, in my personal view it was not against the rules of Major League Baseball until they began full testing in 2004.

 

So, I guess, when it came to Alex Rodriguez and steroid use, I was probably well to the left of the norm. I wish he hadn’t done it, and I think it’s a mark on his permanent record, but I still think he was and is a great baseball player, one of the greatest of all time. And I don’t think he should go to jail or be deported or be forced to write ”I will not do steroids“ 10,000 times on a chalkboard. He’ll get booed at ballparks, people will bring ”Druggie“ signs to his games, reporters will mention the positive test in countless stories from here on in, it surely will cost him some Hall of Fame votes too. He’ll pay a hard price in his own way. And I don’t think he did much different from many other players, including some who would no doubt shock us even more.

 

So that’s how I felt. Then Alex Rodriguez spoke. He admitted (sort of) using steroids. He said he was sorry. He said he let fans down. And so on. And again, while I think there were many different views of the A-Rod apology, most of the stories I read early on (there does seem to be a shift in some of the articles I’ve seen Tuesday night) gave him some credit for coming clean and suggested that maybe he could now be a leader in baseball’s war on steroids.

 

And once again, I find myself on the opposite end of what I’m reading. I thought Alex Rodriguez’s ”apology“ was one of the most absurd shams of recent memory. I thought it was so pathetic that, for the first time, that ”A-Fraud“ moniker finally made some sense to me. As a baseball fan, I wasn’t mad at A-Rod when the steroid story broke. As a baseball fan, I was furious at A-Rod when he and his handlers put together this infomercial apology.* I hope the children weren’t watching THAT.

 

*And I say this with all respect to interviewer Peter Gammons, who I actually thought handled the interview about as well as he could. Sure, like everyone, you want him to follow up here or question there, and I’m sure Peter has his regrets. But let’s not kid anybody: A-Rod came into this thing as prepped as a presidential candidate, and he was going to say precisely what he was going to say, and I don’t think follow ups would have made much of a difference.

Why did the ”admission“ enrage me so much? Because, first off, it was not an admission at all. It was what I have come to call the ”Pete Rose Gambit” — never admitting more than they have. You might recall Pete Rose’s series of admissions. He admitted that he gambled but never on baseball. Then, when the truth closed in, he admitted that, yes, he bet on baseball but never on his own team. Then, when that didn’t take, he admitted that, yes, he bet on his own team, but never to lose. And that’s where we are with Pete. The truth is elastic. Never give ‘em more than they already have.

 

Now, think about A-Rod. We KNOW, thanks to the thorough reporting of Selena Roberts (more on Selena in a minute) that A-Rod failed the anonymous drug test in 2003. We knew that before Alex Rodriguez ever spoke. Then he did speak, he spoke emotionally, he wore a sad look and a Mr. Rogers blue sweater, he spilled his guts. And after that was over we knew what? That A-Rod failed the anonymous drug test in 2003. No more. No less.

 

Think about this. Let’s play a simulation game. Put yourself in the Alex Rodriguez war room. The steroid story breaks. You’ve got to minimize the damage on this. How would you do it? You could deny … but it’s true. And denying the truth — especially truth that is out there — is bad, bad PR.

 

You could tell him to come clean, and reveal all sorts of facts that are not already out there.

 

OR … you could come up with a theme. A campaign. Something for people to believe in. I’m going to sound exceedingly cynical here — and I’m not a cynical person — but I honestly don’t see how anyone could have watched that absurd A-Rod performance without having all sorts of cynical feelings. Imagine the three guys in the war room batting it out:

 

So, what’s the pitch? Do we say that this was a one-time thing?

 

No. Won’t fly. It worked for Pettitte, but not this time.

 

So what do we have?

 

How about A-Rod as victim?

 

Hmm. Has promise.

 

But how do you make a victim out of the man with the biggest contract in baseball history?

 

Tough one. Tough, tough one.

 

Unless …

 

Maybe it was the CONTRACT that made him the victim.

 

You mean?

 

Yes. He was trapped by the contract. He felt this deep sense of pressure, expectation, he had so much he had to live up to. That’s why he turned to steroids.

 

So he started in 2001.

 

Exactly. He started right after the contract.

 

Not bad. Nobody cares about his Texas time anyway.

 

Think about this. It’s hot in Texas. He had a lot to live up to. He wanted to be thought of as one of the greatest ever. Yadda yadda yadda.

 

Plus it was a steroid circus back then.

 

And he was young and naive?

 

Absolutely. Young and naive and under immense pressure.

 

OK, so when did he stop?

 

Well, he had to stop in 2003. We can’t have this leaking over to the Yankees.

 

Why would he stop in 2003?

 

Good question. He had an awakening.

 

How?

 

He hurt his neck. Remember? Had to miss a couple of weeks of spring training.

 

The neck thing scared him straight?

 

Exactly. He was lying in bed during spring training and had this moment of inspiration.

 

Yes. That could play.

 

Also have him mention GNC a couple of times to confuse people.

 

And there you have the story that Alex Rodriguez shared with the world. There are, best I can tell, two possibilities: (1) That this story is the whole truth — that Alex Rodriguez used steroids from 2001-2003 (conveniently making him clean in Seattle and New York), that he stopped because of his bedtime epiphany, that he has no recollection of what drugs he used or how he got them, that he’s telling the truth NOW rather than the lies he told two years ago on 60 Minutes, that it feels good to come out and be completely honest days after the story broke against his will, that he now wants to influence children. (2) That this is a PR campaign ordered up by a very rich man who got caught and the only goal was to admit as little as humanly possible and make excuses for the little he does admit.

 

Look, I never blame anyone for doing what they have to do to minimize damage. But that doesn’t mean anyone should buy it. Do I think Alex Rodriguez is lying? You bet I do. The guy talks about being completely honest and he cannot remember what drugs he used? He doesn’t really know where he got them? He stopped because of some St. Paul like conversion he had with a neck injury in an Arizona bed? That story is so prepackaged it should come with your pack of Ho Hos. And look: I’m a sucker for prepackaged stories, melodramatic movies, sad songs and diamond commercials. I bought the TurboCooker. But I didn’t buy one word of it.

 

Even all that would have been OK with me. Hey, it’s like Sinatra said: “I’m for anything that gets you through the night.” If this ludicrous story tested well with the target audience, well, that’s fine by me. But then, he went after Selena Roberts, who broke the story. And that’s where the dam broke for me. I should say that I am an acquaintance of Selena’s and a co-worker at Sports Illustrated … I don’t know her very well, but I like her. I think she’s an outstanding journalist.

 

That has little to do with my anger here. No, Selena broke this story, and it was impeccably reported, thoroughly sourced, and it was quite obviously true. That story — and ONLY that story — was why Alex Rodriguez was giving this heartfelt mea culpa to the nation, why he was able to, as he said, finally come out and be ”completely honest.“

 

And then he attacked her. He said ”This lady“ was paid to stalk him. He said she was thrown out of his apartment. Rodriguez said she tried to break in his house ”where my girls are up there sleeping.“* She denied every word, said it was all made up. I guess you can decide who you want to believe. But then he said that she was coming out with ”all these allegations“ and ”all these lies,“ even though he was sitting right there emotionally and reluctantly confirming those allegations and admitting those lies. And, remember, he felt good to do it.

 

*In my HOME. In the same room where my wife was sleeping, where my children come in their pajamas and play with their toys.**

 

**This quote did not sound precisely right to me but I copied it directly from the Godfather II script on IMSDb. Brilliant reader JC brings up the point again, so I went and listened to it, and he is right. The correct line is: ”In my home! In my bedroom, where my wife sleeps. Where my children come and play with their toys.“ No pajamas.

 

It was shameful. Pathetic. I’ll add this: I know that Selena has a history with A-Rod. And I know that she has a book coming out that, based on the cheery title (Hit and Run: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez) does not sound especially uplifting. But I’m not trying to defend Selena: She’ll defend herself fine. No, I’m talking about what this says to me about Alex Rodriguez.

 

I know Peter Gammons regrets allowing A-Rod to go on with that tripe — I guess he’s already apologized for that — but I don’t blame him. In many ways that was the most important part of the interview, the one true look into the man. Even in this moment of revelation, he could look at the camera and, I believe, lie viciously about the reporter who pulled back the curtain. It’s like I said: I never thought it was fair for people to call this gifted and brilliant baseball player A-Fraud for hitting into double plays in the playoffs or using the same drugs so many were using before baseball tested. But this guy attacking the reporter for reporting the truth, yes, that was A-Fraud.

 

Look, I get it. I understand the strategy. The media is not popular in America today, and there are very good reasons for that. Shoot, I’m in a member of the media, and I don’t like us much of the time. I know that it’s a pretty savvy maneuver to lob grenades at the media; most people will cheer you on.

 

But the way I saw it: This was a moment of character testing for Alex Rodriguez. He had been exposed. A shadow was cast over his baseball brilliance. This wasn’t Selena Roberts fault. It was his own. Now, the question is: How will you react when you are tested? Will you stand up? Even now, I don’t have those same strong feelings that others have about A-Rod using steroids, no, but I can tell you I’m way to the right on this spectrum. I don’t like liars. I don’t like bullies. More than anything, I think the A-Rod interview was a test of the man’s character. And I think he failed that test miserably.

 

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/02/10...-part-ii/print/

 

Beanpot

[hoorta]

Beans,

 

Yeah, I did say use the same standards as track & field. Cycling is about as severe. Too bad it will never happen. I could care less if they threw half of the major leaguers out permanently. Unlike football, I'm a very casual fan when it comes to baseball.

 

That's what I"m referring to- the Union made it possible for the guys to get away with using 'roids, and the owners went along- 'cause record breaking home run chases generated big $$$.

 

And it's still just my .02 Bond's Hr record is meaningless in my book, and so are Clemens' wins.

 

Doesn't seem to be much of a recession in baseball salaries- we'll see how that plays out this summer in attendance figures- a baseball game is discretionary spending for plenty of people.

[Beanpot]

That's what I"m referring to- the Union made it possible for the guys to get away with using 'roids, and the owners went along- 'cause record breaking home run chases generated big $$$.

 

Fair enough, Larry. BTW, I agree with every word quoted above.

 

Beanpot

[hoorta]

Fair enough, Larry. BTW, I agree with every word quoted above.

 

Beanpot

 

LOL, the Williams sisters are up in arms about the new drug testing in tennis- nah- they couldn't possibly be doing testosterone- I played competitive tennis and I always said Venus served like a guy.

 

That said, I can easily see where 'roids would give you a competitive advantage in that sport. Throw out the strength\power factor- you practice six hours a day, you're going to get overuse\breakdown injuries- guaranteed.

[Kosar_For_President]

You know A-Roid was wrong. But you know what quote is the worst out of all of this, Selig. Selig the guy who let roids into the sport and turned a blind eye, then says A-Roid "shamed the game". What a hypocrite. And I am sooooo sureeeee, that no Brewers tested positive. Well if they did, I am sure the results got lost in Selig's ugly hair piece. What a joke. I don't know what I would do without the Tribe.

[JohnG71097]

You know A-Roid was wrong. But you know what quote is the worst out of all of this, Selig. Selig the guy who let roids into the sport and turned a blind eye, then says A-Roid "shamed the game". What a hypocrite. And I am sooooo sureeeee, that no Brewers tested positive. Well if they did, I am sure the results got lost in Selig's ugly hair piece. What a joke. I don't know what I would do without the Tribe.

 

Steroids usage in Baseball predates Bud Selig. Hell Illegal drug usage has gone on for years way before Bud Selig was involved.

 

 

 

Here is a passage from Verducci/SI on Greenies/Amphetamines from 2005

 

Here's what Caminiti told SI about greenies: "I would say there are only a couple of guys on a team that don't take greenies before a game. One or two guys. That's called going out there naked. And you hear it all the time from teammates, 'You're not going to play naked, are you?' And even the guys who are against greenies may be taking diet pills or popping 25 caffeine pills and they're up there [at bat] with their hands shaking. So how good is that? This game is so whacked out that guys will take anything to get an edge. You got a pill that will make me feel better? Let me have it."

 

Former outfielder Chad Curtis agreed with Caminiti: "You might have one team where eight guys play naked and another team where nobody does, but that sounds about right. Steroids are popular, but quite a lot more guys take [amphetamines] than steroids. I'm talking about illegal stuff. Speed ... ritalin, which is legal only with a doctor's prescription ... sometimes guys don't even know what they're taking. One guy will take some pills out of his locker and tell somebody else, 'Here, take one of these. You'll feel better.' And the other guy will take it and not even know what it is."

 

Curtis added that amphetamine use is so prevalent that non-users are sometimes ostracized as slackers.

 

"If the starting pitcher knows you're going out there naked, he's upset that you're not giving him more than what you can," Curtis said. "The big-time pitcher wants to make sure you're beaning up before the game tonight."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writ...ines/index.html

 

 

 

 

There is a great written series a primer if you will that ESPN the magazine put together on Steroids. it is in depth about who, what, when, where and why. And is really a great read on the subject. Here is the link to the series

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/sto...roids&num=1

 

Here is an snippet. To set it up the Feds conducted a sting operation called "Operation Equine"

http://www.ergogenics.org/fbi3.html

 

where they wen't after suppliers of Steroids. Started in Part By Bo Schembechler asking question about how some of these college kids his team was playing against were getting bigger and bigger. They actually tripped over MLB players involvement and were actually at a loss as to what to do with the info

 

 

 

 

 

In the two years since special agent Greg Stejskal had arrested Curtis Wenzlaff, Stejskal hadn't told anyone on the outside what he'd learned about baseball's steroid problem. He certainly hadn't shared his knowledge with Major League Baseball. But on this August 1994 night, Stejskal decided to change that.

 

After a day of seminars about sports scandals at the FBI's training center in Quantico, Va., Stejskal found himself at a table with other attendees, nursing beers and talking about their cases. Kevin Hallinan, baseball's chief of security and one of the presenters, was at the table, too. Everyone was talking about work when the subject of Stejskal's investigations into steroid trafficking arose. What the hell, he figured, glancing at the ex-New York City cop. Might as well let Hallinan know what I found.

 

Stejskal and his partner, Bill Randall (who'd posed undercover as steroid buyer Eddie Schmidt), had been sitting on information that had never been made public. Wenzlaff, it turned out, had been a very helpful witness. He'd talked a blue streak about Jose Canseco and the drugs he'd supplied the slugger. He'd also said he believed Canseco was dealing to other major leaguers.

 

 

Since that day, [Greg] Stejskal says now, he couldn't help wondering whether he and his colleagues had done the right thing by keeping what he knew about [Jose] Canseco to himself.

 

But those details hadn't come out on Aug. 10, 1992, when the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit unsealed indictments against Wenzlaff and 36 others. Operation Equine, as it was dubbed by its Detroit-bureau FBI architects, had targeted suppliers, not users like Canseco. The absence in the indictment of any mention of the former MVP kept his connection to Wenzlaff under wraps. Even A's GM Sandy Alderson (later Bud Selig's director of baseball operations) would claim he'd never heard of the guy who had hung around his club. Three weeks after the indictments, Canseco had been traded to Texas, where he'd joined a murderer's row that included Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez.

 

Since that day, Stejskal says now, he couldn't help wondering whether he and his colleagues had done the right thing by keeping what he knew about Canseco to himself. He'd hoped Operation Equine would generate huge headlines, that it would deter further steroid use. But while the initial wave of 37 indictments all yielded guilty pleas (Wenzlaff got six months and a $2,500 fine), the case had received almost no attention. With Hurricane Andrew battering South Florida and an upstart governor named Bill Clinton campaigning for the presidency, the press was otherwise engaged.

 

Stejskal went back to working bank robberies and mail frauds and tried not to be bitter. But in Quantico, almost exactly two years later, and with several Equine-related trials still under way, he was talking about steroids again. "Hey, Kevin, you may be interested in this," the FBI agent said. Then he spent the next few minutes talking about Wenzlaff, Canseco and their unexplored relationship. To his surprise, the security chief just shrugged.

 

"We've heard it too, but what can we do?" Stejskal recalls Hallinan saying. "The union won't let us test the players. Our hands are tied."

 

Here is another part, which shows the stone walling and MLB knowing but not really doing anything

 

 

 

In July 1998, Steve Wilstein, a feature writer for the Associated Press, hit the road to follow the Great American Home Run Chase. As Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa went yard at a record pace, their awesome power and friendly competition reintroduced fans to the virtues of the national pastime. Crowds that had been driven away by the strike once again scanned box scores and bought tickets. Wilstein wasn't a regular on the baseball beat; going back to 1971, he'd covered events such as the U.S. Open tennis tournament, an Ali title bout and the Olympics. He appreciated the chase as a historic, if not magical, event. But today he admits even he was awed by the Bunyanesque feats of the Cards slugger.

 

After one game in St. Louis, with Big Mac taking his time in the trainer's room, Wilstein gathered with a dozen other reporters by his locker. As they waited, he began to fill his notebook with descriptions of the scene. He saw a photo of McGwire's son, a bat boy, on the top shelf of the locker, and sugarless gum -- a nice touch: McGwire's dad was a dentist. He saw a cap from a Roger Maris celebrity golf tournament. Interesting, given that McGwire denied paying attention to the man whose ghost loomed before him. And Wilstein saw a brown bottle labeled with a word he didn't recognize. He jotted it all down.

 

 

When [steve Wilstein] came to the name on the bottle in his notes, he called a doctor friend. "What's androstenedione?" he asked.

 

The moment passed, as did the night. After three weeks of tailing Mac and Sammy and Ken Griffey Jr., Wilstein returned home to Palo Alto to write another story about the race. When he came to the name on the bottle in his notes, he called a doctor friend.

 

"What's androstenedione?" he asked.

 

"A precursor to testosterone," the cardiologist replied. "And it can be really bad for the heart."

 

Wilstein's own heart skipped a beat. He realized he had a story that was bigger than the one he had been assigned. Andro, he soon learned, was one metabolic step from testosterone and readily converted by the human body. Football's steroids adviser, John Lombardo, told Wilstein, "Androstenedione is a steroid. It has anabolic qualities. Therefore, it is an anabolic steroid." The NFL had banned it a year earlier, as had the NCAA and the Olympics. In fact, Randy Barnes, the 1996 gold-medal shot-putter, had recently been barred from competition for life for using it.

 

When Wilstein sought confirmation of McGwire's andro use, the Cardinals dismissed him. "Androstenedione?" said a team spokesman. "He doesn't even know how to spell it." But then McGwire admitted to the AP that he'd taken andro for more than a year, and added, "Everybody I know in the game of baseball uses the same stuff I use."

 

Wilstein's piece, "Drug OK in Baseball, Not Olympics," ran on Friday, Aug. 21. He made it clear McGwire had broken neither the law of the land nor the rules of the game. But he also wrote that andro's ability to raise testosterone levels "is seen outside baseball as cheating and potentially dangerous."

 

At the time, McGwire was at 51 homers and counting. Big Mac jerseys were flying off racks, his team was posting a huge attendance gain and the chase was national news. The revelation threatened to unmask the slugger as more Frankenstein's monster than Popeye. Before that could happen, though, the manager, the team and the press all shifted blame to the messenger.

 

McGwire himself accused the reporter of "snooping." His manager, Tony La Russa, stoked the outrage. "A player's locker isn't something that you should snoop around and see what you can find out," he barked. "That's a clear invasion of privacy. And it's causing some real garbage here." The Cardinals wouldn't let La Russa bar AP's reporters from the clubhouse. Instead, they permitted St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz to stand in front of McGwire's locker to see if he could re-create the infamous moment. "To be able to decipher the label on this andro bottle, you have to intentionally look, and look hard," Miklasz wrote. "And that's out of bounds."

 

Wilstein was disappointed by the reaction, but he knew he hadn't touched anything in the locker. Plus, he had McGwire's admission. What he didn't know was how much added pop andro was giving the slugger. That was the part of the discussion Wilstein figured MLB would try to spin.

 

But Bud Selig and his advisers didn't know what andro was. The Sunday after Wilstein's story appeared, Selig sought the advice of his pharmacist in Milwaukee and also called George Steinbrenner, who'd served on the U.S. Olympic Committee. Steinbrenner put him in touch with Don Catlin, head of the Olympic drug-testing lab at UCLA. Catlin told Selig about andro's anabolic properties, then said there was only one way to rid the sport of drugs -- random testing, the kind the NFL did.

 

As commissioner, Selig was facing two realities. First of all, baseball's power jolt had lit up attendance and revenues. But he also knew the players union opposed stricter regulation of which substances its members could take. The union, chief negotiator Gene Orza said, would not discuss andro "at a time when Mark McGwire's chase of the home run record might be compromised."

 

So on the Monday after Wilstein's story ran, Selig publicly ignored the effects of andro: "I think what Mark McGwire has accomplished is so remarkable, and he has handled it all so beautifully, we want to do everything we can to enjoy a great moment in baseball history."

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/sto...roids&num=1

 

 

 

The Indians weren't blameless in this mess either. Remember Juan Gonzalez of the Indians, He had his own entourage Included a barber and his own personal trainer This from the Mitchell report about a Flight to Toronto.

 

 

E. Canadian Border Service Seizure of Steroids in Toronto, October 2001

 

On the evening of October 4, 2001, Canadian Border Service officers working at Toronto's international airport discovered steroids, syringes, and clenbuterol in an unmarked duffel bag during an airport search of luggage that had been unloaded from the Cleveland Indians flight from Kansas City.266 Ted Walsh, the Indians equipment and clubhouse manager who was present during the search, recognized the bag as one that had been sent down to be included with the luggage by Cleveland outfielder Juan Gonzalez when the Indians left Kansas City. On prior trips, Gonzalez had included bags for members of his entourage with his own bags, and Walsh had the impression that this was the case with some of the bags he sent down to be packed for the Toronto flight.

 

The customs officials requested Walsh to bring all of the luggage except the bag in question to the team hotel as normal, which he did. The Indians resident security agent, Jim Davidson, who was traveling with the team because of heightened security after the attacks of September 11, 2001, met with local law enforcement officers in the hotel lobby. Mark Haynes, the Canadian Border Service officer in charge of the investigation, told Davidson that syringes and anabolic steroids had been found in the bag and that officers were going to replace the bag with the Indians luggage to see who claimed it. Haynes also opened the bag and showed Davidson the hypodermic needles, ampules, and other paraphernalia.

 

Thereafter, Davidson, Haynes, and other officials watched the luggage as Joshue Perez, a member of Juan Gonzalez's entourage, claimed the duffel bag. With Davidson present, Haynes and other officers took Perez to an anteroom, where he told them that the bag belonged to Angel ("Nao") Presinal, Gonzalez's personal trainer, who would be arriving in Toronto on a later flight.

 

As soon as he arrived at the hotel, Presinal was detained by law enforcement officers. In an interview at the hotel, Presinal denied that the bag belonged to him and asserted that it belonged to, and had been packed by, Gonzalez. Haynes and Toronto police officers then went to Gonzalez's room to question him about the bag. Although he had been present for the interview of Presinal, Davidson was not invited to attend the interview of Gonzalez. After that interview, Haynes reported that Gonzalez had denied any knowledge about the bag's contents and claimed that he had sent it down to be included with the team's luggage at Presinal's request.

 

According to Davidson's account of the incident, during further questioning Presinal admitted that he had packed the steroids but claimed that he carried them for Gonzalez, whom he helped to administer them. Davidson reported that Presinal also claimed to have assisted several other high-profile major league players in taking steroids. In our interview of him in 2007, Presinal denied that he made any such statements. He asserted that he has no knowledge of the involvement of any player in Major League Baseball with anabolic steroids or other performance enhancing substances.

 

The next day, Davidson and Toronto's resident security agent Wayne Cotgreave had a conference call with Kevin Hallinan of the Commissioner's Office's security department and members of his staff. Hallinan said that the matter would be handled from the Commissioner's Office in New York. Although Hallinan told Davidson that his office would investigate the matter, there is no evidence that such an investigation ever was conducted beyond a search for Presinal's Cleveland address. None of the eyewitnesses whom we interviewed during the course of our investigation was contacted by anyone about the incident until a news report about it appeared in July 2006. Davidson was never asked to perform any follow-up work with respect to the matter.

 

Rob Manfred told us that he did not believe a strong case could be made for "reasonable cause" testing of Gonzalez because of conflicting statements by Presinal, Gonzalez, and others about who the bag and steroids belonged to. Manfred nevertheless contacted Gene Orza of the Players Association about testing Gonzalez, but Orza refused to agree in this instance. Manfred did not ask Orza for the Players Association's permission to interview Gonzalez because he thought such an interview would be fruitless even if the Players Association agreed to it.

 

According to the July 2006 article, Presinal was "declared a pariah" by the Commissioner's Office after the events in Toronto in 2001, an assertion that Hallinan repeated in our interview of him.267 By early in the 2002 season, however, Presinal was observed in and around the clubhouse of the Texas Rangers (where Juan Gonzalez was playing at the time). Sign-in records indicate that Presinal was in the Rangers clubhouse frequently that season. The Rangers also reserved (but did not pay for) rooms for Presinal at the club's hotels that season. The Rangers' general manager, John Hart, was aware of the October 2001 incident and Presinal's alleged role in it, since Hart joined the Rangers from the Indians after the 2001 season and supported the Rangers' decision to sign Gonzalez in 2002. In the summer of 2005, Presinal was profiled by Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times for his in-season training of Bartolo Colon of the Los Angeles Angels.268

 

After Presinal was spotted in the Rangers clubhouse in 2002, Major League Baseball's security department alerted all clubs and removed Presinal from the Texas ballpark; he also was removed from the ballpark in Anaheim when he later was spotted there.

 

Presinal remains a prominent personal trainer for a number of professional baseball players, operating out of facilities in the Dominican Republic. He also has worked with players during the season in the United States. He was selected by the Dominican Baseball Federation to serve as a trainer for the Dominican Republic national team during the inaugural World Baseball Classic in spring 2006, which included on its roster a number of players and coaches from Major League Baseball.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/mitchell/report.jsp?p=142