The Needle and the Damage Done

According to a report in Sports Illustrated, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two different types of anabolic steroids-- Primobolan and testosterone-- in 2003, the year he won the American League Most Valuable Player award, and his final season with the Texas Rangers. 

This is bad. Real bad, and it goes a long way of explaining A-Rod's cryptic statement last year that he was "tested nine or 10 times" during the 2007 season, which would mean, as reporters speculated at the time, that he had failed a previous test. Rodriguez, under advisement, later claimed he was exaggerating, probably to protect his image and/or legacy, because in 2003 Major League Baseball didn't penalize players who tested positive. (It is unclear from the article if A-Rod has since tested positive a second time, but Roberts and Epstein point out that Rodriguez was allegedly tipped off about an upcoming test by Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players' union in 2004, when Rodriguez was playing third base for the Yankees).  

Rodriguez was one of about 1,200 players tested as part of a sealed MLB internal survey to figure out if (irony alert!) testing was even worth the effort, according to SI reporters Selena Roberts and David Epstein, who write:   

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.

Rodriguez is signed with the Yankees through 2017, during which time he is widely expected to pass Barry Bonds, also linked to steroids and various performance-enhancing drugs, for the all-time home run total, which means this story ain't going anywhere anytime soon. For years, fans, reporters and players have speculated about A-Rod juicing, but this morning's article is, as far as I know, the first corroborated report of the so-called greatest baseball player of his generation cheating. I think it's pretty safe to assume, then, that chants of "A-Fraud" will echo throughout major league ballparks this season, including the new one in the Bronx.