Sources tell Sports Illustrated that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003, the year he won the AL home run title and MVP while with the Texas Rangers. A-Rod has refused to talk to the press, telling media “You’ll have to talk to the union.” Calls to players’ union executive director Donald Fehr were not returned.
The sources provided a list of 104 players who tested positive for steroids in 2003.
Oh boy. Can anyone say…A-Fraud? I know, it was in 2003. But the guy won two titles while testing positive for steroids. I guess Jose Canseco wasn’t so crazy after all. He said in his book that he told A-Rod where to get the steroids from. Stuff like this takes away from the sport.
Now…if the leagues knew about this, which they probably did, why was he still given the titles? They didn’t need to out him as a steroid user but they didn’t need to give him an MVP award. It’s ridiculous.
Added by Anthony De Rosa…
Russell Scibetti at The Business Of Sports wonders if Alex Rodriguez would have grounds for a lawsuit since the tests in 2003 were supposed to be private under an agreement between the MLB Players Association and Major League Baseball.
In addition to testing positive in 2003, three major league players who spoke to SI said that Rodriguez was also tipped by Gene Orza, the COO of the players union, in early September 2004 that he would be tested later that month.
What about the other players in the report. While it doesn’t excuse what Alex Rodriguez did, isn’t it unfair to single him out? The MLBPA did an awful job here protecting their players, and MLB did too little to prevent steroids from becoming an issue to begin with.
Pete Lappin (3)
