Anderson Searl
Reserve Team Player
According to a report by Sports Illustrated, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003, when he was with the Texas Rangers and won the AL home run title and MVP award.
According to the report, which was posted Saturday morning on SI.com, sources told the publication that Rodriguez was on a list of 104 players who tested positive that year, when Major League Baseball conducted survey tests to see if mandatory, random drug-testing was needed.
Sources who know about the testing results told Sports Illustrated that Rodriguez tested positive for testosterone and Primobolan, an anabolic steroid.
In 2003, there were no penalties for a positive result.
Rodriguez, reached at a Miami gym Thursday for comment by Sports Illustrated, said: "You'll have to talk to the union."
Asked if there were an explanation for the positive test result, Rodriguez told SI: "I'm not saying anything."
Sources confirmed to ESPN's T.J. Quinn that Rodriguez was aware he tested positive for steroids in 2003.
Primobolan, also known as methenolone, is an injected or orally administered drug. It improves strength and maintains lean muscle with minimal bulk development and few side effects. It is not an approved prescription drug in the United States. Testosterone can be taken legally with a prescription.
In a December 2007 interview with "60 Minutes," however, three days after George Mitchell's report on drugs in the sport was released, Rodriguez denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
"I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. ... I felt that if I did my, 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," he said on "60 Minutes."
Scott Boras, Rodriguez's agent, did not immediately return calls from ESPN.com seeking comment.
Both the Yankees and the Rangers told ESPN they would not comment.
Michael Weiner, general counsel for the players' union, declined to comment, and said he did not know if the union would have any comment Saturday.
Major League Baseball plans to release a statement later Saturday.
Survey testing was created in 2003, in an agreement with the MLBPA, to see if mandatory testing and penalties were necessary to be implemented in 2004 -- it also was specifically designed to ensure players would not be identified.
The actual samples were kept in one lab in Las Vegas and had codes, not players' names. A list with the names and corresponding codes were in an office in Long Beach, Calif., and were never supposed to be united.
MLB and the union had a deal with the company that any negative samples were to be automatically destroyed after 30 days.
However, because of the current Barry Bonds investigation and the evidence the government is seeking to present in his current perjury case, it is now known that samples were not destroyed. It had been previously reported that Bonds did not test positive in 2003, but the government found the sample when all were seized, and had tested it.
According to court documents unsealed by a federal judge on Wednesday, Bonds tested positive three times for methenolone.
More than 5 percent of players in the majors tested positive for performance-enhancing substances in the '03 survey, and mandatory testing was implemented -- including provisions for penalties -- in 2004.
Even if Major League Baseball were to confirm that Rodriguez was one of the players to test positive in 2003, he would not be subject to any sort of discipline based on that testing.
However, if information emerges about positive tests from 2004 on, circumstances could change. There have been players connected with HGH purchases from 2004 and forward, for example, who have been subject to discipline by the commissioner's office.
Rodriguez played for the Rangers from 2001 to 2003. He was traded to the Yankees in 2004. He is drawing a major league-high $27 million salary after signing a record $275 million, 10-year contract with New York in 2007.
Rodriguez until now has had an offseason dominated by talk of disclosures in Joe Torre's recently released book. The former Yankee manager wrote of the pressure A-Rod puts on himself and the third baseman's need to command the stage. Torre said some in the Yankees clubhouse referred to Rodriguez as "A-Fraud," although Torre made light of that during interviews promoting his book, "The Yankee Years."
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