Sports Illustrated Reports AROD Tested Positive for Steroids

[Tbadder]

And by "might" I mean, mean. God I'm just as pathetic!

[crewcrazy]

We're really supposed to believe that he only took steroids for three years, and conveniently stopped using PEDs before he jumped to the Yankees? Who's not to say that he used something in his last years in Seattle to help him get that monstrous contract from Texas? And who's not to say that he's still taking stuff that can't be detected in any tests yet?

 

Overall, I'm not really surprised at this, and I'm not really all that bothered. Rodriguez has a history of being selfish, aloof, and a highly private person that doesn't play well with others -- it's always seemed like he had something to hide. So when something like this comes out, it's not all that hard for me to believe. Considering the sheer number of other players that tested positive, I'm not really bothered by it, either. I'd be willing to bet that there are a lot more players than the 104 that tested positive...there are rumors that the union was tipping some players off ahead of time and there were likely others that had already moved on to undetectable stuff.

[Gobias Industries]

We're really supposed to believe that he only took steroids for three years, and conveniently stopped using PEDs before he jumped to the Yankees? Who's not to say that he used something in his last years in Seattle to help him get that monstrous contract from Texas?

Do you have the same doubts that Pettite only took PED's to rehab from injury? Everyone seemed to accept that excuse and no one has talked about him since. But as always, A-Rod gets different treatment for the fans and media.

 

I think him saying he started using right after agreeing to his huge contract seemed very plausible. As others have said, I just wish he, and other players for that matter, would just admit they knew what they were taking. I don't know of anyone on earth that takes "supplements" without knowing they're intended effects.

[snyttri]

If you assume every player was tested, there would have been probably about 800 MLB players, 104 is about 12.5%. If they only tested 400 players its closer to 25%. If they tested 200 players, then Jose Canseco was on the mark...

The tests did not pick up everyone who was a PED user. Some PEDs were undetectable by the tests. PEDs can leave the system in a day or two. Some players may have been taking PED breaks. MLB excludes many drugs banned by the Olympic Committee from its tests. It has been claimed there were tip offs for the tests through parking passes for testers. Now MLB gives 8% of players exemptions for ADHD.

[crewcrazy]

We're really supposed to believe that he only took steroids for three years, and conveniently stopped using PEDs before he jumped to the Yankees? Who's not to say that he used something in his last years in Seattle to help him get that monstrous contract from Texas?

Do you have the same doubts that Pettite only took PED's to rehab from injury? Everyone seemed to accept that excuse and no one has talked about him since. But as always, A-Rod gets different treatment for the fans and media.

I agree that A-Rod's getting put through the wringer here, but I do have the same doubts about Pettitte. Rodriguez is probably getting treated worse than anyone else has (especially by the New York media) because he was being built up as one of the last few true "clean" guys. People were depending on him to "cleanly" break the HR record and remove Bonds from the books. I can understand why people are reacting the way they are, I just don't really agree with it.

[BrewCrewWS2008]

We're really supposed to believe that he only took steroids for three years, and conveniently stopped using PEDs before he jumped to the Yankees? Who's not to say that he used something in his last years in Seattle to help him get that monstrous contract from Texas? And who's not to say that he's still taking stuff that can't be detected in any tests yet?

 

Overall, I'm not really surprised at this, and I'm not really all that bothered. Rodriguez has a history of being selfish, aloof, and a highly private person that doesn't play well with others -- it's always seemed like he had something to hide. So when something like this comes out, it's not all that hard for me to believe. Considering the sheer number of other players that tested positive, I'm not really bothered by it, either. I'd be willing to bet that there are a lot more players than the 104 that tested positive...there are rumors that the union was tipping some players off ahead of time and there were likely others that had already moved on to undetectable stuff.

Yeah actually, Like I said before you can the guys that take TRUE, REAL, anabolic steroids, you don't stay close to the same weight on roids, you don't stay lean, it builds you up! And like I said before PED's is a whole different beast. Steroids is just a type of PED's but there is alot more to it. Name one athlete who has never taken any type of supplement from GNC, Advocare or something else like that. Everyone even fielder or Braun could be on something that MLB tomorrow decide to ban it doesn't mean they are cheating or that the product is bad just that there is one ingrediant in it that may or may not enhance performance. Most of GNC stuff is for the simply fact of enhancing performance. Lose weight fast, put on muscal fast, get fast weightroom gains and so on.

 

I believe A-Rod 100% his numbers are 2 consistant. Not every player is smart when it comes to doing the research and check products that your trainers or other team mats tell you to try. Everyone wants to be the best. A-Rod with or without steroids is right there. There is more to baseball than having extra muscal to put the ball over the fence. He hits for high average, steroids do nothing for that! He has great vison, great hands, stays back and so on. Look at Alex Sanchez. Was a lot smaller than A-Rod, shot up and prob weighed more than A-Rod and still could hit more than 5 HR's in a season. Anyone who studies fitness or has the tiniest clue about it can tell someone on roids or get a good idea. Just from not being an idiot I can tell that A-Rod has not taken steroids for that long. Some type of PED's prob but who doesn't in 2003 there were prob 50% less banned substances. Like I said before people always counts PED's as anabolic steroids drives me nuts. 2 completely different things. I mean steroids is a type of PED but shouldn't always be linked. he tested positive for an anobolic steroid but unless he did not touch one weight in those three years in Texas, I guarentee he didn't take that roid for all three years.

 

WhenTurnbow did great for us, did we talk about how he used steroids... no or when Kapler was being the man last season did we talk about how much he use to take a nice shot in the butt.... no. A good baseball player is a good baseball player. I bet most didn't use steriods in HS or College or even in the minors. When it come to the bigs some got caught up in a bad era, tried to get the big contracts and lose faith in themselves. Turned to steriods for awhile then stopped after a few seasons... most. I bet outta the 103 there would be some other guys on there that would shock you. Point is with or without it they most still could play at a real high level. Bonds hit 40 Hrs a season (oh go to bodybuilder.com the guys workout is tough just a side note) and you can tell whenever it was that the BALCO guy got him on something because his body really grew and the power soared from from a great 40 HR a season average.

 

When I said baseball is a mess I more so meant a crazy Zoo, now these days there are so many distractions that are taking away from the game. Who cares if these guys took roids and cheated. We know they did. Yes its horrible and destroyed a whole decade of baseball but they dont need to be in court for it and maybe facing prison time. Just dumb, get it off espn, off mlb.com, no more court hearings just do the damn right thing which is judge them on there play and if they used steroids mix that in and punish them by not voting for them to get into the Hall or Fame it you think that is what made them great. Bonds doesnt deserve the 2 records, he doesn't but he in my opinion deserves Hof F for what he did prior. He was great. A-Rod was honest, he passed his past drug test except for 1 and still has 9 more years to play his consistant baseball and break the record. I'm not going to say no to him because he was dumb for a short time in a 20 year career and his numbers in those few years were high but but not that much higher from some others.

[BrewCrewWS2008]

We're really supposed to believe that he only took steroids for three years, and conveniently stopped using PEDs before he jumped to the Yankees? Who's not to say that he used something in his last years in Seattle to help him get that monstrous contract from Texas?

Do you have the same doubts that Pettite only took PED's to rehab from injury? Everyone seemed to accept that excuse and no one has talked about him since. But as always, A-Rod gets different treatment for the fans and media.

I agree that A-Rod's getting put through the wringer here, but I do have the same doubts about Pettitte. Rodriguez is probably getting treated worse than anyone else has (especially by the New York media) because he was being built up as one of the last few true "clean" guys. People were depending on him to "cleanly" break the HR record and remove Bonds from the books. I can understand why people are reacting the way they are, I just don't really agree with it.

Yeah, 100% right. Im not, even though it may seem like, a big A-Rod fan but I do believe that all this crap he is getting is way outta line. I'd take him having the record over Bonds anyday. People love to hate A-Rod the way it is. I really feel he was honest in that interview just watching him and everything made sense. His numbers he had when he was 21 and the numbers he has today are consistant. His time in Texas there wasn't a giant spike maybe a little the 1st year with 57, 52 still a little higher but overall if he breaks Bonds he still did as a great player even without the drugs. Plus if he hits 30-40 more than Hank Aaron, that more than plenty makes up for for how many "extra PED Hr's" he hit in those few years.

[Patrick425]

I think blaming the powers that be in MLB for not doing something about steroids sooner is somewhat easy to do in hindsight. I don't doubt that MLB was enjoying the excitement of the 98 season and the revenues that the sudden increase in offense was generating. However, from the late 80's with the bash brothers to just around the Sosa/McGwire race, I never heard a whole lot from the media or anyone else regarding steroids. It wasn't like there was this public outcry. It was almost like everyone was fooled. People blamed a "juiced ball". Some blamed expansion and thinned out pitching. Others talked about better work outs and better bats. There were a few murmurs about peds and the whole McGwire thing (forgot the drug he admitted to using), but that talk was not prevelant by any means.

 

It can be argued that MLB should have had a better understanding of what was going on under their own noses. I can't argue with that. However, Steroids certainly didn't seem like an obvious explanation among those outside of baseball when it came to trying to explain the sudden surge in power numbers.

[snyttri]

I think it's reasonable to give insiders considerable credit for knowing what is happening in baseball. The players knew what was happening. Coaches and managers, who are part of management, are not that insulated from players. Here's something Bud Selig said about amphetamines from the article linked above.

"There's a lot of anecdotal stuff that's gone on," Selig said. "I was a young kid who walked into the Milwaukee Braves clubhouse and I heard about it. That was 1958, so that's 47 years ago. You can talk to people that go four, five and six decades back."

The public will never fully catch up with what insiders have long known about the scope of steroid use. MLB was tipped off in 1995 by the FBI and "looked the other way". If the powers that be didn't know what was going on at the time it was only through their strenuous efforts to imitate ostriches.

[RU Rah Rah]

Nice Verducci column on SI.com about the interview. He highlights Gammons' inexplicably bad interviewing skills and A-Rod's sly refusal to admit that he did steroids (the word never came out of his mouth -- he kept saying "banned substance" and the like).

[danzig6767]

Nice Verducci column on SI.com about the interview. He highlights Gammons' inexplicably bad interviewing skills and A-Rod's sly refusal to admit that he did steroids (the word never came out of his mouth -- he kept saying "banned substance" and the like).

I also liked this piece by Neyer

 

http://sports.espn.go.com...895395&name=Neyer_Rob

[GoudaBrew]

Selig hasn't ruled out suspending ARod.

 

Yes Bud, a player finally admits to something, so let's suspend him for something that wasn't even being penalized until 2004.

 

I imagine the Players Association would finally come to A-Rods side if Bud tried to suspend him.

 

Link

[DuWayne Steurer]

Those tests were administered under the pretense that those players that tested positive would be both NOT NAMED and NOT PUNISHED.

 

I say again, unless you release all the other names, and hand the exact same punishment down (which would still be wrong, under the agreement that was made), they should do nothing to A-Rod.

 

What a farce this has turned into.

 

EDIT: I'm sorry Selig apologists, this guys is off the deep end. He's literally making this crap up as he goes along.

[RU Rah Rah]

Those tests were administered under the pretense that those players that tested positive would be both NOT NAMED and NOT PUNISHED.

Yeah, the union would go berserk over it (and perhaps rightly so).

[Invader3K]

Selig is just posturing to keep the union and others on their toes, I think. I doubt very seriously they could punish A-Rod if they wanted to.

[bucks2281]

Bud Selig has no business punishing Alex Rodriguez:

 

1.) It sets a difficultly enforced precedent. You pretty much have to release the other 103 names and issue the same punishments.

2.) His test results were probably illegally leaked.

3.) As RoCoBrewfan said, the tests were not intended to carry any punitive consequences down the road.

4.) It's not fair to the Yankees.

 

No need in getting worked up about it, as it can't and won't happen.

[DougJones43]

Couldn't find if this was posted anywhere else, but I just read in a foxsports.com column today that ESPN suspended Scott Van Pelt for putting some of the blame on the commish and ownership for the PED problem?

Scott Van Pelt accurately pointed out that Selig pimped A-Rod, Bonds, Mark McGwire and all the rest for years, landed a commissioner's contract of $18.5 million a year and now wants to act like he's appalled by the steroid era. ESPN suspended Van Pelt for telling the truth...

I apologize if this is old news, but just another reason to not waste your time with ESPN...

[sbrylski]

Wow, that's terrible. I'd be livid if I was SVP.

[Crewin06]

I'd love to see ESPN's official statement on that suspension if they have one.

[kramnoj]

SVP was off the radio for a couple of days and is already back.

 

Here is a link to one story with a portion of the audio: http://deadspin.com/51487...lt-some-quiet-time-update

 

Per that story, SVP already called Selig to apologize.

 

One of the things that he said regarding Selig, paraphrasing: "Selig looks like the kind of guy, you walk into his house, it has plastic on the furniture and it smells bad".

 

He also used a term that I'm sure Selig didn't appreciate. It's a term that has a different meaning these days, but Selig doubtless took it as an insult. The first word in the phrase "_____ My Ride". It doesn't violate FCC laws, but it's less than polite, so I won't type it here.

[hawing]

Even the Onion took note. (I apologize if this was posted elsewhere already.)

[Diskono]

I swear I remember someone on this forum a few years ago saying that A-Rod was somehow related to (or at least very close friends with) Alex Sanchez. Could he be the unnamed "cousin"? Am I on crack?

[JimH5]

He may have some more explaining to do . . .

 

Today's NY Daily News is reporting that A-Rod's cousin Yuri Sucart (the one who Alex admits injected him while A-Rod was with the Rangers in 2001-2003) AND Angel Presinal stayed together in the same hotel as A-Rod throughout the 2007 season.

 

Presinal is linked to Juan Gonzalez, is mentioned in the Mitchell report, and has been banned from every MLB clubhouse after an October 2001 incident involving Gonzalez, steroids and a gym bag.

 

http://www.nydailynews.co...d_trainer_steroidlin.html

 

This could get even more huge--and it's not going away.

 

Plus, the Selena Roberts book will be out in April. Who knows what that might contain. . .

 

AND, ESPN.com is reporting that primobolan is NOT legal in the Dominican Republic, and that it WASN"T legal in 2001-2003.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3920425

 

And in A-Rod's press conference, didn't he essentially imply that his cousin was a drug smuggler?

[Invader3K]

I heard it discussed yesterday on XM that this Yuri guy isn't really a cousin, but a family friend.

 

Also, some reporter went down to A-Rod's home town and was able to buy three packages of steroids for like 19 bucks, at a street corner near A-Rod's family house. I thought that was funny.

[craigharmann]

I think this whole thing has blown up in A-Rod's face. I think he really expected that he'd have a press conference, and it would all go away. But people are asking a lot more questions, and he's looking more and more idiotic in the process.