NEW YORK - So who are the other 103?
Alex Rodriguez turned out to be just one name on the infamous list of players who tested positive for banned drugs during baseball’s anonymous survey in 2003. Will more names follow?
“Our program, which was designed to be confidential, if it turns out not to be, that’s something that causes concern,” union head Donald Fehr said Tuesday.
Baseball’s highest-paid and perhaps most-talented player, Rodriguez said Monday that he used banned drugs from 2001-2003 while playing for Texas. The admission came two days after Sports Illustrated reported that his name was among the players on the list.
Former union head Marvin Miller called for an investigation of federal prosecutors to help determine whether there was a government leak of the test results, which remain under court seal.
“I think the first question ought to be: 104 names all testing positive, but you leak only A-Rod’s. Why is that?” Miller said.
The fate of “the list” will be determined next by 11 appeals court judges in California.
If prosecutors are allowed to use the list and bring players before grand juries and trial courts, additional stars might be forced to admit they used steroids.
“It’s definitely not fair to just pinpoint one guy,” Boston’s Kevin Youkilis said. “I don’t know if somebody had it in for him. I don’t know what because it seems like just to take one name out of that whole group is a little odd to me. If he was named with 10 other players, would that have been fair? I don’t know? If they’d have listed all 104?”
Hall of Famer Goose Gossage hopes the list becomes public.
“I want to know who these other 100 guys are,” he said. “Let’s get it all out in the open. It certainly is not fair to A-Rod or to Bonds. They’re dragging A-Rod down.”
Rodriguez was at the University of Miami’s campus Tuesday morning for a workout session, with several photographers staking out the gym he frequents and surrounding his vehicle. He did not comment.
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Team co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner, speaking at the team’s spring training complex, backed Rodriguez.
“I’m not angry at him at all, and I support him 100 percent,” Steinbrenner said Tuesday night. “We support him, and we’re going to do everything we can to make this season a successful one.”
Former AL MVP Jose Canseco, who in a pair of books revealed details on drug use in baseball, hopes to meet with commissioner Bud Selig and Fehr.
“I think I have the ear of the nation now,” Canseco said. “I think everyone realizes I have not in any way, shape or form tried to create smoke and mirrors like Major League Baseball has and the players have. I have been excruciatingly honest about what’s going on in baseball.”
Marc Ganis, president of the consulting company Sports Corp. Ltd., said Rodriguez will be viewed differently by fans as his home-run total climbs from 553 and he approaches Barry Bonds’ mark of 762. The A-Rod brand has been tainted, and Ganis said it will cost Rodriguez endorsement deals.
“He is going to have a cloud over him, particularly as he approaches the home run record, where before this revelation, he was considered the anti-Bonds, the guy who was going to get the greatest record in all of sports back into the hands of a clean athlete,” Ganis said. “He will always have this postscript. Sponsors don’t like postscripts.”
Mark Teixeira hit a two-run homer and a solo shot among his career high-tying four hits to back CC Sabathia's sixth win of the year, and the New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 9-2 on Saturday for their fourth straight win.
BOSTON (AP) - Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine has called out the Tampa Bay Rays' coaching staff a day after the teams were involved in a benches-clearing scrum.
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