Post by JohnM on Oct 2, 2013 4:11:41 GMT -5
10.02.2013, 01:46 AM
Alex Rodriguez tells panel he was duped into taking steroids: source
Alex Rodriguez says if he doped, he was duped.
According to a source with knowledge of Rodriguez’s ongoing arbitration hearings, the embattled Yankee and his lawyers have presented a case based partly on the idea that Rodriguez believed the substances he procured from the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic were innocent legal supplements.
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That narrative conflicts with the version told by Anthony Bosch, the founder and proprietor of the now-shuttered facility, who spent part of Monday and almost all of Tuesday testifying before the three-person panel that will decide on the appropriateness of the 211-game doping ban Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig imposed upon Rodriguez in August.
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
A-Rod protestors line up outside MLB headquarters on Tuesday morning.
Bosch, who is cooperating with MLB, has spent much of that time validating a vast trove of Biogenesis documents as well as his own electronic communications with Rodriguez. The league believes the evidence reflects a deep dealer-source relationship. If the Biogenesis products were legitimate, MLB argues, why were they so expensive and why were the transactions so secretive?
RELATED: A-ROD APPEAL OPENS AMID FLORIDA PROBE INTO BOSCH
Attorneys for Rodriguez will likely begin their cross-examination of Bosch on Wednesday, attacking his credibility during the closed-door hearing as they have for several months now — pointing out that MLB’s investigators paid Bosch for his evidence and offered to drop him from a lawsuit if he cooperated with their probe. They may also point out that Bosch is the subject of federal and state criminal investigations in Florida, and that he was fined $5,000 by the Florida Department of Health for holding himself out as a doctor.
By claiming that he was given banned drugs when he thought he was getting legal supplements, Rodriguez is tearing a page from the playbook that guided other tainted athletes. Barry Bonds told a grand jury in 2003 that he thought the creams he got from his BALCO-affiliated trainer, Greg Anderson, were something like flaxseed oil. Roger Clemens claimed he thought the intramuscular injections he got from his trainer, Brian McNamee, were shots of vitamin B-12 and lidocaine.
Miami-Dade Police Dept./Getty Images
Anthony Bosch.
RELATED: ALTERCATION OUTSIDE A-ROD ARBITRATION HEARING GETS HEATED
The alibi got Clemens into trouble when he couldn’t explain why the injections took place during furtive visits to supply closets and an upper East Side apartment, and why he needed an unauthorized strength coach to give him shots instead of a team doctor.
Such claims have met minimal success in courtrooms, but they sometimes work in the confidential confines of a sport’s drug program. Olympic sports have the highest standard of what is loosely termed “strict liability,” where an athlete is almost always held responsible for substances found in his or her specimen regardless of intent.
RELATED: YANKS GM CASHMAN SAYS BLAME ME FOR FINISH
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
The Alex Rodriguez hearing is taking place at the Park Ave. offices of commissioner Bud Selig, where A-Rod is seen leaving here.
But baseball’s drug policy allows players to challenge doping bans by proving a positive drug test was not due to fault or negligence, and numerous players have turned to that strategy. In the Biogenesis case — which is not based on positive tests but on evidence gathered in an MLB investigation — several players accepted bans despite having explanations for their use.
Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers claimed to have taken substances obtained from Bosch because of a stomach ailment that caused him to lose 40 pounds, yet in a statement accepting his ban, Cruz said he “decided to accept this suspension and not exercise my rights under the Basic Agreement to appeal.”
RELATED: SLIDE OF THE YANKEES: NO FARM AID
Ryan Braun, who accepted a 65-game ban for violating the policy after getting a 50-game ban overturned the previous year, said he took “products” for a short period of time in 2011 to help overcome an injury. “The products were a cream and a lozenge, which I was told could help expedite my rehabilitation,” Braun said after accepting the 65-game suspension in July.
According to one lawyer who has followed the Biogenesis investigation closely, it is unlikely an arbitrator would buy Rodriguez’s argument if he admits to having taken the substances. Rodriguez is not known to have tested positive for any drugs during the time he was alleged to have been a client of Bosch. In 2009, Sports Illustrated reported that Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003.
The Rodriguez hearing is taking place at the Park Ave. offices of commissioner Bud Selig, where Rodriguez and his legal team have enjoyed the support of a group of protestors who claim A-Rod is being singled out for unfair treatment.
The hearing is expected to take up the rest of this week but can’t continue next week because of scheduling conflicts, according to the source with knowledge of the case. The hearing may resume later in the month or, if that is not sufficient time, in November.
Alex Rodriguez tells panel he was duped into taking steroids: source
Alex Rodriguez says if he doped, he was duped.
According to a source with knowledge of Rodriguez’s ongoing arbitration hearings, the embattled Yankee and his lawyers have presented a case based partly on the idea that Rodriguez believed the substances he procured from the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic were innocent legal supplements.
RELATED: LUPICA: A-ROD A VICTIM? AIN’T THAT RICH!
That narrative conflicts with the version told by Anthony Bosch, the founder and proprietor of the now-shuttered facility, who spent part of Monday and almost all of Tuesday testifying before the three-person panel that will decide on the appropriateness of the 211-game doping ban Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig imposed upon Rodriguez in August.
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
A-Rod protestors line up outside MLB headquarters on Tuesday morning.
Bosch, who is cooperating with MLB, has spent much of that time validating a vast trove of Biogenesis documents as well as his own electronic communications with Rodriguez. The league believes the evidence reflects a deep dealer-source relationship. If the Biogenesis products were legitimate, MLB argues, why were they so expensive and why were the transactions so secretive?
RELATED: A-ROD APPEAL OPENS AMID FLORIDA PROBE INTO BOSCH
Attorneys for Rodriguez will likely begin their cross-examination of Bosch on Wednesday, attacking his credibility during the closed-door hearing as they have for several months now — pointing out that MLB’s investigators paid Bosch for his evidence and offered to drop him from a lawsuit if he cooperated with their probe. They may also point out that Bosch is the subject of federal and state criminal investigations in Florida, and that he was fined $5,000 by the Florida Department of Health for holding himself out as a doctor.
By claiming that he was given banned drugs when he thought he was getting legal supplements, Rodriguez is tearing a page from the playbook that guided other tainted athletes. Barry Bonds told a grand jury in 2003 that he thought the creams he got from his BALCO-affiliated trainer, Greg Anderson, were something like flaxseed oil. Roger Clemens claimed he thought the intramuscular injections he got from his trainer, Brian McNamee, were shots of vitamin B-12 and lidocaine.
Miami-Dade Police Dept./Getty Images
Anthony Bosch.
RELATED: ALTERCATION OUTSIDE A-ROD ARBITRATION HEARING GETS HEATED
The alibi got Clemens into trouble when he couldn’t explain why the injections took place during furtive visits to supply closets and an upper East Side apartment, and why he needed an unauthorized strength coach to give him shots instead of a team doctor.
Such claims have met minimal success in courtrooms, but they sometimes work in the confidential confines of a sport’s drug program. Olympic sports have the highest standard of what is loosely termed “strict liability,” where an athlete is almost always held responsible for substances found in his or her specimen regardless of intent.
RELATED: YANKS GM CASHMAN SAYS BLAME ME FOR FINISH
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
The Alex Rodriguez hearing is taking place at the Park Ave. offices of commissioner Bud Selig, where A-Rod is seen leaving here.
But baseball’s drug policy allows players to challenge doping bans by proving a positive drug test was not due to fault or negligence, and numerous players have turned to that strategy. In the Biogenesis case — which is not based on positive tests but on evidence gathered in an MLB investigation — several players accepted bans despite having explanations for their use.
Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers claimed to have taken substances obtained from Bosch because of a stomach ailment that caused him to lose 40 pounds, yet in a statement accepting his ban, Cruz said he “decided to accept this suspension and not exercise my rights under the Basic Agreement to appeal.”
RELATED: SLIDE OF THE YANKEES: NO FARM AID
Ryan Braun, who accepted a 65-game ban for violating the policy after getting a 50-game ban overturned the previous year, said he took “products” for a short period of time in 2011 to help overcome an injury. “The products were a cream and a lozenge, which I was told could help expedite my rehabilitation,” Braun said after accepting the 65-game suspension in July.
According to one lawyer who has followed the Biogenesis investigation closely, it is unlikely an arbitrator would buy Rodriguez’s argument if he admits to having taken the substances. Rodriguez is not known to have tested positive for any drugs during the time he was alleged to have been a client of Bosch. In 2009, Sports Illustrated reported that Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003.
The Rodriguez hearing is taking place at the Park Ave. offices of commissioner Bud Selig, where Rodriguez and his legal team have enjoyed the support of a group of protestors who claim A-Rod is being singled out for unfair treatment.
The hearing is expected to take up the rest of this week but can’t continue next week because of scheduling conflicts, according to the source with knowledge of the case. The hearing may resume later in the month or, if that is not sufficient time, in November.