When Alex Rodriguez was suspended by Major League Baseball for 211 games back in August, we knew it was for his involvement with Biogenesis, the “anti-aging” clinic accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs. But, due to confidentiality clauses inside the Joint Drug Agreement, the document that lays out the protocols for suspensions and appeal hearings for those accused of violating MLB’s drug policies, the specifics behind the charges against A-Rod were unknown.
Little changed on Saturday, when Fredric Horowitz, the independent arbitrator presiding over dispute between A-Rod and Major League Baseball, issued a decision reducing the suspension to 162 games. On Sunday however, we began to learn more about the case against Rodriguez when TV news show 60 Minutes broadcast an interview with the former owner of Biogenesis, Anthony Bosch. He claimed on the CBS show that he worked with A-Rod for several years in supplying – and in some cases administering – PED’s to the New York Yankees slugger.
Now the layers on the onion are being pulled back even further thanks to Rodriguez himself.
A lawsuit against Major League Baseball and The Major League Baseball Players Association has been filed by Rodriguez, one that seeks to overturn the suspension, allowing A-Rod to resume his playing career immediately. Exhibit A in the publicly available complaint is the previously confidential 34-page report written by Horowitz, a document that includes his rationale behind the decision.
MLB has demonstrated with clear and convincing evidence there is just cause to suspend Rodriguez for the 2014 season and 2014 postseason for having violated the JDA by the use and/or possession of testosterone, IGF1 [insulin-like growth factor 1], and over the course of three years, and for the two attempts to obstruct MLB's investigation described above, which violated Article of the Basic Agreement. While this length of suspension may be unprecedented for a MLB Player, so is the misconduct he committed. The suspension imposed by MLB as modified herein is hereby sustained.
Horowitz also made it clear that accusations made against Rodriguez were never rebutted by the Yankees' third baseman, who did not testify on his own behalf.
Rodriguez’ sentence is well above the 50 games for a first time offender, a clause of the JDA known as Section 7.A. Many have wondered how A-Rod, a first-time offender, could receive a suspension north of that total. We have finally learned that while the MLBPA did employ a similar, but more complex version of that argument during the proceedings, that MLB could discipline Rodriguez via clause Section 7.G.2 which says that they can be subjected to “disciplinary action for just cause…”
That clause allows MLB to create a punishment they believes fits the crime, or in this case, crimes.
As we now know, that decision was reached via testimony supplied by Bosch, MLB’s star witness, and the key to their case.
We learn that Alex Rodriguez first met Bosch, who is not a licensed physician, via A-Rod’s cousin, Yuri Sucart (who Rodriguez admitted was involved with his use of PEDs between 2001-2003 during a 2009 interview) in a hotel room in Tampa in July of 2010. There he described in detail the testosterone creams and other substances he would be recommending for his use. A month later, Bosch would meet with A-Rod to draw blood in order to assist him in creating a series of detailed regiments of performance-enhancing substances, including the below list from December of 2011:
- [Blue] Testosterone Cream PM 4 clicks
- LGlutathione AM 4 clicks
- Troche [lozenge containing testosterone] Prior to workout
- --W--CJC and GHRP .7 AMI .7 Noon/ .7 PM
- Th IGF1 (insulin growth factor) 1.4 via iv
- MIC 2 per week
- AM Supplements: DHEA
- Resveratrol
- Melatonin
- Glucosamine
Eventually, Bosch and Rodriguez began communicating without Sucart in the middle, and exchanged over 500 BBMs [BlackBerry Messenger messages] between March and December 2012. “In addition to the BBM exchanges, the record reflects that Bosch and Rodriguez spoke on the telephone 53 times and exchanged 556 text messages in 2012”.
The report also says that:
Bosch and Rodriguez used code names in the BBMs to refer to banned substances, including referring to banned substances as "food." Once when Bosch sent a message telling Rodriguez that he was going to pick up Rodriguez's "meds," Rodriguez replied "Not meds dude. Food." The BBMs between Bosch and Rodriguez include references to code names for numerous banned substances, such as: Gummies (troches containing testosterone); Pink Food or Pink Cream (a transdermal cream containing testosterone); Blue or PM Cream (a transdermal cream containing testosterone); Liquid Soup or Red Liquid (a melted or liquefied form of a troche containing testosterone); and Cojete or Rocket (a subcutaneous syringe containing, among other things IGF1, [insulin growth factor].
In October of 2012 A-Rod asked Bosch to come to Detroit where he was playing in the American League Championship Series - the peptides and human growth hormone he delivered were little help - he had just one hit in nine at-bats as the Yankees were swept by the Tigers. There were other meetings, including a rendezvous in Atlanta in June of 2012 when A-Rod asked Bosch to "Try to use service elevators. Careful. Tons of eyes." Other meeting points included a Starbucks bathroom in his home town of Miami. Bosch also claimed to have personally injected A-Rod during the period he was working for him.
Bosch became MLB’s witness in June of 2013, and in addition to MLB dropping their lawsuit against him, one that was started in order to gain access to his Biogenesis documents, they agreed to pay up to $2400 a day for his security and “hold him harmless from civil liability from any claim brought by a Player, provided Bosch fulfilled his obligations under the agreement.” He also would be able to speak with anyone he liked, as evidence by Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview, and “would be allowed to discuss with anyone the history of his involvement with Players, which could result in book, movie, and/or other media deals.”
Rodriguez was also cited for obstructing the investigation and for violating the Basic Agreement which is the master document that lays out protocol between the Players and Major League Baseball. The evidence against him included an attempt to coerce Bosch into leaving the country and pressuring him to sign an a sworn statement “attesting that Bosch never supplied Rodriguez with PES [performance-enhancing substances] and had no personal knowledge that Rodriguez had ever used them, statements that Rodriguez also knew to be false.”
So thanks to CBS and the availability of the Horowitz' decision, we are much farther along in knowing just what Rodriguez was accused and found guilty of in August and in the 12 days of appeal proceedings between October and November. Now it is up to the federal courts to decide if alleged infractions by MLB, which include a violation of confidentiality agreements, and the Union, which allegedly failed to “fairly represent Mr. Rodriguez's interests” over the course of the nearly year-long saga, warrant a repeal of the suspension.
