A-Rod tells MLB panel he was tricked into taking illegal drugs: Report

Alex Rodriguez said the only dope being taken was himself after claiming he was tricked into taking steroids by Biogenesis proprietor Anthony Bosch.

A-Rod —who is fighting a 211-game suspension by Major League Baseball — claims Bosch duped him into using the banned supplements at Tuesday's arbitration hearing.

According to the N.Y. Daily News, a source with knowledge of Rodriguez’s ongoing hearings in Manhattan, said 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.

That defense conflicts with the version told by Bosch — the founder and head honcho 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 MLB commissioner Bud Selig imposed upon Rodriguez in August.

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?

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.

That sort of 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.

A-Rod's post-season hearing is expected to continue through this week but can't continue next week due to scheduling conflicts. They may pick up once again later this month or in November if necessary.

Alex Rodriguez paid for Anthony Bosch's attorney: Report

Alex Rodriguez prepared us when he said the next seven weeks would be a "bumpy road" and we can expect "a story like this" every day — now it seems A-Rod might have run into a pothole that even his legal team can't fill.

The latest bombshell involving A-Rod, according to ESPN's "Outside the Lines," claims the embattled New York Yankees player made two payments for former Biogenesis chief Anthony Bosch's attorney. T.J. Quinn is reporting that the New York Yankees third baseman's retainer payments are part of the evidence Major League Baseball has proving he interfered with the PED investigation.

According to Quinn, Rodriguez paid a $25,000 retainer in February before a $50,000 wire transfer was rejected in April. A-Rod's camp says the second payment attempt was a mistake and asked for it to be returned. A spokesperson for Susy Ribero-Ayala, Bosch's attorney said this:

"A retainer was paid (via wire transfer) by a representative of Alex Rodriquez (sic). Ms. Ribero-Ayala accepted this payment on behalf of Anthony Bosch as payment for his legal representation," the statement says.

"In April 2013, Ms. Ribero-Ayala received an unsolicited and unwarranted wire transfer from A-Rod Corp. The funds were immediately returned. Mr. Rodriquez (sic) does not have any involvement in Mr. Bosch's legal representation."

MLB also has email exchanges discussing the second transfer. Ribero-Ayala said she was unaware why she had received the money and returned it upon request. Quinn says the evidence shows failed negotiations between A-Rod's camp and Bosch's attorney, at best. Neither side offered comment.

Rodriguez was suspended a record 211 games for his ties to Biogenesis earlier this month. He has appealed the ban and returned to playing third base for the Yankees. Fifty games is the typical penalty handed down to first time offenders, but A-Rod received more because he allegedly interfered with the investigation.

You're going to need a bigger shovel this time A-Rod.

A-Rod's 'inner circle' outed other players in PED investigation: Report

A blockbuster report from "60 Minutes" claims New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez's inner circle obtained and leaked documents that implicated Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun as well as his own Yankees teammate, catcher Francisco Cervelli, in the doping scandal that has swept over Major League Baseball.

The leak came in February — just days after the weekly newspaper Miami New Times published documents in January detailing Rodriguez's alleged use of performance enhancing drugs.

The "60 Minutes" report says — whether it was a tactical legal maneuver or not — A-Rod's group basically named names and threw a teammate under the bus.

According to "60 Minutes," the handwritten documents of Anthony Bosch —the key witness in Major League Baseball's PED investigation — revealed comprehensive doping regimens that Bosch had engineered for a host of professional athletes. His cooperation with MLB has resulted in the suspension of Rodriguez and 13 other major league players.

Braun and Cervelli's names were redacted in the Miami New Times documents. Members of Rodriguez's camp at the time obtained unredacted versions and leaked them to Yahoo! Sports, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The unredacted documents also implicated Baltimore Oriole Danny Valencia, who MLB later investigated and cleared.

In a statement to "60 Minutes," Rodriguez lawyer David Cornwell said, "The allegations are untrue and are another attempt to harm Alex -- this time by driving a wedge between Alex and other players in the game. While Alex focuses on baseball and repeatedly states that he is going to respect the appeal process, the drumbeat of false allegations continues.

The report continued:

The revelation that members of Rodriguez's camp at the time leaked documents implicating other players to the media could present significant problems for Rodriguez's legal team as they enter the arbitration process to appeal his suspension. Baseball officials say they levied a harsher suspension on Rodriguez because of his continued use of PEDs over multiple years as well as his attempt to "obstruct and frustrate" MLB's investigation.

Rodriguez's case is set to be heard by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz in the coming weeks. If MLB were to present evidence that Rodriguez's camp knowingly leaked additional Bosch business records, it might demonstrate that Rodriguez's camp had not only obtained them to keep them out of the hands of investigators, but that he actively sought to interfere with baseball's investigation by releasing other players' names. 

In early April, accusations arose that Rodriguez had purchased at least some of Bosch's business records. Rodriguez's spokesperson at the time flatly denied the reports.

Rodriguez has denied any connection to Bosch and his clinic, and says he was never treated by him, advised by him, and that the Miami New Times documents implicating him are not legitimate.

On July 22, Braun accepted a 65-game suspension for the remainder of the 2013 season for taking performance-enhancing drugs. And on Aug. 5, Cervelli, along with 11 other players, accepted a 50-game ban. MLB has suspended Rodriguez for 211 games. Rodriguez is appealing.

Just when you think A-Rod has hit bottom — he sinks even more.

MLB suspensions likely to drop this week; A-Rod's could last until 2015: Report

Alex Rodriguez spent his birthday on the field of the Yankees’ minor league Tampa complex Saturday, taking small steps in yet another attempted comeback bid. You can probably guess what what the embattled New York Yankees third baseman was wishing for when he blew out the 38 candles.

After the fallout from Ryan Braun's sordid suspension, all indications lead to Major League Baseball announcing all of the suspensions in the Biogenesis case this week, including one that could keep A-Rod out the rest of this year and all of next season, according to The New York Post.

If it all goes according to MLB’s reported plan to announce the suspensions all 15-plus players facing sanctions in the performance-enhancing drug case, expect the hammer to drop hardest on the Yankees slugger. MLB went early — and somewhat easy — with Braun’s suspension because of his willingness to accept the penalty without appeal.

It is expected other players will do the same this week. To that end, Rodriguez’s representatives met with MLB officials in the past few days, reported The Post. It is believed A-Rod’s camp was trying to gain a better understanding of potential penalties. However, a member of Rodriguez’s team said yesterday it is “unequivocally untrue” that Rodriguez is seeking a settlement.

The Post reported:

MLB apparently is willing to give the same sanction to first-time offenders in this case, in which the evidence does not come from a failed urine or blood exam, but rather from an investigation. The thinking is MLB wants to provide the first-time offenders this carrot: Don’t appeal and you can serve the entire suspension this year and start with a clean slate for next season.

Rodriguez does not fit into this category. It has become evident MLB is going to demand Rodriguez’s punishment far exceed Braun’s. That is because MLB believes the combination of being a user and obstructing the case demands a much stiffer penalty — especially because Rodriguez has admitted to previous drug use from 2001-03 and because MLB believes Rodriguez subsequently lied to its investigators in previous interviews about his usage.

Bud Selig was at the Hall of Fame ceremonies in Cooperstown this week and was said still to be mulling what punishment to deliver Rodriguez. It is conceivable he could ask for permanent banishment, akin to Pete Rose. But the belief is no matter the level of evidence — and it has been portrayed that MLB has substantially more evidence on Rodriguez than it does on Braun — it would be hard to convince an arbitrator, if Rodriguez appeals, that Rodriguez’s first suspension should be for life.

Keep in mind, though, that Selig could ask for life knowing the arbitrator could lower the punishment to a shorter duration — or even find that Rodriguez should not be punished at all.

But as a way to levy a sanction that will not be reduced, there was growing belief around baseball that Selig would request the rest of this season and all of next year. 

A 2014 suspension for Rodriguez would probably be a sure death sentence to his declining baseball career. The 38-year-old would be approaching 40 in 2015 with two hip surgeries literally under his belt —and a Yankees front office that will everything in their power to shake free of the remaining $61 million contract they will still owe A-Rod in 2015-17.

If Rodriguez decides to fight the suspension, he is apparently going to have to counter alleged communications between him and the Biogenesis centerpiece Tony Bosch that describe the usage of PEDs.

It is believed that those descriptions are the strongest part of MLB’s case and will prove Rodriguez used PEDs and worked diligently to try to prevent MLB from finding evidence of that.

Braun's penalty might look like a stroll in the Yankee Stadium outfield, when all is said and done with A-Rod.