The tests in 2003 were supposed to remain anonymous and were intended to determine whether or not the league needed to test for performance-enhancing drugs on a mandatory basis.
A-Rod appears on a list of 104 players that tested positive in 2003.
"This is a mess," one Rodriguez associate told the Daily News. "I'm not sure how he's going to take this. He's never had to deal with anything like this before."Larry Bowa, who was the Yankees third-base coach, was surprised by the report.
"I'm shocked, I really am," said Bowa. "He's the last guy I would've thought would've done anything. Hopefully, this is a mistake."Mistake? Yeah, he got caught.
Jose Canseco wasn't surprised as he had called out A-Rod in his book.
"I may not have seen [A-Rod] do the deed, but I set the whole thing up for him, just like he wanted. I saw the changes in his body in a short time," Canseco wrote. "Hell, if you ask me, I did everything but inject the guy myself."A-Rod had previously told Katie Couric that he never took nor was tempted to take performance-enhancing drugs.
However, when asked about the failed steroids test, A-Rod wasn't talking.
"You have to talk to the union," Rodriguez said. "I'm not saying anything."A-Rod, who is so concerned with his image, has seen his image get battered in the past month by Joe Torre's book and now the SI report.
I'm interested to see whether he lets the damage to how he's perceived destroy his 2009 season. Or if he puts aside his obsession with his image since it's already destroyed and finally just plays baseball, in which case he might have a monster year.
I think it will be a feast or (more likely) famine year for Rodriguez, who has 553 career homeruns and ranks 12th all-time.
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