MLB witness says he designed, administered PED program for A-Rod
NEW YORK – Major League Baseball’s key witness in its case against Alex Rodriguez said he designed and administered an elaborate doping program for the 14-time All-Star starting in 2010.
Anthony Bosch, the founder of the now shuttered Florida anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis, said in a “60 Minutes” interview aired on CBS on Sunday night that Rodriguez paid him $12,000 per month to provide him with an assortment of banned drugs that included testosterone and human growth hormone.
Rob Manfred, the chief operating officer of Major League Baseball, said during the news program that Bosch chose to cooperate in the investigation in part because he feared for his life.
MLB’s suspension of Rodriguez was reduced on Saturday by an arbitrator from 211 games to 162, plus all playoff games in the 2014 season. Rodriguez’s lawyers plan to file a suit in federal court today to overturn the arbitration ruling.
Commissioner Bud Selig, who did not testify during the slugger’s appeal, defended the largest suspension ever handed out under the Joint Drug Agreement.
“In my judgment his actions were beyond comprehension,” Selig said on the show. “I think 211 games was a very fair penalty.”
Bosch said he began working with Rodriguez – who was motivated by his pursuit of 800 career home runs – five days before the New York Yankees third baseman hit his 600th homer on Aug. 4, 2010. Bosch said the first words out of Rodriguez’s mouth were: “What did Manny Ramirez take in 2008 and 2009?”
Ramirez was suspended 50 games in 2009 while with the Los Angeles Dodgers after testing positive for a banned drug, his first of two offenses.
Of the 14 players suspended as a result of MLB’s investigation into Biogenesis, Rodriguez was the only one to appeal the ban.
A self-taught practitioner who was once fined $5,000 for practicing medicine without a license, Bosch outlined his relationship with the three-time A.L. MVP. He said he designed the program to help Rodriguez maximize the effects of the drugs and remain clean in the eyes of baseball. Rodriguez never failed a test during the period in question.
Bosch also said he injected A-Rod with banned drugs because the former No. 1 draft pick with 654 career homers was afraid of needles.
The news program also displayed a heavily redacted document showing a payment of nearly $50,000 from “A-Rod Corporation” to Bosch’s lawyer – a sum that was returned.
The payment, according to Bosch, was part of an effort by Rodriguez and his people to keep Bosch quiet. After Bosch rejected Rodriguez’s request for him to sign an affidavit affirming he never gave A-Rod PEDs, Bosch says among other things it was suggested he “leave town” until the case was over.
He says he was offered money and a trip to Colombia.
When he rejected the trip, Bosch said his ex-girlfriend received a text in Spanish that said Bosch would not live until the end of the year.