The Miami New Times has dropped a bombshell when they released an article on Tuesday which detailed evidence of a Miami clinic’s role in selling performance-enhancing drugs to numerous big name MLB players. The chief of the clinic was Anthony Bosch and the evidence has been corroborated by interviews with six customers and two previous employees. The list of names which are linked to this clinic could comprise an all-star squad on its own:
San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera, Oakland A’s hurler Bartolo Colón, pro tennis player Wayne Odesnik, budding Cuban superstar boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa, and Texas Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz. There’s even the New York Yankees’ $275 million man himself, Alex Rodriguez, who has sworn he stopped juicing a decade ago.
It is not the first time we have heard these athletes linked with PED’s, however it is the first time that there has been tangible evidence.
The names are all included in an extraordinary batch of records from Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic tucked into a two-story office building just a hard line drive’s distance from the UM campus. They were given to New Times by an employee who worked at Biogenesis before it closed last month and its owner abruptly disappeared. The records are clear in describing the firm’s real business: selling performance-enhancing drugs, from human growth hormone (HGH) to testosterone to anabolic steroids.
Interviews with six customers and two former employees corroborate the tale told by the patient files, the payment records, and the handwritten notebooks kept by the clinic’s chief, 49-year-old Anthony Bosch
Over the past week as the story was being finalized it was suggested (within the article) that information was leaked to players agents and to ESPN to soften the blow for when it did release. The MLB did respond with a canned statement:
MLB issued this statement responding to questions about the Bosches: “We are always extremely disappointed to learn of potential links between players and the use of performance-enhancing substances and have been active in the issues that have emerged in South Florida… [B]anned substances… have no place in our game.”
I urge you to read the full article (HERE) and then make up your own mind as to whether or not the athletes are guilty of taking PED’s.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported this morning that Rodriguez released a statement denying use of PED’s:
“The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true. Alex Rodriguez was not Mr. Bosch’s patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him. The purported documents referenced in the story — at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez — are not legitimate.”
Amanda Comak of the The Washington Times also has a statement from Gio Gonzalez’ reps denying the use of PED’s:
“I’ve never used performance-enhancing drugs of any kind, and I never will. I’ve never met or spoken with Tony Bosch or used any substances provided by him. Anything said to the contrary is a lie.”
