Alex Rodriguez is not the first Scott Boras client to be tainted by the investigation dealing with the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Seven players have been mentioned in conjunction with the various PED investigations over the past several years.
Here’s a quick list of Scott Boras players and their brushes with the PED investigations.
Kevin Brown – The pitcher was mentioned in the Mitchell Report. He used the address for Boras’ headquarters as the return address when he sent cash to steroid/HGH supplier, and former New York Met clubhouse boy Kirk Radomski.
Eric Gagne – Gagne went from marginal starter to dominant closer thanks to HGH. He blew out his arm, went off the drugs and is a marginal reliever. Boras got the Brewers to sign Gagne to a $10 million contract three days before the Mitchell Report was released and revealed that Gagne bought HGH in 2004.
Scott Schoeneweis – This pitcher purchase steroids from Signature Pharmacy – the Internet/Albany-based scandal. Schoeneweis got his prescriptions from Ramon Scrugs, the California doctor who has been knee-deep in steroid-related indictments. According to the indictment, sports agents send clients to Scruggs “for the purpose of obtaining anabolic steroids.”
Rick Ankiel – The former pitching prodigy who forgot where home plate was making a storybook comeback when it was revealed he got a year supply of HGH from Signature Pharmacy.
Ron Villone – This journeyman pitcher was mentioned in the Mitchell Report for buying HGH from Radomski.
Gary Sheffield – Sheffield was a training buddy of Barry Bonds and was caught up in the BALCO Labs scandal, but told the grand jury he didn’t know the substances he took were steroids.
Alex Rodriguez is certainly the biggest name on Boras’ list of clients be involved with the PED investigations, as the revelation that he failed a drug test for Primobolan in 2003 has shaken the sports world for the past two days.
Does anyone think it’s suspicious that Scott Boras has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree? This story has a long way to go. ARod’s interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons is just a puff piece that raises more questions than it answers.
Questions for ARod:
- Who helped you?
- Who else knew you were using these banned PEDs?
- Did you use the PEDs during the season?
- Did you buy the drugs or did someone procure them for you?
- If someone else bought them for you was it your trainer or team personnel?
- Did you also use HGH, have you used it since the years in question and are you using it now? (This question should be asked with the reminder that ARod has been less than honest in the past.)
PED use doesn’t occur in a vacuum and there’s no way that ARod made the decision to use the drugs, and actually use them, all by his lonesome. Also, being that Primobolan is sometimes used in a stack with testosterone and HGH, it’s totally reasonable to ask Rodriguez if he used human growth hormone, as well.
Since there’s no test for HGH, there’s no way a drug test could detect if ARod was using it. He could be using HGH now and we’d never know. Given what we know about baseball players in general – and Alex Rodriguez in particular – there’s no reason to believe that ARod is telling the truth.
