Report: Positive test for A-Rod

SI sources claim his name appears on '03 steroid list

A stunning report yesterday that baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez, a three-time American League Most Valuable Player and the presumptive future home run king, tested positive for illegal steroids in 2003 raised anew one of the most troubling questions for the national pastime: Is there any end to the scandal?

Rodriguez's name appeared on a list - seized by federal investigators - of 104 major league players who tested positive in 2003 for illegal performance-enhancing substances, Sports Illustrated reported on its website, citing confidential sources.

Though baseball owners and the players' union agreed that individual testing results would remain confidential - and a federal court ordered the list sealed - the news about Rodriguez leaked nonetheless, raising the possibility that more names will surface.

If more players tainted the sport by abusing steroids, the public should know about them, even if their names appear on the confidential 2003 list, several anti-doping advocates said.

"Baseball has tried to cover this all up for decades and it hasn't gone away," said Charles Yesalis, a prominent anti-doping specialist and professor emeritus at Penn State. "When the light of truth shines forth, it doesn't guarantee the prob lem is going to go away, but it's a lot of better than covering it up."

In the latest sign that the 2007 Mitchell Report on steroids in baseball exposed only a sliver of the scandal, Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, Primobolan and testosterone, during his first MVP season, 2003, with the Texas Rangers, SI reported. Rodriguez, who has previously denied using illegal steroids, declined to comment to a reporter for the magazine.

"Primobolan is a notorious drug in terms of doping and bodybuilding," said Dr. Gary Wadler, who serves on the prohibited substances committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency. "It's a major league steroid, as is testosterone."

Rodriguez, 33, is about to enter the second season of a 10-year contract with the Yankees that could exceed $300 million as he advances toward the all-time home run record. He currently ranks 12th with 553 home runs, trailing only 39-year-old Ken Griffey (611) and 40-year-old Sammy Sosa (609) among active players, as he pursues Bonds's mark of 762.

The players union issued a statement suggesting that Sports Illustrated's sources could be prosecuted for leaking Rodriguez's purported test results.

"Information and documents relating to the results of the 2003 MLB testing program are both confidential and under seal by court orders," the statement said. "We are prohibited from confirming or denying any allegation about the test results of any particular player by the court orders. Anyone with knowledge of such documents who discloses their contents may be in violation of those court orders."

Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, said the commissioner's office was "disturbed" by the allegations.

"Because the survey testing that took place in 2003 was intended to be non-disciplinary and anonymous, we cannot make any comment on the accuracy of this report as it pertains to the player named," Manfred said in a statement.

The magazine also reported that a union official, Gene Orza, tipped off Rodriguez in September 2004 that Rodriguez would be tested later that month, which would have violated MLB's drug policy. The union denied improperly tipping off any player.

Rodriguez purportedly tested positive during an anonymous survey designed to determine whether MLB would begin subjecting players to mandatory random testing. The survey led to a mandatory testing program, beginning in 2004, with the players believing the results of their 2003 tests would remain confidential.

Federal prosecutors, however, touched off a lengthy court battle over the confidentiality issue when they seized the test results in 2004 as part of their investigation into a sports steroid scandal involving the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). Federal agents entered a testing firm in California with a search warrant for the 2003 results of tests on 10 players, including Bonds, Jason Giambi, and his brother, Jeremy Giambi, who was then with the Red Sox. But when the agents discovered a computerized list of all the players who had been tested in 2003, they confiscated it.

Three courts later sided with the players' union and ruled that the government violated the scope of the search warrant by seizing the additional results. But a three-judge appeals panel reversed the lower courts, prompting the full 11-member 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Calif., to consider the case. The full appeals court heard arguments in December and has yet to rule.

The news about Rodriguez, meanwhile, raised questions about how many other names on the list might be leaked. The Mitchell Report cited 88 big leaguers who were linked to performance-enhancing drugs over the last 20 years, but the author, former Maine Senator George J. Mitchell, has acknowledged that his inquiry was hindered by a lack of subpoena power and access to material the government's BALCO investigators had gathered, including the list of 104 names from the 2003 survey.

Mitchell's report cited only 25 players who were alleged to have used performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, which means many others on the list from the 2003 survey could be in jeopardy of having their names leaked.

Wadler agreed with the players' union that the names should be protected. Though he has been highly critical of baseball's reluctance to disclose details about its anti-doping practices and establish a fully independent testing program, he said the confidentiality agreement should be honored.

"Just like the game of baseball is governed by rules, a confidentiality agreement is governed by rules, and they shouldn't be changed in the middle of the game," Wadler said.

Jeff Rutstein, a former steroid abuser who has joined the fight against doping in sports, said he supports identifying the other players who tested positive in 2003 because it might help restore baseball's image. Rutstein did not play professional sports.

"The problem is, so many players have been doing it without getting caught," said Rutstein, the author of "The Steroid Deceit: A Body Worth Dying For?" and owner of the Custom Fitness health club in Boston. "They should put all their names out there and let baseball start from scratch without the cheaters."

Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.