The aftermath of Alex Rodriguez’ steroid confessional press conference has been marked by an aggressive media steroid feeding frenzy in a race to uncover incriminating steroid connections. It is safe characterize journalists as obsessed with Alex Rodriguez admitted steroid use. White House correspondents covering President Barrack Obama’s first primetime presidential press conference were eager to learn President Obama thoughts on A-Rod’s steroid use. The New York Daily News sent a reporter to the Dominican Republic to purchase the same steroids as Alex Rodriguez; curiously, he failed, unable to obtain Primobolan, but that didn’t stop the story. But that was only the beginning of the insidious Alex Rodriguez witch-hunt.
The press identified the name of Alex Rodriguez cousin who allegedly smuggled the steroids into the United States for A-Rod and injected him bi-weekly for several years. ESPN was knocking on the door of Yuri Sucart’s residence in Miami and talking to his wife on the phone within several hours of A-Rod’s press conference (“A-Rod’s cousin lives in Miami,” February 19).
When an ESPN Deportes producer knocked on the Sucarts’ door in Miami, no one answered. The producer then called the Sucarts’ house on the telephone and reached a woman who later identified herself as Yuri Sucart’s wife. When the producer asked if Rodriguez had referred to her husband at Tuesday’s news conference, she said yes. […]
“Yuri was a mule, not a guy who would initiate anything,” a friend once close to Rodriguez said Wednesday. “He did what Alex told him to. He was only looking out for Alex. He is not a guy who would take the initiative to go out and buy drugs. Alex said during the press conference that his cousin just did what was asked — that is perfect for Yuri’s M.O. He is a person who would be with him forever, a loyal guy without a bad bone in his body.”
Sports journalist next identified the name of a steroid-linked personal trainer, nevermind the oxymoron, who had been a long-time friend of Alex Rodriguez and regularly accompanied him during the MLB season as recently as 2007. Presinal has been banned from MLB “private areas” and Rodriguez had been warned that Presinal was an “unsavory character” (“A-Rod’s pal, the tainted trainer: Steroid-linked friend is banned by every MLB team,” February 20).
Another source said Presinal accompanied A-Rod for the entire 2007 season, staying in the same hotel as the A.L. MVP, but in a separate room with the “cousin” Rodriguez pegged three days ago as his steroid source from 2001-03. […]
“He was around Alex in 2007,” the source said of Presinal. “Every hotel they went to, he stayed in the same room with Yuri. You would never see Alex with [Presinal]. They would meet in one of their rooms.”
Presinal was identified in the Mitchell Report and ostracized by Major League Baseball after being caught with a bag full of steroids allegedly belonging to MLB player Juan Gonzales in 2001.
The Mitchell Report, released in December 2007, described the investigation that followed the 2001 incident at a Toronto airport, first reported by the Daily News in 2006, where Presinal told law enforcement the bag containing drugs belonged to then-Indians star Juan Gonzalez. […]
In addition to A-Rod, Presinal has worked with some of the game’s biggest stars: Juan Gonzalez, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, Miguel Tejada, Adrian Beltre, Moises Alou, Jose Guillen, Ervin Santana, Ruben Sierra, Francisco Cordero, Jose Mesa and Juan Guzman, among others.
Sports writers have even been able to link George Steinbrenner, the billionaire owner of the New York Yankees where A-Rod plays, to steroid distribution albeit indirectly via several degrees of separation. Apparently, Steinbrenner’s daughter married Felix M. Lopez Jr. who became a senior vice president with the Yankees in 2005. The son of the Yankees VP was arrested on steroid trafficking charges in 2002 and was ultimately sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to steroid possession charges as part of the DEA Operation Webslinger. The press apparently doesn’t care that all of this happened well before Steinbrenner’s daughter married Felix Lopez Jr. (“Son of Yankees VP trafficked steroids in 2002,” February 20).
According to the arrest record filed with the Tampa police department, police obtained several bottles and more than 50 viles of unspecified liquid steroids as well as two boxes with six bottles of the drug GBL when they raided Lopez’s Tampa apartment on Sept. 18, 2002. GBL is commonly referred to as an illegal date-rape drug but also has been used by athletes as a steroid alternative. […]
Charles Massucci, a Tampa detective who arrested Lopez III as part of a federal crackdown on date-rape drugs, said in a telephone interview Friday that Lopez III was “a big kid” who offered no resistance and “was very compliant.” Massucci said although the investigation was aimed at date-rape drugs, he was not surprised to also discover that Lopez III possessed steroids.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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