The reputation of Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez takes a fresh battering in an upcoming book that claims the slugger possibly used steroids at school and into his Yankees career.
The claims come in the book A-Rod by Sports Illustrated journalist Selena Roberts, due to be published by HarperCollins on May 12, the New York Daily News reported.
Rodriguez, the Yankees’ third baseman, is already under a cloud after admitting earlier this year to using steroids in the period from 2001 to 2003, when he played for the Texas Rangers — and when they were not banned by Major League Baseball.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Roberts, who broke the story on that scandal, quotes former players and acquaintances saying that Rodriguez’s involvement with performance enhancing drugs apparently started earlier — and continued far later.
Rodriguez declined to address the latest allegations.
“I’m not going there,” he said after homering in an extended spring training intra-squad game in Tampa, Florida, part of his rehabilitation after hip surgery. “I’m just so excited about being back on the field and playing baseball.”
Ex-teammate Jose Canseco is quoted as saying that the steroid use could have begun in high school in Miami, where Rodriguez put on 11.3kg of muscle in one year.
“I worked out with him when he was 18. He could lift almost as much as I could,” Canseco said, the Daily News reported.
Roberts quotes a former high school teammate saying that the coach knew the future major league star was taking steroids.
More recently, Rodriguez raised eyebrows at the Yankees when he put on 6.8kg in the off-season in 2005, the book claims.
“No one ever asked Alex directly that I know of, but there was a lot of suspicion in house,” a Yankee employee is quoted as saying, the Daily News reported.
Rodriguez said he wasn’t worried that the doping issue had resurfaced.
“I’m in a good place,” he said. “I think more importantly, physically I feel like I’m getting better every day. We’ve had a great week here. We’ve worked extremely hard, and I’m just very anxious to do what God put me on this earth to do, to play baseball.”
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