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Alex Rodriguez was so devoted to Anthony Bosch’s doping protocol and schedule that he once agreed to have his own blood drawn by the Biogenesis founder while the two men were in a Miami club bathroom stall, in order for Bosch to later analyze the sample and ensure A-Rod would not fail an MLB drug test. Bosch, who was interviewed in an explosive “60 Minutes” report Sunday night, says the club was in full swing when the clandestine blood collection took place.
“People coming in and out of the men’s room, I take it. And you’re in a stall with Alex Rodriguez drawing his blood?” correspondent Scott Pelley asked Bosch.
“Yes. As crazy as that sounds,” said Bosch.
“What were you thinking?” asked Pelley.
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“I’m not getting paid enough,” said Bosch.
Later, Bosch would fear for his life.
The founder of the Biogenesis clinic told Pelley that he believed Rodriguez’s associates would kill him in order to keep him from talking about the performance-enhancing drugs he had provided the now-disgraced Yankee superstar with for years.
According to Bosch, a Miami associate of Rodriguez’s promised Bosch $ 20,000-$ 25,000 a month to flee to Colombia, to let the burgeoning drug scandal and MLB investigation into Biogenesis die down.
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Robert Sabo/New YOrk Daily News
According to Anthony Bosch, A-Rod was so devoted to Bosch’s doping protocol and schedule that he once agreed to have his own blood drawn by the Biogenesis founder while the two men were in a Miami club bathroom stall.
“One of (Rodriguez’s) associates said, ‘Well you should, I think you should leave town. We’re gonna get you a plane ticket to Colombia,’ ” Bosch said. “ ‘We want you to stay there until this blows over. We’re gonna pay you,’ I forgot what the number was, $ 25,000 or $ 20,000 a month. ‘Then when you come back, we’ll, you know, we’ll give you another $ 150,000.’ ”
After he turned down the offer to lay low, Bosch said his ex-girlfriend received a text message in Spanish saying Bosch would not live to see the end of the year.
“The individual that was of greatest concern to Mr. Bosch was a known associate of Mr. Rodriguez,” MLB COO Rob Manfred told Pelley.
“Are you saying that Alex Rodriguez and or his associates were involved in threatening to kill Tony Bosch?” Pelley asked Manfred.
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“I don’t know what Mr. Rodriguez knew,” Manfred replied. “I know that the individual involved has been an associate of Mr. Rodriguez for some time.”
When asked what Rodriguez would have known about threats made by Rodriguez’s camp or offers to leave the country, Bosch seemed certain about his answer.
“I used to be in that inner circle,” he said. “And nothing happens without Alex approving.”
But as close as Rodriguez may have been to his drug dealer, the bond quickly went sour once Rodriguez’s name was linked to Bosch’s now-defunct clinic. Team A-Rod, according to Bosch, pressured Bosch to sign an affidavit that would protect Rodriguez’s doping past, as well as the offer for Bosch to disappear, where he would remain until the matter “blows over.”
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AP/CBS
‘Nothing happens without Alex approving,’ Anthony Bosch says in a ’60 Minutes’ interview.
Bosch didn’t sign the affidavit, according to the “60 Minutes” report, and didn’t accept the offer to fly to South America.
Rodriguez’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, who said he will file an injunction Monday asking a judge to temporarily restore A-Rod’s eligibility, called the allegation that his client tried to bribe Bosch “laughable.”
Manfred, however, painted quite a different picture, and said that the first time he met with Bosch to see if he would cooperate with baseball’s Biogenesis probe, Bosch was most concerned about “his personal safety.”
“(Bosch) told us that there had been threats on his life. We knew from our own investigation and this was a great source of concern to us that there were individuals in this web of people that surrounded Biogenesis that had criminal records and that, by reputation, were dangerous,” Manfred told Pelley.
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Bosch says he was paid $ 12,000 a month by Rodriguez in exchange for a sophisticated doping program, one that A-Rod hoped would catapult him into an exclusive baseball club.
“(Rodriguez) would study the dosages because he wanted to achieve all his human-performance or in this case, sports- performance objectives,” said Bosch. “And the most important one was the 800 home run club, which was only going to have one member, Alex Rodriguez.”
The Rodriguez-Bosch relationship began to unravel in early 2013, after the Miami New Times report was published on Jan. 29, detailing Rodriguez’s links to Biogenesis and Bosch. Although he initially denied providing PEDs to athletes, including Rodriguez, Bosch later turned on his famous client, and became the star witness in A-Rod’s arbitration.
The report reflects much of what occurred in MLB’s investigation and in the arbitration room as Rodriguez fought to overturn Selig’s 211-game ban, including Bosch’s testimony validating about 500 Blackberry BBM messages, the authentication of documents and details of injections and doping protocols that included testosterone-loaded “gummies” that A-Rod would chew in the dugout like sunflower seeds, that left the man who issued the ban — Bud Selig — in shock.“In my judgment his actions were beyond comprehension,” Selig — who saw his suspension of A-Rod reduced to 162 games, still the longest suspension in the history of the drug program — told Pelley. “And I’m somebody who’s now been in the game over 50 years.”
Said Selig, “As I looked at everything on all the players and then I got to Alex Rodriguez, and you put all the drug things on one side and then all the things that he did to impede our investigation and really do things that I had never seen any other player do, I think 211 games was a very fair penalty.”
