In the 12 months since New Times broke the Biogenesis story, details of Alex Rodriguez's doping habits have slowly emerged. This week, however, the sordid picture suddenly snapped into sharp and absurd relief.
On Monday, Rodriguez filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the 162-game ban handed down two days earlier by an arbiter. But A-Rod's lawsuit also made public the arbiter's detailed report, including his description of the bizarre cocktail of drugs the slugger was taking courtesy of Biogenesis chief Tony Bosch.
The report also includes A-Rod and Bosch's ridiculous nicknames for the drugs, including "gummies," "pink food," and the slightly redundant "liquid soup."
See New Times' special series of reports on A-Rod, Bosch, and the MLB Steroid Scandal
The arbiter's report goes into detail about the different "phases" of drug treatments that Bosch prescribed Rodriguez, including various kinds of testosterone creams or potions and IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1). According to the report, A-Rod would even take testosterone-laced lozenges moments before games.
The steroids were serious, but Bosch and A-Rod's attempts to keep the drug regimen a secret were laughable, according to the report:
Bosch and Rodriguez used code names in [BlackBerry messages] to refer to banned substances, including referring to banned substances as "food." Once when Bosch sent a message telling Rodriguez that he was going to pick up Rodriguez's "meds," Rodriguez replied, "Not meds, dude. Food." The [messages] between Bosch and Rodriguez are replete with references to their code names for numerous banned substances, including the following: Gummies (troches containing testosterone); Pink Food or Pink Cream (a transdermal cream containing testosterone); Blue or PM Cream (a transdermal cream containing testosterone); Liquid Soup or Red Liquid (a melted or liquefied form of a troche containing testosterone); and Cojete or Rocket (a subcutaneous syringe containing, among other things, and IGF-1).
Rockets? Liquid soup? Pink food? Gummies? These aren't code names. They are baby talk. And "PM cream" sounds like something you use for nighttime incontinence.
The report is packed with other juicy juicer details as well.
This past Sunday, Bosch told 60 Minutes that he personally injected shot some rockets into A-Rod's ass. But the report also mentions the slugger was so desperate for his fix that Bosch met him at the team's hotel in Atlanta, during the playoffs in Detroit, and even in a Miami Starbucks bathroom.
We're not doctors here at New Times -- nor is Bosch, actually -- but a shit-stained bathroom at a coffee shop is not the most sanitary place to shoot up.
"Based on the entire record from the arbitration, MLB has demonstrated with clear and
convincing evidence there is just cause to suspend Rodriguez for the 2014 season and 2014 postseason," the arbiter's report concludes. "While this length of
suspension may be unprecedented for an MLB player, so is the misconduct he committed."
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