ARod accidently admits to failing a drug test last year?

Oops

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/sports/baseball/21arod.html

Facing Questions, Rodriguez Raises More

Alex Rodriguez, left, with pitcher Andy Pettitte, said he expected speculation, saying baseball is in a “very not-trusting situation with our public, with our fans.”


By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: February 21, 2008

During his first interview with reporters at the Yankees’ spring training complex on Wednesday, third baseman Alex Rodriguez was peppered with questions about Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and the scrutiny he expects as he pursues baseball’s career home run record.


In defending the sport’s drug-testing program, he ended up raising questions about himself.

“Last year, I got tested 9 to 10 times,” he said. “We have a very, very strict policy, and I think the game is making tremendous strides.”

The number of tests he cited is substantially higher than those mandated by baseball’s collective-bargaining agreement.

All players in the major leagues — roughly 1,200 — are subject to at least two drug tests between spring training and the end of the postseason. Another 600 random tests are conducted during the same period, and 60 more random tests are done in the off-season.

Under the program, other circumstances call for extra testing. A player who tests positive for steroids is publicly identified, suspended and subjected to additional testing. With the approval of a small committee, baseball can also conduct extra tests of players who are suspected of doping, although it is unclear how often that happens. Players who fail a first test for amphetamines are not publicly identified, but they are subject to six more random tests over the next 12 months.

Rodriguez has never been publicly identified for testing positive for a banned substance, and only two players have ever been suspended for amphetamine use since testing for that substance began in 2006.

When asked later Wednesday whether he had ever tested positive for amphetamines, Rodriguez said: “That’s not true. It couldn’t be more false — 100 percent false.”

He also adjusted the number of tests, saying it had been 7 to 10 instead of 9 to 10.

On Wednesday night, Jason Zillo, the Yankees’ media relations director, issued a statement on behalf of Rodriguez to further clarify his original comment.

“My quote from earlier today was taken literally,” the statement said. “I was not tested 9 or 10 times last year. I was just using exaggeration to make a point. My intent was simply to shed light on the fact that the current program being implemented is working, and a reason for that is through frequent testing. I apologize for any confusion I may have caused.”

How many tests was Rodriguez given?

“I have no idea,” Zillo said.

Baseball does not discuss the testing of individual players unless they are suspended. In a telephone interview, Richard Levin, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said “theoretically it is possible” for a player to be tested as many as seven times. “There is no limit on the number of times a player can be tested,” he said.

Rodriguez said it was just chance that he had been tested so frequently.

“It’s random,” he said. “You could have 20 or 30 or one. But a minimum of one. That’s the way it works.”

If Rodriguez had been tested seven times last year, five of them would have been random. A player has a one in 4,200 chance of being selected five times for a random drug test in a given year.

Gene Orza, the chief operating officer for the players union, said one random test does not keep a player from being selected again.

“Once you are picked to be tested you go back in the hat and can be tested again,” Orza said in a telephone interview. “The inference that a player who is tested a lot must have tested positive for something is wrong. I don’t know what Alex is talking about. I think he meant to say he was tested a lot of times. Lots of players have been tested a lot of times.”

Rodriguez, who has 518 home runs and is 17th on the career list, said he expected speculation given the current climate.

“Right now, the game is in a very not-trusting situation with our public, with our fans,” he told reporters Wednesday. “Some of the things that I’ve accomplished and potentially some of the things that people think I can accomplish, my name has come up and will probably come up again in the future.”

Murray Chass, David Leonhardt, Amanda Cox and Joe Lapointe contributed reporting. Mr. Lapointe contributed from Tampa, Fla.