Sosa Said to Test Positive for PED's in 2003

[Ralph Wiggum]

Big shocker.

Sammy Sosa, who joined with Mark McGwire in 1998 in a celebrated pursuit of baseball’s single-season home run record, is among the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the drug-testing results from that year.

The disclosure that Sosa tested positive makes him the latest baseball star of the last two decades to be linked to performance-enhancers, a group that now includes McGwire, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Rafael Palmeiro.

Sosa, who is sixth on Major League Baseball’s career home run list and last played in 2007, had long been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs but until now had never been publicly linked to a positive test.

In a recent interview with ESPN Deportes, Sosa, 40, said he would “calmly wait” for his induction into baseball’s Hall of Fame, for which he will become eligible for induction in 2013. But his 2003 positive test, when he played for the Chicago Cubs, may seriously damage his chances of gaining entry to the Hall, a fate encountered by McGwire, who has attracted relatively little support from voters in his first three years on the ballot.

The 2003 positive test could also create legal troubles for Sosa because he testified under oath before Congress at a public hearing in 2005 that he had “never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs.”

The 2003 test that ensnared Sosa was the first such test conducted by Major League Baseball. Under guidelines agreed upon with the players union, the test results were to remain anonymous but would lead to testing with penalties the next year if more than 5 percent of the results were positive.

That is indeed what occurred. But for reasons never made completely clear, the test results were not destroyed by the players union and the 104 positives were subsequently seized by federal agents on the West Coast investigating matters related to the distribution of drugs to athletes.

More at LINK

[thundley4]

I'm curious as to when he was tested in 2003 and what he tested positive for.  He testified to never using "Illegal PED's".  Many things were still available by law, but not allowed by MLB at the time.

At the hearing, Sosa testified that “everything” he had heard “about steroids and human growth hormones is that they are bad for you, even lethal” and that he “would never put anything dangerous like that” in his body.

“To be clear,” he added, “I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs. I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything.”

This also happened to Sosa in April 2003.

You can ask any Cub fan, he was never the same after taking that hit.  He could never stand close to the plate after that.

That being said, I do think that at some time he might have used PED's , maybe just not ones that were illegal at the time.

[Odin's Hand]

Winstrol been berry, berry good to Sammy Sosa.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I remember the beaning that year quite well.  I went to about a dozen games that season and Sosa's act was already wearing thin amongst the denizens of Wrigley.  Don't forget that '03 was the year he was caught with the corked bat.

The NY Times headline is really bad, so I edited it for this thread title.