The New York Daily News reports that The Drug Enforcement Administration and Major League Baseball are investigating a Miami-area man named Anthony Bosch for possible links to performance-enhancing drugs. The significance of Bosch: he has been an adviser on training, nutrition and dietary supplements to Alex Rodriguez and other Latin ballplayers in south Florida.
Bosch is not a new name to people who follow the PED news, as MLB first investigated Bosch and his father, Dr. Pedro Bosch, for their ties to Manny Ramirez back in 2009 when he first tested positive for PEDs when with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Pedro Bosch provided Ramirez the prescription for the female fertility drugs he was taking, and it was reported then that Ramirez had a relationship with Anthony Bosch, as did many other players.
The question I have is what’s new here? We wrote about baseball and the feds’ interest in Pedro and Anthony Bosch here at HardballTalk back in 2009, wondering whether this wasn’t some “Latin American BALCO” situation. Nothing of note has been reported since then, but obviously MLB has had cause to focus more closely on Bosch now to inspire what the Daily News describes as “an ongoing probe.”
The story notes the rise of the use of synthetic testosterone and human growth hormone in Major League Baseball. It’s possible, then, that new information has arisen connecting the Bosch family to the spike in use of these substances. Which, based on positive test results anyway, have disproportionately implicated Latin ballplayers. No one connected to the investigation is commenting, however, so it’s unclear.
One thing that is interesting, though, is the Daily News’ focus on A-Rod here. While there is clearly a connection between Bosch and Rodriguez making reference to him totally legitimate, A-Rod has not tested positive for anything nor has he otherwise been tied to PEDs since his admission to prior use several years ago. Does this suggest that his name may soon be connected to PEDs anew? Or is this just an instance of a New York paper leading with the big name to snag eyeballs?
Definitely worth watching going forward.