ESPN is piling on an earlier story about Alex Rodriguez and performance enhancing drugs by reporting that the man who allegedly sold A-Rod the products personally injected them into the slugger. A story in the Miami New Times published earlier this week alleged that Rodriguez was the client of Anthony Bosch, a man who sold drugs like human growth hormone and testosterone to many professional athletes out of a now-defunct Miami office. The paper said it obtained written notes and invoices as well doping schedules that tied the two men together. 

When the story broke, Rodriguez denied it outright, saying the documents were frauds and he "was not Mr. Bosch’s patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him." But according to ESPN's sources, A-Rod received more personal services than anyone and got "pissed" at Bosch for "bleeding everywhere" after injections. According to Outside the Lines reporters T.J. Quinn and Mike Fish, Bosch would deliver the drugs to Rodriguez himself, and deliver the injections as well. ("Only Tony handled A-Rod.") A-Rod's spokesperson denied the new ESPN report and Bosch told Outside the Lines that the story was "bullshit."

The new info certainly doesn't bode well for Rodriguez, who has previously admitted to using banned substances, claims to have played clean since 2003. There's already been speculation that the New York Yankees want to dump him from their team and even talk that he might never play baseball again. (He could definitely miss 2013 because of a previous injury.) Even if no illegal acts are ever proven and baseball can't pin a cheating rap on him, it's doubtful anyone will ever consider Rodriguez a "clean" superstar again.

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Dashiell Bennett