The “witch-hunt” continues on 60 Minutes
Less than 24 hours after it was confirmed that Alex Rodriguez will miss all 162 games of the 2014 Major League Baseball season, the 60 Minutes interview opens. Anthony Bosch sits in a particularly skittish manner across from television journalist and CBS editor, Scott Pelley. This is the first time Bosch is speaking on television about his participation in the Alex Rodriguez steroid scandal.
“Alex was scared of needles, so at times he would ask me to inject,” said Bosch. This admission sends chills down the collective spines of baseball fans across the globe. It’s one thing to read allegations in newspapers, on blogs, and on websites, but to hear the emotion and the truth come from Bosch’s mouth brings the drama to another level. Bosch claims that Rodriguez’s goal was to be in the illustrious 800 homerun club – a club no major league baseball player has entered.
It was five days before Rodriguez’s 600th home run that he and Bosch met for the first time, and for Rodriguez, this was about finding out what Manny Ramirez took in 2008 and 2009 that made him one of the best hitters in baseball.
The answer, in short, describes a cocktail of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Six of the drugs on the long list uncovered in the arbiter’s hearings were banned substances, including Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and testosterone lozenges (codenamed “gummies”) that Rodriguez would take shortly before games.
Pelley grilled Bosch, inquiring how he and Rodriguez could commit such a crime to the integrity of baseball. “I did it because I had a responsibility to do it…to let them know that if they’re going to take something like this, that they had to do it the right way,” responded Bosch, as if his moral disposition in life was to help players cheat the sport of baseball.
But according to Bosch, he isn’t helping players cheat as much as he is helping some players keep pace with others. “I love the game of baseball,” Bosch claimed. “Unfortunately, this is a part of baseball…when you ask these guys to play 100 plus games back to back, get on a plane, all these road trips…their bodies break down. This has always been a part of the game.”
“Laughable,” Joe Tacopina, attorney of Rodriguez, said about Bosch’s claims. “Coming on TV without an oath is laughable.”
Tacopina continued by calling MLB’s campaign to obstruct justice by “threatening witnesses” and accusing Rodriguez of obstruction of justice equally as “laughable.”
The “laughable” actions of MLB, and the unprecedented 162-game suspension ruled by mutually agreed upon arbitrator, Frederic Horowitz, has prompted Tacopina to launch a suit on his client’s behalf against MLB with hopes of lowering the suspension time.
However, early speculators believe that no judge will overturn the decision of an arbiter, much less one that was agreed upon by both parties.
The MLB/Bosch connection
Rob Manfred, Chief Operating Officer for MLB, also appeared on the 60 Minutes episode, telling Selley that he was explicitly told by Bud Selig, Commissioner of Major League Baseball, to, “do what you have to do to get to the bottom of the scandal.”
For Manfred and his hired team of ex-CIA employees, this meant giving Bosch the protection he was ever-increasingly seeking.
The first meeting between Manfred, his team, and Bosch, was on May 9, 2013, in a Miami restaurant. “His principle concern was personal safety,” said Manfred. “He told us there had been threats to his life.”
The obvious question was: Were any of the individuals threatening the safety and life of Bosch in affiliation with Rodriguez?
Manfred stated that there were associates of Rodriguez, one in particular, who were a danger to Bosch, though no names were given.
Nevertheless, the threat to Bosch’s life was real and the power his testimony and cooperation would leverage for MLB was strong enough that Manfred and Selig elected to protect Bosch and cover all legal fees.
Bosch’s lawyers obliged the offer, advising him to align himself with MLB to be able to stand a chance at trial with somebody, “as powerful as Alex.”
Manfred’s team acquired documents from a man only identified as “Bobby.” Bobby acquired information from Bosch’s anti-ageing clinic (doubling as a PED clinic), Biogenesis, and told Manfred’s team he could put these important incriminating documents in their hands for a price.
MLB paid $125,000 total to Bobby, and had the documents authenticated to ensure they were not tampered with. These are the documents, complete with over 500 Blackberry BBM messages between Bosch and Rodriguez, which won MLB their case.
Future considerations
The saga is far from over, and in what is playing out as a beautiful script for a future Hollywood Blockbuster, still has many unanswered variables.
As it stands, Selig has announced his retirement as Commissioner, with his legacy solidified in the corridors of Cooperstown as being the man who brought down 21st century baseball’s most maligned archenemy.
Rodriguez, in his typical thorn-in-baseball’s-side fashion, has announced that he will be at spring training with the Yankees. MLB is exploring avenues for which they can take legal action against Rodriguez to stop him from doing so.
Nevertheless, baseball fans can expect the Tacopina suit to go through, prolonging this public relations boondoggle for MLB, despite experts theorizing that the suit will not be entertained by the courts.
With Masahiro Tanaka still unsigned, the perpetual underdog Boston Red Sox entering training camp as defending World Series Champions, and of course the “witch-hunt” ongoing, baseball is going to provide its fans with many months to come of drama, storylines, and a stark reminder as to why the sport will forever be the personification of true American identity.