MLB wants A-Rod to talk w/ its investigators

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Source: Espn.com
Alex Rodriguez isn't finished answering questions yet.

Major League Baseball will ask the disgraced slugger to meet with its investigators in the coming weeks to further explain his admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs, two sources familiar with MLB's plans told ESPN.

After two public confessions, one with ESPN's Peter Gammons and the other at a news conference in Tampa on Tuesday, Rodriguez will be asked to give a full account of how extensive his drug use was, and who the "cousin" is who Rodriguez says injected him with a drug believed to be the anabolic steroid methenolone. Rodriguez said they bought the drug, which he described as "boli," from a pharmacy in the Dominican Republic.

"They're more interested in what happened in the States than in the Dominican," one source said.

Representatives from MLB's department of investigations are expected to ask Rodriguez whether his cousin, whom Rodriguez declined to name, had access to major league clubhouses and other players, and whether either he or Rodriguez ever distributed drugs to other players. Under baseball's labor agreement Rodriguez cannot be punished for any banned substances he took prior to 2004, but he could be punished if MLB were to determine that he supplied drugs to other players.

MLB officials declined comment, and MLB Players Association officials could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday night. Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras, did not immediately return a phone call or email message seeking comment.

The sources who spoke to ESPN said that MLB must formally request a meeting through the Players Association, and that Rodriguez will be allowed to appear with a lawyer and a union representative if he chooses.

One source said commissioner Bud Selig could choose to punish Rodriguez if he feels he isn't forthcoming, although the union would be likely to fight any action.