by Tim Elfrink
But Manfred, as he showed in his testimony in the case against Alex Rodriguez, is familiar with T/E ratio screens, the science surrounding the secretion of doping substances from a player’s body, isotope ratio mass spectometry testing, masking agents, and exogenous therapy. He was the point man who organized the controversial investigation into Biogenesis, authorized those cash payments, and argued in Rodriguez’s arbitration on behalf of the league.
For the first time, baseball may have a doping specialist as commissioner. And despite Selig’s boast in the 2012 deposition—before Biogenesis was exposed—that “we did what we had to do with the help of Senator Mitchell and others and I was very proud of the fact that [the] sport got cleaned up quickly,” Manfred appears to understand that battling PEDs is an ongoing saga that will not be won with a single coda.
A small framed photo hangs near a corner of Tacopina’s Manhattan office. It shows one of the defense attorney’s most famous clients sliding into third base. The photo is penned with the inscription: “Joe T: Love going to war with you. Your friend, Alex Rodriguez.”
Rodriguez’s war might be over, at least for now. But there will be plenty more wars in baseball’s future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* * *
Both authors: We want to start by thanking the duo who made this whole project possible, editor Jill Schwartzman at Dutton and literary agent David R. Patterson at Foundry Media, who suggested that we—a Miami New Times managing editor and his former colleague, now at Newsday—collaborate to tell a wild story evenly split between South Florida and New York City.
It was a fine idea. Somehow, Jill and David made writing this book not only feasible, but a lot of fun as well. Many thanks to the rest of the Dutton and Penguin Random House team as well: Brian Tart, Ben Sevier, Christine Ball, Amanda Walker, Melanie Koch, Kathy Trager, Andrea Santoro, and Stephanie Hitchcock. And thanks to our film agent, Brandy Rivers, at Gersh Agency and attorney, David Davoli.
Tim Elfrink: Back in South Florida, many sincere thanks go to Chuck Strouse, the editor who brought me to Miami New Times six years ago. Chuck fought hard for this story and refused to let me take my foot off the gas pedal. Thanks go to the whole incredible team at Miami New Times, whose work turned a year of investigative reporting into reality: Nadine DeMarco, Jose Duran, Miche Ratto, Michael E. Miller, Francisco Alvarado, and resolute attorney Steve Suskin. Just about everyone at the paper and our sister publication in Broward helped me at some time or another and they all have my gratitude. Thanks also to Manuel Roig-Franzia at the Washington Post for his invaluable advice.
Several journalists helped add key reporting to this book. I’d like to mention in particular Steve Miller for his work plugging through data from the Florida Department of Health and Michael Rudon, a journalist in Belize City who organized my reporting in that country.
Thanks to my parents, Mary and Ted, my brothers, Pete and Connor, and all my family and friends back in St. Louis, who taught me to love baseball and writing in equal measure.
And lastly, thanks to Adele Coble, who makes it all worthwhile.
Gus Garcia-Roberts: Thanks to my editors at Newsday for allowing me to take time off to report this book. In particular, I owe a debt of gratitude to my boss, Director of Investigations Matthew Doig, who has the best story judgment of anybody I’ve ever known and who immediately recognized the opportunity in this one. Thanks to Will Van Sant, Sandra Peddie, Adam Playford, and Matt Clark, Newsday colleagues who were patient with my absence, inspired/tortured me with the incredible work they put together while I was gone, and didn’t look at me too funny when I returned with a beard. I appreciated Thomas Maier, longtime Newsday reporter and author of several books, allowing me to corral him in the newsroom for impromptu mentoring. And thanks, of course, to Tim, for recruiting me to help tell this incredible story.
Thanks to my family—in particular my mother, Joan; father, Jose; sisters, Chloe and Valentina; brother, Uriel; and aunt Paz—for being equal parts brilliant, noble, creative, hilarious, and steadfast. Thanks for not putting out a missing persons bulletin for me during this process. A special cross-book shout-out goes to Chloe, whose own work of translated Chinese poems should be published right around the same time as this book.
And I truly couldn’t have done it without my wife, who kept me in soup and brought me dispatches from the outside world as I camped out and grew haggard in our apartment. Our life together has been a wonderful adventure, Jenny.
NOTES
* * *
PROLOGUE
Bosch asked in a gravelly tone: Porter Fischer, interview by Tim Elfrink, June 2013.
midtown Manhattan’s most moneyed blocks: Observations at scene by Gus Garcia-Roberts, September 30, 2013.
“Please discontinue using the mug shot”: Joyce Fitzpatrick, e-mail to Tim Elfrink, October 1, 2013.
CHAPTER ONE
both the company and the softball team: Roger De Armas, all quotes in this chapter from interview by Tim Elfrink, September 2013.
he famously punched a police lieutenant: Guillermo Martinez and Jay Ducassi, “Bosch: Terrorist or Cuban Hero?,” Miami Herald, April 3, 1983.
the ob-gyn department to general surgery: All details of Pedro’s education come from his medical licensing documents from the Florida Department of Health.
found out he’d been storing bombs there: Martinez and Ducassi, “Bosch: Terrorist or Cuban Hero?”
claiming his innocence until his death in 2011: Alfonso Chardy, “Orlando Bosch Dies in Miami at 84,” Miami Herald, April 27, 2011.
Canseco wrote in his first memoir: Jose Canseco, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big (New York: HarperCollins, 2005).
“I don’t remember this guy being much of a player at all”: Jim Hendry, Mickey Maspons, Nick Martin-Hidalgo, and Jim Bernhardt, interviews by Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts, August to October 2013.
You can’t get much more American: Associated Press, “Burglars Strike Again,” January 29, 1998.
shops Armani: Joan Fleischman, “Alex Rodriguez Comes Up Short in Rip-off, Burglary,” Miami Herald, January 28, 1998.
travels in a Maybach: Martin Fennelly, “It’s Been Quality A-Rod Time,” Tampa Tribune, May 7, 2009.
owns a Picasso: “Q & A ROD: News Sits Down with Yankee Megastar,” New York Daily News, February 29, 2004.
declares Wall Street: Nate Penn, “MOTY: Alexander the (Expensive, Misunderstood, but Undeniably) Great,” GQ, December 2007.
worked for centavos behind the San Juan: Ana Lopez, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, October 2013.
president who had ruled the island: “Informaciones del primer número del Periódico Tribuna Libre,” accessed November 2013, http://identidadsan juanera.blogspot.com/2010/03/informaciones-del-primer-numero-del.html.
flocked to the apartment to buy them: All descriptions of Washington Heights apartment and details of family life from Ana Lopez, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, October 2013.
Army official who barely knew Alex Rodriguez: Jack Curry, “Alex and Victor Rodriguez Are Worlds Apart,” New York Times, September 4, 2007.
“He’s been with me since I was born”: Associated Press, “A-Rod OK with MLB Ban on Cousin,” June 4, 2011,
getting work at the Ford plant in Edison: Ana Lopez, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, October 2013.
“It was a very close-knit family at that time”: Ibid.
keep the lower classes distracted: Robert Elias, The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad (New York: The New Press, 2010).
Europe during World War II: Allen Wells, Tropical Zion: General Trujillo, FDR, and the Jews of Sosúa (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2009).
massacre of more than twenty thousand Haitians: Palash Ghosh, “Parsley Massacre: The Genocide That Still Haunts Haiti-Dominican Relations,” International Business Times, October 15, 2012.
“welling hopelessly from our
breast: LIBERTY!”: Mendez, “Informaciones del Primer Número del Periódico Tribuna Libre.”
began to struggle financially: Selena Roberts, A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez (New York: HarperCollins, 2009).
Lourdes wanted to stay put: Bob Finnigan, “Missing Dad,” Seattle Times, March 22, 1998.
18 “because he adored those kids”: Ana Lopez, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, October 2013.
18 “My special day”: Finnigan, “Missing Dad.”
“Tony always had a love for medicine”: Hernan Dominguez, interview by Tim Elfrink, November 2013.
move to Florida to be the team’s ringer: Peter Slevin, Manny Garcia, and Don Van Natta Jr., “A String of Witnesses, A String of Violence: Buddies Life in the Fast Lane Led to Jail, Drug Trial,” Miami Herald, July 18, 1993.
“Some of the biggest sponsors back then are in prison now”: Jesus Morales, interview by Tim Elfrink, October 2013.
“He truly loved what he was doing with the team”: Paul Biocic, interview by Tim Elfrink, October 2013.
“Hey, kid, do you want to play?”: Roberts, A-Rod.
Alex craved such tough love: Description of Eddie Rodriguez and coaching style through Tom Bernhardt, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, December 2013.
Probing for acceptance and guidance: Roberts, A-Rod.
“so the Boys Club was basically his home”: Tom Bernhardt, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, December 2013.
fold-out couch at the Boys & Girls Club: Eduardo Marcelino Rodriguez v. Lissette Rodriguez, November 4, 1988, Florida, Miami-Dade Marriage Court.
traffic offender out of community service at the club: Arnold Markowitz, “Traffic offender key to club director’s arrest,” Miami Herald, April 22, 1993.
Danny Tartabull, Rafael Palmeiro, and Jose Canseco: Jose Canseco, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, August 2013.
black shirts and big crucifix necklaces: Observation of Eddie Rodriguez by Gus Garcia-Roberts, January 2014.
turning against his protégé: Hernan Dominguez, interview by Tim Elfrink, November 2013.
“The Old Man”: Tom Bernhardt, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, December 2013.
and, at times, Yuri Sucart: Tom Bernhardt, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, November 2013.
shifts at a place called El Pollo Supremo: Julie K. Brown, “Before He Was A-Rod,” Miami Herald, August 3, 2013.
“And the only answer was sports”: Tom Bernhardt, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, December 2013.
“he doesn’t even know that today”: Jim Bernhardt, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, December 2013.
“This is the guy”: Kelvin Cabrera, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, November 2013.
“He hadn’t filled out yet”: Luis “Wicho” Hernandez, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, October 2013.
“behind a palm tree at Columbus”: Classmate of Rodriguez, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, October 2013.
the varsity squad in his freshman year: Butch Staiano, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, November 2013.
who idolized Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr.: Roberts, A-Rod.
the way he swaggered with bat in hand: Luis “Wicho” Hernandez, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, October 2013.
“Ryan would be the starting shortstop”: Ibid.
“things he probably wishes he wouldn’t say”: Tom Bernhardt, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, December 2013.
“you’ll have an opportunity to get there”: Ibid.
miles north, to Westminster Christian: Brown, “Before He Was A-Rod.”
his tuition through grants: Ibid.
school with such a small student body: Kevin Ding, “Playing by the Numbers: Westminster Is the One,” Miami Herald, April 23, 1996.
“and not A-Rod”: Classmate of Rodriguez, interview by Gus Garcia-Roberts, October 2013.
CHAPTER TWO
Boston had won every single contest: “1889 Pittsburgh Allehenys,” accessed November 2013, http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PIT/1889-schedule-scores.shtml.
than any other time in his career: “Pud Galvin,” accessed November 2013, http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/galvipu01.shtml.
when he recorded the first-known perfect game: Charles Hausberg, “Pud Galvin,” The SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed October 2013, http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/38c553ff.
drive and power packed into his stout frame: No byline, “Steam Engine,” The Atchison Daily Globe, February 28, 1889.
him picking off three base runners in one inning: Hausberg, “Pud Galvin.”
a wire story out of Indianapolis: No byline, “Working Wonders: The Success of the Brown-Séquard Injection in Indianapolis,” The Daily Picayune, August 11, 1889.
under the skin on his stomach: Roger I. Abrams, The Dark Side of the Diamond: Gambling, Violence, Drugs and Alcoholism in the National Pastime (Boston: Rounder Books, 2008). Additionally, Roger Abrams, interview by Tim Elfrink, December 2013.
the Alleghenys to a 9-0 thumping of Boston: Christopher Klein, “Baseball’s First Fountain of Youth,” History.com, April 5, 2012, accessed April 2014, http://www.history.com/news/baseballs-first-fountain-of-youth.
“fifty percent psychological and fifty percent physical”: Roger Abrams, interview by Tim Elfrink, December 2013.
pitcher Jim Bouton famously wrote: Jim Bouton, Ball Four, Plus Ball Five (Briarcliff Manor, New York: Stein and Day, 1970), 45.
didn’t do much more than get users drunk: Nicolas Rasmussen, On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine (New York: NYU Press, 2009). Additionally, Nicolas Rasmussen, interview by Tim Elfrink, December 2013.
including hallucinations of smoke filling the room: Rasmussen, On Speed.
“like racehorses” with Benzedrine: Ibid.
where players were force-fed steroids: T. J. Quinn, “Pumped-up Pioneers: The ’63 Chargers,” ESPN.com, February 1, 2009, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=3866837.
doctoral thesis found nearly all football pros: Rasmussen, On Speed. Additionally, Nicolas Rasmussen, interview by Tim Elfrink, December 2013.
“Where’s my Dexamyl, Doc?”: Jim Brosnan, The Long Season (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1960).
“dispensed them as much as the players”: Johnny Bench, Catch You Later: The Autobiography of Johnny Bench (New York: HarperCollins, 1979), as quoted by Barry Lorge, “The Pressure Is On to Pop,” Washington Post, May 28, 1979.
“in a bowl, as if they were jelly beans”: Aaron Skirboll, The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven: How a Ragtag Group of Fans Took the Fall for Major League Baseball (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2010), 36.
“Some of the guys have to take one”: Bouton, Ball Four, Plus Ball Five, 81.
any team in American professional sports: Stephen Fastenau, “Phils Handed 10,000th Loss,” MLB.com, July 15, 2007, http://philadelphiaphillies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070715&content_id= 2089066&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi.
Dexarnyl, Eskatrol, Dexedrine, and Preludin at least twenty-three times: UPI, “Phillies Farm Doctor Accused,” November 21, 1980.
“They were made at the request of the ballplayers”: Associated Press, “Charges Dismissed Against Phils Doctor,” February 5, 1981.
he wrote that greenies: Bouton, Ball Four, Plus Ball Five.
muscle relaxers all in heavy rotation: Bil Gilbert, “Problems in a Turned-On World,” Sports Illustrated, June 23, 1969.
“Unfortunately and regrettably,” he told the press: Associated Press, “Phillies Denounced on Drugs,” June 6, 1981.
Mazza’s attorney, Emmanuel Dimitriou, was less verbose: Associated Press, “Charges Dismissed in Phils’ Drug Case,” February 5, 1981.
speaking about baseball’s drug scandals in general: Dr. Charles Yesalis, interview by Tim Elfrink, January 2014.
Pittsburgh’s lime-green mascot: Skirboll, The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven, 36.
pump him for intel on how many others were hooked: Ibid.
Keith Hernandez later estimated that 40 percent of big leag
uers used coke: Associated Press, “Hernandez Says 40 Percent of Players Used Cocaine,” September 7, 1985.
who represented many of the players involved: Sam Reich, interview by Tim Elfrink, December 2013.
fuzzy parrot costume for a wire taped to his belly: Skirboll, The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven, 36.
slides, he told the court, “I’d go in headfirst”: Ibid.
they could order a player tested: Staff Report, “Baseball Approves Program on Drugs,” New York Times, June 22, 1984.
“it’s a cloud called drugs”: Thomas Boswell, “Ueberroth Pleads for Drug Testing,” Washington Post, September 25, 1985.
by colluding to underpay players: Murray Chass, “7 in Baseball Collusion Case Win Free Agency,” New York Times, January 23, 1988.
doped up with synthetic testosterone: Shaun Assael, Steroid Nation: Juiced Home Run Totals, Anti-Aging Miracles, and a Hercules in Every High School: The Secret History of America’s True Drug Addiction (New York: ESPN Books, 2007), 28.
then testing them on his weight-lifting pals: Justin Peters, “The Man Behind the Juice,” Slate, February 18, 2005.
“I wish to God now I’d never done it,” Ziegler later said: John D. Fair, “Isometrics or Steroids?: Exploring New Frontiers of Strength in the Early 1960s,” Journal of Sports History 20, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 3.
attributed in part to his own steroid use, at the age of sixty-three: Peters, “The Man Behind the Juice.”
fining players $50 for not ’roiding with breakfast: Quinn, “Pumped-up Pioneers.”
House recalled his skipper saying: Tom House and Tim Kurkjian, “The House Experiment,” ESPN The Magazine, November 8, 2005.
“I pretty much popped everything,” he said: Ron Kroichick, “House a ‘Failed Experiment’ with Steroids,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 2005.
“I’ve tried a lot of other things through the years”: Bouton, Ball Four, Plus Ball Five, 81.
