Miami clinic owner Anthony Bosch to name up to 25 names in baseball doping scandal
(CBS News) Baseball's latest doping scandal could turn out to be the biggest ever in sports.
Dozens of players, including some big stars, may face long suspensions. Major League Baseball has been investigating this for some time. The turning point came when a key figure decided to name names.
Anthony Bosch ran the Miami clinic called Biogenesis. Before it folded, Biogenesis offered what it called "anti-aging" services. CBS News learned Bosch has an agreement with the MLB to be interviewed under oath about allegations that his clinic supplied performance-enhancing drugs to some of baseball's biggest stars.
A baseball executive told CBS News that Bosch will name up to 25 players, including Yankees star Alex Rodriguez - the game's top-paid player - and Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, the National League's most valuable player two years ago. This was Braun Tuesday night:
"I'm not answering any further questions regarding the whole situation," Braun said at a press conference. "I've dealt with it for a long time over the last year and a half, and aside from that I don't have anything further to say."
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Rodriguez, who has yet to play this season because of an injury, has admitted doping from 2001 to 2003 but has repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs since.
But the baseball executive tells us Bosch's list will also include "big names" that "have not been made public before" in connection to doping. This is troubling news for a sport that implemented drug-testing policies and penalties in hopes of putting doping scandals behind it.
"I had hoped that we were through it, but obviously maybe we're not," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "We're gonna find out. But we'll let MLB handle it."
The Major League Baseball Players Association confirmed Wednesday the commissioner's office is "in the process of interviewing players" and has been told "no decisions regarding discipline have been made or will be made until those interviews are completed."
Players found to have violated Major League Baseball's performance-enhancing drug policy are suspended 50 games. Two-time offenders get 100 games. A third brings a lifetime ban. In the case of Alex Rodriguez, a 100-game suspension would cost him more than $15 million in salary alone.
