According to a report by the New York Daily News, Sammy Sosa worked out with Alex Rodriguez’s trainer Angel Presinal, who was banned by MLB for his involvement in selling and distributing performance-enhancing drugs.

“He worked with him in 2001, 2002 and 2003 in the Dominican Republic,” the source said.

Because Sosa is believed to have worked with Presinal in the D.R., where steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are legal and easy to obtain, and thanks to an artfully crafted statement at the 2005 congressional steroid hearing, it is unclear whether he would be subject to a congressional perjury investigation.

Sosa, according to a report posted on The New York Times Web site yesterday, tested positive in 2003 during survey testing conducted by Major League Baseball and the Players Association to determine whether the sport needed to implement a permanent drug program. Two years later, Sosa, accompanied by a translator and a lawyer, appeared on a panel before the House Committee on Government Reform with Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Curt Schilling and Rafael Palmeiro and said he had “never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs.”

“I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything,” Sosa said during the 11-hour, March 17, 2005, hearing. “I’ve not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic.”

That sneaky bitch – Sosa said exactly the right thing not to get him into trouble. If he took steroids in the Dominican Republic and they’re legal there, then technically he didn’t break any laws in the United States or the D.R. as he said. And not all steroids are injected, so he could be bending the truth when he said he’s never had anything injected into himself or had anyone else inject him.

If writers elect this chump into the Hall of Fame then baseball as we know it should cease to exists.

According to a report by the New York Times, Sammy Sosa is one of the baseball players who tested positive for a banned substance in 2003.

In some respects, this is hardly shocking news seeing as how many people already suspected that Sosa took banned substances during his playing career. But nothing had ever been confirmed until now.

What’s interesting is that earlier this month Sosa announced that he planned on retiring from baseball and that he would “calmly wait” for his “induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame.” Looks like you’ll be waiting awhile for that, chief.

Either way, Sosa has bigger issues on his hands than whether or not he’ll be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. If this report is true and he did test positive for a banned substance, that means he lied under oath before Congress at a public hearing in 2005. He claimed that he had never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs, but the tests done in 2003 could prove otherwise.

Granted, there was no steroid policy in place in 2003, so just like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, Sosa technically didn’t break any MLB rules. But for a league desperately trying to clean up its image, this is yet another chink in the armor for MLB.

There’s still a list out there of 104 names of players that tested positive for banned substances. The test results from 2003 were to remain anonymous and therefore MLB won’t release the names, but it should. At risk of pissing off the player’s union, baseball should just release the names, take it’s medicine and then attempt to move on. Why not? What’s the difference if Sports Illustrated or the New York Times reports whose names are on the list or MLB does it themselves?

As long as there are still 100-plus names out there of players who tested positive, then this steroid issue will forever remain the elephant in the room.

A central Florida man who was charged Tuesday with several counts of possession of illegal steroids and firearms is claiming that he has sold performance-enhancing drugs to Washington Nationals and Capitals players.

Richard Thomas boasted about selling steroids to professional baseball, hockey and football players, saying, “You name the sport, and I’ve sold steroids to athletes who play it,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.

Authorities said Thomas didn’t name specific players, and they have no evidence he sold to members of those teams.

Investigators who searched Thomas’ house in Lakeland on Tuesday recovered thousands of anabolic steroid pills, injectable liquids and syringes with an estimated wholesale value of $100,000, said Carrie Eleazer, a spokeswoman with the sheriff’s office. They also found several weapons, including loaded semiautomatic handguns.

Capitals players passed three rounds of drug tests during each of the past two seasons, and neither the team nor officials from the National Hockey League had reason to believe Thomas’s claims, the league and the team said in a joint release Wednesday.

A spokesman for Major League Baseball, which also randomly tests for steroids, said the organization is looking into the matter. A message seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned by the Nationals.

Thomas told detectives he imported steroids from all around the world, including Iran, Pakistan, Slovakia, Russia, China, Turkey, Spain, Mexico and Germany. The sheriff’s office said both Thomas and his wife were semiprofessional body builders, and that he claimed to be the largest steroids dealer in central Florida.

“He was very boastful,” Eleazer said.

Well this certainly sounds like a fine, upstanding and trustworthy individual. There’s no way he could have made all of this up just to get his name in the paper and possibly be a part of the massive drug scandal that continues to affect professional sports now could he?

Maybe he did sell to Nats and Caps players, but as the article notes, there’s no evidence at this point that proves that he did and until there is, he’s just a poser looking for his name in the headlines. Well he won’t fool me………..crap, I’m writing about him aren’t I?

Former MLB pitcher David Wells tossed a few high hard ones at Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens this past weekend, saying that any player that cheats the game should be banned from baseball after the first offense.

Wells said the home runs that Rodriguez hit during the time he admitted he was on steroids shouldn’t count, including the three he jacked against Wells in 2003. He also questioned Roger Clemens’ veracity on his constant denials that he never juiced, and said all steroids cheats should be banned from baseball after the first offense and have no shot at getting into the Hall of Fame.

“I think that would be great. No 50-game suspension. Ban them right away,” Wells said. “That would stop it in a heartbeat, especially with the money they are giving out today. It would be incredible if they did that. You wouldn’t have to worry about steroids or HGH.”

Why do players abuse steroids? So they can post incredible numbers, assault records, extend their careers, sign big contracts.

“It (stinks) because of the fact that these guys are playing dirty and that’s not fair to the guys who busted their butt all those years to try and stay here and just didn’t have what it took,” Wells said.

If baseball truly wanted to stop player’s use of performance-enhancing drugs, they would take on Wells’ philosophy. No player in their right mind would risk taking steroids if they knew a positive test would result in a lifetime ban from the game. (Well, maybe I shouldn’t suggest that no player would risk using, because I’m sure some nitwit would do it anyway thinking he’d never be caught.)

One thing to note is that MLB wouldn’t be able to make this rule retroactive because if they didn’t think it was important to have a testing policy in place 10 years ago, then they shouldn’t be able to ban a player who admitted using during that time. So guys like A-Rod and Andy Pettitte would be given a free pass for now.

But a lifetime ban would put the responsibility back into the players’ hands – where everything starts anyway. If a player isn’t sure that a supplement or medication will get him banned, he needs to check with a team doctor and have it authorized. That way everyone knows what’s going into these players’ bodies and therefore there wouldn’t be any surprises. And this wouldn’t just help keep the game clean, but it would also show that MLB cares about the players’ long-term health, too. It seems to be a win-win for all parties involved.

Even though he loathes the use of steroids in baseball, former player Pete Rose said that he would back an admitted user like Alex Rodriguez for the Hall of Fame.

“I’m willing to give a guy a second chance,” Rose said in an interview on “The Dan Patrick Show.” He later went on to say that steroid use is worse than someone such as himself betting on his own team to win.

“When you take steroids you have a direct outcome of the game,” Rose said. “That’s the integrity of the game. And when you can change records when you do something illegal, it’s just not right. … Baseball records are sacred. If you do something illegal to surpass those records, it’s just not good.”

Rose, however, considers Barry Bonds to be the all-time home run king because “he hit the home runs. … I don’t think anyone has proven that he took steroids.”

” … With Bonds, how many home runs are you going to take away from him?” Rose asked. “That’s a tough situation for the commissioner. … It’s a mess.”

I don’t question Rose’s sincerity in regards to saying he would back an admitted steroid user like A-Rod, but it’s interesting that he’s so willing to say that steroids are worse than a manager or player betting on his own team to win.

In one instance, you have players cheating in order to gain a physical edge on the field. In the other, a manager is influenced by the way he manages a game in which he has a financial stake. Neither is good for baseball and while you can make a claim that each wrong should be viewed separately, both actions shame the game.