Report: Ex-Cubs star Sosa failed drug test

NEW YORK — Sammy Sosa became the latest in a string of baseball stars implicated in the sport’s steroids scandal of the past decade when The New York Times reported that he tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003.

The Times said Sosa is one of 104 players who tested positive in baseball’s anonymous 2003 survey, which has been the subject of a protracted court fight. The paper did not identify the drug.

It cited lawyers with knowledge of the 2003 drug-testing results and reported they spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to publicly discuss material under court seal.

Sosa is sixth on baseball’s career home runs list with 609, all but 64 for the Chicago Cubs. He has not played in the majors since 2007 with Texas.

In 2003, baseball did not have penalties for the first-time use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Several of the game’s biggest stars, including home-run king Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, have been implicated in steroids use.
Miguel Tejada was sentenced to one year of probation for misleading Congress after he pleaded guilty and admitted he withheld information about an ex-teammate’s use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez is serving a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy. New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez in February admitted using steroids from 2001-03 with Texas following a report by Sports Illustrated that he was among the 104 players on the list.

Sosa sat alongside Rafael Palmeiro, Canseco and McGwire at a 2005 hearing before Congress and testified: “To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs.”

“I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything,” he told the House Government Reform Committee on March 17, 2005. “I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic. I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean.”

That left open the possibility he used a substance legally in the Dominican Republic that would have been illegal to use in the United States without a prescription.

Former Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who was chairman of the Government Reform Committee at the time of the 2005 hearing, said he wasn’t surprised about the report that Sosa tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug.