Report: Sosa tested positive for banned substance in 2003

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.