Sammy Sosa Reportedly Tested Positive For Banned Substance in 2003

Long suspected of using steroids, it appears there is finally a smoking gun linking former Cubs, White Sox, Orioles and Rangers slugger Sammy Sosa to performance-enhancing drugs.

Sosa, who is sixth on baseball's all-time home run list, was, along with Alex Rodriguez, one of the 104 players who tested positive for a banned substance in 2003, according to a report in the New York Times.

Sosa rose to national prominence in 1998 when he and Mark McGwire chased Roger Maris' single-season home run record. That chase is often credited with saving baseball after the 1994 player strike that resulted in the cancellation of the World Series, but in recent years Sosa, like most of the other cartoonish sluggers of the late 1990s and early 2000s, has fallen under suspicion of steroid use.

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Sosa announced his formal retirement from baseball less than two weeks ago, on June 3, telling ESPN Deportes at the time that he would "calmly wait for [his] induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame" and adding "don't I have the numbers to be inducted?"

Though he had never been formally linked to steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs in the past, Sosa probably stood little chance then of making the Hall of Fame because of the cloud of suspicion around him, a cloud generated by a number of things ranging from his testimony in front of Congress in March 2005 to the discovery that he used a corked bat in a 2003 game to a challenge from Rick Reilly, then of Sports Illustrated, to take a drug test after a game in 2002.

That small chance dissolved almost completely Tuesday with the revelation that he is on the now-infamous list of 104.

McGwire, Sosa's partner in the '98 chase, has been on the Hall of Fame ballot the last three years and hasn't received even 25 percent of the vote from the electorate. Players need a minimum of 75 percent of the vote to reach Cooperstown, and if the ex-Cardinals and A's slugger's lack of traction among the voters is any indication of how players connected to PEDs will fare in the future, Sosa too will be facing steep opposition.

But Sosa's troubles might not end there. During his 2005 testimony in front of congress, Sosa denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs.

"To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing. I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything," Sosa said then.

If, indeed, he did test positive for a banned substance in 2003, the slugger could be facing a federal perjury charge in the United States for his denial in front of the House Government Reform Committee.

Rafael Palmeiro also famously denied using performance-enhancing drugs in front of the same panel, saying, with an emphatic point of his index finger, "Let me start by telling you this, I have never used steroids, period."

Less than five months later, in August 2005, Palmeiro was suspended by Major League Baseball after testing positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. However, Palmeiro escaped criminal charges, in part because his positive drug test came after his testimony. Sosa's failed test reportedly came two years prior to his appearance on Capitol Hill.

A lawyer for Sosa refused to comment on the allegations to the Times, and Sosa himself was reluctant to talk about PEDs with ESPN Deportes.

"I always played with love and responsibility and I assure you that I will not answer nor listen to rumors. If anything ugly comes up in the future, we will confront it immediately, but with all our strength because I will not allow anybody to tarnish what I did in the field," Sosa said. ...

"It's all about timing and this is not the moment to discuss that topic [drug tests]. I'm here as an ambassador to my country, trying to find new business opportunities for my people. Perhaps we'll discuss some other time."

Sosa's name is only the second to be revealed from the list of 104 players who tested positive for a banned substance in 2003. The first, of course, was Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. The 2002 collective bargaining agreement called for anonymous testing in 2003, and then, if more than 5 percent of players tested positive, for drug testing to continue, with the results of any failed test to be released to the public.

Though the list was supposed to be anonymous, it's clear that the remaining 102 names are on paper somewhere, will continue to loom over baseball and likely continue to trickle out in the coming weeks and months.

What is not clear is what the continued fallout will be as more names are revealed. The release of Sosa's name is hardly earth-shattering news, but it does mean that seven of the top 25 players on baseball's all-time home run list -- Barry Bonds (1), Sosa (6), McGwire (8), Palmeiro (10), Rodriguez (12), Manny Ramirez (17) and Gary Sheffield (24) -- have been connected to performance-enhancing drugs.