Report: Orza tipped Rodriguez to further tests

Feb 11, 2009 - 3:12 PM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Alex Rodriguez may have confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs, but the controversy won't end there.

Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the Major League Baseball Players Association, alerted the New York Yankees' third baseman about an upcoming drug test in early September 2004, according to an article posted Wednesday on the New York Post's web site.

Citing a report in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, the Post reports that three players told the magazine that Orza had told Rodriguez of an impending test.

One player also told Sports Illustrated that he was told by Orza in 2004 that he would be tested on September 24, "so make sure there's nothing in your system."

The Post reports that when Rodriguez was first approached by a Sports Illustrated reporter at a gym in Miami on Thursday and asked about the positive steroid test in 2003, he did not respond when asked if Orza tipped him about the test.

Orza was approached by a Sports Illustrated reporter on Friday in New York City and said, "I'm not interested in discussing this information with you." The newspaper reports he denied the allegations to the New York Times on Monday.

"It's not true. Simple as that," Orza told the Times.

The Mitchell Report on steroids in baseball stated that Orza violated an agreement with MLB by telling a player he would be subjected to an upcoming, supposedly random, drug test in September 2004. The player was not named in the report.

Rodriguez, who signed with the Yankees prior to the 2004 season, admitted in an exclusive interview with ESPN on Monday to using performance-enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003, while a member of the Texas Rangers.

The interview came two days after Sports Illustrated reported that Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003. The report stated that Rodriguez's name appeared on a list of 104 players who tested positive during a survey conducted by Major League Baseball.