Luckiest man on earth? It's A-Rod On 75th anniversary of Lou's speech, Alex is Yank with most to be thankful for 
 
 NEW YORK -- On the day the Yankees commemorated the 75th anniversary of the famous Lou Gehrig speech, it is clear Alex Rodriguez is truly the luckiest man on the face of the Earth ... Earth ... Earth. 
 
 It is also clear that for a guy with low testosterone, he sure has some set of onions. 
 
 [+] Enlarge Jim McIsaac/Getty Images A new book says MLB permitted Alex Rodriguez to use testosterone before his 2007 MVP season. A-Rod's big year led to another huge payday. 
 
 In some ways, the A-Rod story is an inspiring one, the tale of a man beset with crippling physical disabilities -- in addition to his testosterone deficiency, he also was born with congenital deformities in both hips, according to his orthopedic surgeon -- and yet was able to rise to a level of success in Major League Baseball achieved by only a handful of (presumably healthy) men who came before him. 
 
 And he did it all with the help and blessing of MLB, which in its benevolence took pity on this poor specimen and helped him live his dream. 
 
 If anyone should be angered by this heartwarming tale, it is the New York Yankees, because without that help, A-Rod might not have won that 2007 MVP award, nor would he have had the gumption to opt out of his 10-year, $252 million deal at the seven-year mark to seek an extension and a raise. 
 
 Then again, maybe he would have. 
 
 That is, of course, if the Yankees didn't already know about it. 
 
 If nothing else, this latest A-Rod tale -- that he requested, and received, permission from MLB to use testosterone and a female fertility drug called clomiphene citrate (Clomid), both banned performance-enhancers, on the grounds that his body was deficient in both substances -- only reminds us of how this man's hubris truly knows no limits. (Unless, of course, he was trying to get pregnant, too.) 
 
 For one thing, if he was deficient in testosterone, it was likely because prior (undetected) steroid use had curtailed his body's ability to produce its own. 
 
 For another, when the bill finally came due in 2013 in the form of the Biogenesis investigation that ultimately cost him a one-year suspension -- and $25 million of that raise he had extorted out of the Yankees based on a PED-tainted season -- he had the nerve to appeal the decision, publicly smear his benefactors-turned-accusers, and file lawsuits against everyone in sight. 
 
 Of course, there are no good guys in this tale, told in a forthcoming book, "Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis and the Quest to End Baseball's Steroid Era" by authors Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts. 
 
 For one thing, the players' association did everything it could to resist tougher steroid testing for as long as possible, and MLB went along with it. 
 
 For another, none of the players publicly seemed to have a problem with illegally jacked teammates, as long as they were helping their teams win and helping them collect playoff checks. 
 
 In fact, if there are 750 major league baseball players, you can imagine there were 750 requests for what baseball terms TUEs -- therapeutic use exemptions -- for everything from testosterone to Ritalin and Adderall. Because as we have recently learned, a disproportionate number of professional baseball players suffer from attention deficit disorder, too. 
 
 The fact that Alex Rodriguez was granted one of those TUEs is not only comically ironic, but deeply embarrassing to baseball. 
 
 Already, he had tested positive for steroid use in survey testing conducted in 2003, an offense for which there was no penalty since Congress had yet to pressure MLB and the MLBPA into adopting the current Joint Drug Agreement. 
 
 And there had been suspicions about Rodriguez throughout his career; by his own admission, he began using steroids in 2001, after signing what was then the largest contract in sports history, for fear of not being able to live up to the expectations. (Testosterone can be used to treat performance anxiety.) 
 
 So while it may be hard to believe that a reputable doctor would diagnose low-T and prescribe testosterone to a man with the body, physical abilities, and history of Alex Rodriguez, that is precisely what happened. 
 
 A North Carolina physician, Bryan W. Smith, approved the medical exemption. Smith was the IPA -- independent program administrator -- appointed jointly by MLB and the MLBPA, but supposedly not answerable to either. 
 
 Requests for comment from Dr. Smith on Wednesday were rejected, and all calls were referred to MLB's public relations department. 
 
 None of MLB's officials would comment on the record, but the league did release a statement distancing itself from the process and never mentioning Alex Rodriguez by name. 
 
 A baseball source refused to tell ESPNNewYork.com whether the Yankees were aware of A-Rod's medical exemption when they tore up his old contract and replaced it with a new 10-year, $275 million deal that could add another $30 million in home run bonuses. But clearly, they liked whatever he was doing and weren't really interested in how he was doing it. 
 
 In fact, the only way this information even came to light was because it was introduced into evidence at A-Rod's grievance hearing in his 162-game suspension, of which a confidential copy of the testimony "somehow'' found its way into the hands of the authors. 
 
 None of it is going to matter, of course. 
 
 Alex Rodriguez winds up losing $25 million in salary for this year, which is money he was only due under the new contract, which was based on tainted numbers. 
 
 He is free to come back to the Yankees next year, and in fact has every intention of doing so. 
 
 Even if, at 40 -- the age he will turn on July 27 of next season -- he can't put up the kind of numbers he did in the Golden Age of 2007, he is still entitled to some $61 million of Hal Steinbrenner's money. 
 
 And with a little bit of luck, he will still hit enough home runs to collect on at least one, and maybe even two, of those $6 million bonus checks. 
 
 On the day that we commemorate the tragedy of a man who only thought he was lucky, it is only fitting to take a moment and marvel at one who truly has been. ||||| "Blood Sport" is about far more than Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis, and PED's. It's also about a culture in sports that promotes cheating for the sake of self-aggrandisement and the almighty dollar. Thoroughly researched by authors Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts, "Blood Sport" offers a blow-by-blow description of the history of the events that eventually led to the suspensions of some 15 Major League ballplayers, most notably the season-long (2014) suspension of Alex Rodriguez. Although a well-documented, detailed, and accurate account of these events, the book reads more like a piece of well-written fiction, in which intrigue, back-alley deals, robberies, and double-crossing all play their role in bringing these suspensions about. In the end, no one emerges as a hero, certainly not the players who were guilty of trying to circumvent baseball's ban on PED's, nor shady characters such as Tony Bosch, whose clinic supplied players with various banned substances, nor, for that matter, the agents of Major League Baseball, whose heavy-handed tactics, payoffs to witnesses, and legally questionable practices display the same win-at-all-costs mentality that has led so many players to take drugs to gain an edge over their competitors. 
 
 
 
 Not only does "Blood Sport" provide a detailed account of the story that culminated in the suspensions of Rodriguez and others, but it also goes beyond professional baseball. Although of secondary importance to the main story, we read of the use of PED's at the high school and college level as well (particularly at the University of Miami, which is located right across the street from Tony Bosch's clinic), and the use of such substances in other sports is also noted. 
 
 
 
 Elfrink and Garcia-Roberts are to be commended for their thorough research and their objective reporting. Although they make moral judgments from time to time, they do not let these get in the way of the story or color the reader's perception. Their background as newspaper reporters has stood them in good stead in making the finished product such a fascinating read. ||||| The following is an excerpt from Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis and the Quest to End Baseball's Steroid Era, by Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts. Published by arrangement with Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC. Copyright 2014 by Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts. 
 
 This story appears in the July 7-14, 2014 issue of Sports Illustrated. To read a digital version of the magazine, go here. 
 
 As had been the case in the years after he joined the Rangers in 2001, Alex Rodriguez’s first four seasons in the Bronx were marked by incredible individual statistics and disappointing team results. The Yankees failed to make the World Series from 2004 to ’07 -- but Rodriguez did win the second and third MVP awards of his career, in ’05 and ’07. The latter year was particularly impressive: He hit 54 home runs, including the 500th of his career, becoming, at 32, the youngest player to reach that milestone. He also drove in 156 runs and scored 143 -- both career highs—and led the majors with a 1.067 OPS. It all added up to an easy choice when voters filled out their American League MVP ballots. Rodriguez received 26 of 28 first-place votes. 
 
 What hasn’t been reported until now is that Rodriguez won that MVP with permission from Major League Baseball to use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). 
 
 From his junior year of high school there had been suspicions -- and, in the case of his 2003 MVP season, proof by way of a failed steroid test that came to light six years later -- that Rodriguez used PEDs. In August 2013, Major League Baseball suspended Rodriguez for 211 games for multiple violations of its PED policy, a decision he appealed last fall. A transcript of a confidential arbitration hearing obtained by the authors of this book suggests that Rodriguez put up those monster numbers in 2007 with the help of a powerful anabolic steroid. 
 
 Under baseball’s performance-enhancing drug policy, players can apply for a so-called therapeutic use exemption (TUE) to take certain medical substances otherwise banned by MLB. A doctor appointed by both sides—the independent program administrator (IPA) -- reviews all applications. Baseball also has an expert medical panel to advise the IPA. If an exemption is granted, the player cannot be punished for using that substance. The exemption is good for one year. 
 
 Before the 2007 season, Rodriguez asked for permission to use testosterone, which has been banned by baseball since 2003. The IPA in '07 was Bryan W. Smith, a High Point, N.C., physician. (Baseball did not yet have the advisory medical panel.) On Feb. 16, 2007, two days before Rodriguez reported to spring training, Smith granted the exemption, allowing Rodriguez to use testosterone all season. 
 
 The exemption was revealed in a transcript of Rodriguez’s fall 2013 grievance hearing. During that proceeding, MLB entered into evidence several exemptions applied for by Rodriguez during his Yankees tenure. In his testimony, MLB chief operating officer Rob Manfred called testosterone “the mother of all anabolics” and said that exemptions for the substance are “very rare,” partly because “some people who have been involved in this field feel that with a young male, healthy young male, the most likely cause of low testosterone requiring this type of therapy would be prior steroid abuse.” 
 
 Statistics requested in 2008 by Massachusetts congressman John Tierney as part of a government probe into baseball’s PED problem reveal how rare testosterone exemptions are. In 2007, of the 1,354 players subjected to testing, 111 were granted a TUE. Only two, apparently including Rodriguez, received an exemption for “androgen deficiency medications,” the category that would include testosterone. The other exemptions that year involved treatments for baldness, hypertension and -- predominantly -- attention deficit disorder. The alarmingly high number of exemptions for the latter was Tierney’s main concern. “I think it begs a question: Are people using this as a loophole?” said Tierney. “Are they taking these because they are perceived as a performance-enhancing drug, or do they have a legitimate medicinal purpose?” 
 
 ***** 
 
 During the 2007 World Series, as the Red Sox were sweeping the Rockies for their second championship in four seasons, Rodriguez hijacked the headlines by opting out of his contract with the Yankees. Six weeks later, the team signed him to a 10-year deal that guaranteed him $275 million to stay in pinstripes until '17. In addition, the Yankees added $6 million-a-pop clauses for each all-time home run leader he passed, starting with Willie Mays at 660 and ending with Barry Bonds at 762. 
 
 Even after securing his latest windfall, Rodriguez wasn’t done seeking exemptions that allowed him to boost his testosterone levels with banned substances. In January 2008, according to the arbitration hearing transcripts, he requested two exemptions. Rodriguez wanted to use clomiphene citrate (Clomid), a drug designed to increase fertility in women. It is also prescribed to men who suffer from hypogonadism -- a testosterone deficiency -- to block the production of estrogen in their bodies. The drug is popular with bodybuilders at the end of steroid cycles because it can also stimulate the body to make more testosterone. 
 
 Rodriguez also requested permission to use human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone known as HCG, popularly -- and misguidedly -- used for weight loss and also to produce testosterone. Both HCG and clomiphene citrate were banned with the 2008 season. Smith approved Rodriguez’s use of clomiphene citrate that year. The exemption for HCG was denied, but according to the transcript of Manfred’s arbitration testimony, that denial was “more of a recordkeeping thing than anything else.” Rodriguez’s physician communicated with Smith, and “in their back-and-forth the physician informed Dr. Smith that the player was no longer using [HCG],” Manfred testified. 
 
 With permission to use clomiphene citrate, Rodriguez was once again one of the few players allowed to take medicine designed to increase testosterone levels. In 2008, three major leaguers were granted exemptions to take drugs to treat hypogonadism. In fact, from the 2006 season through 2013, only 15 were granted for androgen deficiencies and hypogonadism, the conditions that under MLB’s drug policy could require a medical testosterone boost. 
 
 By 2008, Rodriguez had played at least a significant portion of his career -- including, at a minimum, two of this three MVP seasons -- with the apparent help of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. He was by far the richest man in MLB, which was finally coming to terms with its steroid problem. Rodriguez had a guaranteed contract until the age of 42. The only wise thing to do would be to ride out that contract while continuing to apply for dubious exemptions but staying on the right side of baseball law. 
 
 But Rodriguez wasn’t the type for laurel-resting. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The handshake that was both Tony Bosch’s biggest break and the beginning of his downfall came late on a sweltering night in Tampa. It was July 30, 2010, and Bosch was flanked by a friend, Jorge (Oggi) Velazquez. To the ballplayer they both called Cacique, or boss, they could have seemed a comical couple as they walked into his hotel room: Velazquez, a short, hard-eyed former liquor-store owner from South Florida with an intense temper, Bosch a twitchy, ingratiating character everybody called Dr. T. 
 
 This guy is the best at what he does, Velazquez promised Rodriguez, laying the salesmanship on thick. He can provide you with everything you need. 
 
 If the ballplayer had any misgivings, he didn’t show it. Instead, Bosch later said, the first words out of Rodriguez’s mouth were, “What were you giving Manny Ramirez?” 
 
 The inquiry was rooted in both envy and concern. In 2008, Ramirez, who was traded from the Red Sox to the Dodgers during the season, had at age 36 seemed to rejuvenate his health and his swing, playing in all but nine regular-season games and almost doubling his home run output from the previous season, from 20 to 37. 
 
 Of course, in 2009 Ramirez had been nabbed by baseball’s PED police -- he had been caught taking HCG and served a 50-game suspension. Bosch’s name had surfaced in the investigation: His father, Dr. Pedro Bosch, had written the HCG prescription for Ramirez, who did not have a therapeutic-use exemption from MLB. 
 
 Bosch explained to Rodriguez that Ramirez had been busted because he hadn’t followed instructions. Getting caught, Bosch explained, was just Manny being Manny. It was “nearly impossible” for Bosch’s clients to test positive if they followed his protocol, he said. He would provide diagnostic blood testing, proper dosing and exact times at which the drugs should be administered. 
 
 Rodriguez was sold. Bosch detailed the testosterone creams, growth hormone and other substances he would be recommending, and they made plans to meet again. Soon afterward, the nickname Cacique started appearing in Bosch’s notebooks. Other times, Bosch wrote AER next to his new client’s phone number. The initials stood, of course, for Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez. 
 
 The 2010 meeting between Bosch and Rodriguez was one part luck, one part cosmic inevitability and all parts Yuri Sucart, a cousin of Rodriguez’s who was the slugger’s frequent companion and unofficial personal assistant. In 2009 or early '10, Sucart, who was friends with Velazquez, had a weight-loss consultation with Bosch. Sucart, who had carried around extra pounds since childhood, was nearing obesity in his late 40s. Bosch put Sucart on a pounds-shedding regimen of supplements and hormones. 
 
 Sucart doted on, and was employed by, his younger cousin. Sure, Rodriguez had burned Sucart by outing him as his steroid source to investigators and reporters when the slugger admitted in '09 to using PEDs from 2001-03 while with the Rangers. That cost Sucart access to MLB facilities, but it had also given him a salary bump. Sucart, who made under $60,000 from Rodriguez in 2006, saw his pay rise to $100,000 over the next five years. Rodriguez even had the Yankees make an extra 2009 championship ring, worth thousands of dollars, for his banned-from-MLB cousin. 
 
 During his treatments with Bosch, Sucart wore Yankees hats and shirts and that championship ring. He also told Bosch that he worked for Rodriguez. Among the supplements Bosch gave Sucart were his signature “gummies,” fast-acting testosterone troches. Sucart told Bosch that he thought the troches packed an “unbelievable sense of energy recovery.” He added that he had given one to Rodriguez and that his cousin “loved it because of its explosive effect,” according to the arbitration decision. 
 
 The long-distance flirtation between Bosch and Rodriguez lasted for months, until the superstar finally decided to take the plunge in late July 2010. After losing much of the '09 season to a hip injury, Rodriguez had stayed mostly healthy through the first four months of the '10 season. His numbers were unremarkable but steady: He had 14 home runs by the All-Star break, and against the Royals at Yankee Stadium on July 22, he swatted his 599th homer. Five days shy of his 35th birthday, he was about to become the youngest player to join the 600 club. 
 
 When he next came to the plate, the umpire threw the pitcher a specially marked ball to deal to Rodriguez. Umps would continue to do this until he hit his next home run; the mark would be used to authenticate the milestone ball. But Rodriguez didn’t homer in that game. In fact, he didn’t clear the fence through the three games remaining in the home stand. 
 
 The Yankees left for a seven-game road trip on July 26, and Rodriguez failed to connect during four games in Cleveland. For any other hitter, a two-week home run drought would barely register. But what began as a celebratory chase was turning torturous. As sellout crowds followed his every game, Rodriguez complained that stadiums of flashing cameras on each swing never let him forget the looming milestone. 
 
 Even without the power drought, Rodriguez might have hooked up with Bosch eventually. Despite his enormous talent, Rodriguez spent his career seeking a synthetic edge, especially when struggling to meet mile-high expectations. Taken as a whole, Rodriguez’s greatest baseball achievements were inseparable from his use of PEDs. Now his body was corroding due to age. But all he needed was one more push to knock down those historic milestones and place himself among the all-time greats. 
 
 The call came to Velazquez in late July, and he relayed the inquiry to Bosch: Rodriguez wanted to talk about becoming a client. They met at a Tampa hotel following a road loss to the Rays; Rodriguez, still stuck on 599, had gone 0-for-4. Sucart, who despite MLB’s ban had remained Rodriguez’s shadow, joined his cousin, Velazquez, and Bosch in the hotel room. 
 
 The foursome met often. In early August, they gathered again, this time at Rodriguez’s $30,000-per-month apartment on Central Park West, a building that Denzel Washington and Sting also called home. Bosch insisted on drawing blood to design an appropriate protocol for Rodriguez. He then flew back to Miami with Rodriguez’s plasma, knowing the vial contained the opportunity of his career. 
 
 Bosch consulted with a urologist, according to the arbitration decision. He also had lengthy conversations about Rodriguez’s medical history with Sucart. Bosch dreamed up an elaborate doping protocol that would take Rodriguez into December, built around testosterone, HGH, and growth-hormone-producing peptides. Less than a week later, Bosch traveled to see Rodriguez in New York; his luggage was packed with preloaded syringes. 
 
 On Aug. 4, Rodriguez finally connected on a pitch and made a sold-out Yankee Stadium erupt. Home run No. 600 flew into Monument Park, the museum beyond centerfield honoring Yankees greats. As he rounded the bases, Rodriguez lifted his palms coyly. His teammates streamed out of the dugout to congratulate him, and he took a curtain call for the roaring crowd. 
 
 At that point, fans knew only about Rodriguez’s positive steroid test back in 2003. That was still enough to mark Rodriguez forever as a cheater. But this moment was a step toward redemption and leadership in the eyes of the fans and his team. The previous October, he had finally earned a championship ring. Now No. 600 was out of the way. 
 
 Rodriguez wasn’t on Bosch’s regimen yet. But even as he circled the bases, and after the game as his colleagues were praising him for succeeding without steroids -- “That’s a chapter of his life I think he’s turned the page on,” said hitting coach Kevin Long -- Rodriguez knew he’d found the man who would help energize the latter stage of his career. He was one week past his 35th birthday, and he was determined to collect every one of those milestone bonuses in his contract. He wanted to be the lone member of the 800 home run club, Bosch would later say. To do that would take a nature-defying power surge in his late 30s of the sort Barry Bonds had pioneered. 
 
 On Aug. 14— -- even days after his down-to-the-minute regimen with Bosch began -- Rodriguez slammed three home runs in Kansas City. Afterward, he admitted for the first time that his lagging power production had bothered him. “I haven’t really hit for any power this year, so it’s been frustrating,” he said. “Being stuck at 599 was really a microcosm of what’s happened all year. I’ve been able to drive in runs and hit some doubles here and there, but overall I’ve hit for no power.” 
 
 But now, Tony Bosch had a believer. 
 
 To purchase a copy of Blood Sport, go here.
– Alex Rodriguez used performance-enhancing drugs in 2007, the year he hit 54 home runs, won his second MVP award, and then opted out of his contract, leading to the biggest pay-day in baseball history—and he did it with the league's blessing. An excerpt from the upcoming book, Blood Sport, published in Sports Illustrated yesterday reveals that Rodriguez applied for a "therapeutic use exemption" to baseball's drug policy, which allows players to take banned substances if they have a medical reason. Rodriguez got an exemption to use testosterone, the league revealed in Rodriguez's 2013 grievance hearing. In the hearing, MLB's COO called testosterone "the mother of all anabolics," and noted that the most common reason a healthy young man would be low on it would be "prior steroid abuse." Only one other player that year got an exemption for a drug that would boost testosterone. The next year, A-Rod got another exemption, this time for a female fertility drug that bodybuilders often use to boost testosterone. "For a guy with low testosterone, he sure has some set of onions," quips Wallace Matthews in a scathing piece at ESPN; he calls the story "not only comically ironic, but deeply embarrassing to baseball." For the full excerpt, which also explains how A-Rod fell in with Biogenesis, click here.