DownSwinging.com

Rotolist.com has produced what they are calling an “unconfirmed” rumored list of those players that tested positive for steroids in 2003, and it is quickly spreading across the internet. People are wondering where this came from and whether its true, and nearly anyone who looks at it is saddened by the prospect of one of their favorite players testing postiive.

But have no fear, at least for now. While I have no way of truly knowing the accuracy of this list, it would strike me as being extremely unlikely that this is the list is correct.

For starters, the list has only 103 names on it. That might be great if this was the 103 players who tested positive for steroids other than Alex Rodriguez, but A-Rod is on the list (as is Sosa), so apparently this list just happened to leave someone off? Seems fairly unlikely.

Furthermore, if you look at the list, yes, there are a lot of players that you would probably expect to be on there, but if you look closely, virtually every star is on the list, and there are few no-name guys that appear. It’s not like only superstars take steroids, guys who aren’t quite as talented have always taken steroids as well, just to keep up. So it seems pretty preposterous that while just over 1000 players took the test, I am very familiar with almost all 103 (but actually 104) players who tested positive.

Lastly, if you look at the list, it just looks fake due to the lack of care setting it up. There is no space between the period and the name (e.g.  55.Alex Rodriguez). It also doesn’t seem to credible that Rotolist.com, is the only source. While it at least appears to be a reasonably credible site, no other sources claim they have it as well, and particularly no major news outlets. It’s too bad that someone went to the trouble of making a bogus list just to spread rumors.