If the dates in the notebook are legit, they indicate that Rodriguez, having learned two days earlier that he was going to be unmasked to the world as a cheat, nonetheless had no qualms about approaching a clinic, either directly or through an intermediary, to obtain PEDs.

Although the ballplayers and the sport have been tarred by the New Times bombshell, it is unclear whether the sport can ultimately punish the players. Usually ballplayers are suspended after they have tested positive for banned substances. And even then, as in the case of Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, they can sometimes beat the rap, thanks to abundant resources and a powerful union. Braun, who is named in the New Times documents as a client of the clinic, overturned a prior suspension by questioning the way his sample was stored.

In this case, the players have been linked to drugs not by a positive test, but by reports in New Times, based on documents maintained by a shady clinic run by a man who gave the impression he was a doctor but wasn’t.

The newspaper has declined on journalistic principals to share its documents with Major League Baseball.

There are provisions in the collective bargaining agreement for players to be suspended based on “non-analytic” evidence — that is to say, they can be suspended even if they don’t test positive.

After federal officials raided the home of Jason Grimsley, a pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks, in 2006, he admitted using PEDs and was suspended for 50 games. Jordan Schafer, a centerfielder with the Atlanta Braves, was likewise suspended in 2008 for having human growth hormone (hgh) in his fridge.

Major League Baseball sources say the New Times documents are far from the only evidence. MLB has apparently struck a deal with Bosch to provide information about the players. And its lawsuit in state court seeks to depose, among others, Yuri Sucart, Rodriguez’s cousin and the man who allegedly delivered his steroids years earlier.

News of the notebooks — and their description of the steroid and human growth hormones allegedly dispensed to athletes with a strong connection to Miami — jolted the sports world.

According to that story by reporter Tim Elfink, Bosch kept copious notes in composition books about the drugs he dispensed from 2009 through 2012. The hand-written notes list a catalogue of drugs from testosterone-laced creams and lozenges to supplements and injections, and they connect the Coral Gables clinic to at least five players linked in the past to banned PEDs: Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, Yasmani Grandal, and Braun.

Each of the players denies any wrongdoing, and all but Braun disavow any connection to Bosch and Biogenesis, which operated across the street from the University of Miami baseball field until closing in December 2012. Braun’s attorneys reportedly consulted with Bosch during the successful appeal of his previous steroid case. Rodriguez recently hired Atlanta-based sports attorney David Cornwell, who helped Braun with his unprecedented victory. Cornwell declined to comment or allow his client to be interviewed.

The excerpts on the New Times reveal at least seven discrepancies: five pertaining to Rodriguez, two for Cabrera. Paired with Rodriguez on the Feb. 7 entry, at least according to the 2009 notebook, is Sucart, the slugger’s cousin and close friend. When news of his positive test in 2003 came to light, Rodriguez pointed to Sucart as the person who brought him the drugs. The Yankees later banned Sucart from their facilities.