(CNN) -- Major League Baseball on Friday sued a South Florida clinic Biogenesis of America and several men associated with it for flouting its drug prevention program by allegedly providing performance enhancing substances to players, the pro sports league said.
According to reports and the MLB suit, filed in Florida's Miami-Dade County, the clinic reportedly supplied banned performance enhancing substances to a number of current and former pro baseball players such as ex-Boston Red Sox Manny Ramirez.
"We believe we have a legitimate legal claim against the defendants, and we intend to pursue it vigorously," said Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball's executive vice president of economics and legal affairs.
A phone call placed Friday night by CNN to Bosch's lawyer was not immediately returned. Previously, CNN has been unable to reach those involved in the clinic. And after the New Times story broke, a CNN crew went to the Coral Gables, Florida, address of the Biogenesis clinic and found its offices vacant.
After conquering cancer and winning seven Tour de France titles, Lance Armstrong became an American icon. However, after years of doping allegations, which the cyclist steadfastly denied, the sport's governing body stripped him of his titles and banned him for life.
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The 14-page complaint names Biogenesis, its predecessor and six individuals -- among them its program director Anthony Bosch, others at the company, someone who worked at a sports agency, a former University of Miami baseball player and a "self-proclaimed chemist" who supplied substances.
The accused, according to Major League Baseball, solicited players, supplied them with drugs and offered dosage recommendations in order not to test positive for banned substances under the league's program.
"(The defendants) knowingly and intentionally caused and/or induced ... players to breach their contractual obligations under MLB's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program," the complaint said.
The complaint did not specify how much money it is seeking, beyond that it's more than $15,000. But it insists the league rightfully deserves to be paid given what BioGenesis and its affiliates have done to the sport.
"MLB has suffered damages, including the costs of (the) investigation, loss of goodwill, loss of revenue and profits and injury to its reputation, image, strategic advantage and fan relationships," the league alleges in its complaint.
After a surge in home runs in the late 1980s and 1990s -- highlighted by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa racing to break Roger Maris's single-season home run record in 1998, followed three years later by Barry Bonds breaking the new record -- Major League Baseball came under a cloud amid allegations it hadn't done enough to recognize, and combat, the use of performance enhancing substances.
The league, in conjunction with its players' union, in recent years has beefed up its drug testing programs and penalties. A number of top-level and minor league players have been suspended as a result, like Ramirez who was suspended 50 games in 2009.
Biogenesis became part of this story publicly in late January, when the Miami New Times reported that more than a dozen professional baseball players and other athletes were named in records kept over several years by the clinic.
CNN was unable to independently obtain the documents the newspaper said it based its reporting on. And New Times reported earlier this month that it refused Major League Baseball's request for records that contributed to its story.
One of those players named by the publication is Alex Rodriguez, a 37-year-old New York Yankee who ranks fifth in home runs in major league history.
Shortly after the New Times article came out, ESPN.com published a story quoting unidentified sources as describing how Bosch allegedly went to Rodriguez's waterfront Florida mansion when summoned and injected the star player with performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs.
Rodriguez's camp subsequently released a statement denying any connection to the Biogenesis' clinic's owner while disputing the aforementioned reports.
"The purported documents referenced in the story -- at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez -- are not legitimate," the player's public relations agent said.
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Barry Bonds is baseball's all-time home run leader, but some commentators say there should be an asterisk by his record. Though he's said he never knowingly used steroids, two San Francisco reporters wrote a book alleging he used performance-enhancing drugs. He was indicted on charges of perjury and obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury investigating steroids, and convicted of obstruction of justice.
Lyle Alzado was known as one of the most vicious lineman to ever play the game, and he chalked up more than 100 sacks and almost 1,000 tackles. Before his death from brain cancer at age 43, he told Sports Illustrated he began using steroids in 1969 and that, "On some teams between 75 and 90% of all athletes use steroids."
Known as "Rocket" for his aggressive pitching style, Roger Clemens played pro ball for more than two decades, racking up seven Cy Youngs. He left Major League Baseball under a cloud of steroid allegations, despite a court finding him not guilty of perjury when he told Congress he never used the drugs.
At 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, Alistair Overeem is known for putting mixed martial arts star Brock Lesnar into early retirement. Ahead of a heavyweight title match against UFC champion Junior dos Santos in May, Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and was yanked from the card.
An early and chief accuser of Armstrong, Floyd Landis was himself stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He admitted doping in 2010, the same year he accused many other riders of doping as well.
As the most decorated Olympian ever, with 22 medals, Michael Phelps is known as a fish in human's clothing, but for a brief period in 2009, after a photo of him smoking a bong was made public, he also was known as a pothead. Despite losing sponsors, he quickly became known for swimming again, securing six medals in the 2012 Games.
Marion Jones was a world champion track and field athlete who won several titles in the 1990s and five medals during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. After admitting in 2007 that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs, she was stripped of the gold medals and other honors won after the 2000 Games.
Known as "Lights Out" after knocking out four players in a high school game, Shawne Merriman entered the NFL with fanfare, earning 2005 Rookie of the Year honors. His 2006 suspension for steroid use prompted the "Merriman Rule," prohibiting any player who tests positive for steroids from going to the Pro Bowl that year.
After his former Texas Rangers teammate Jose Canseco accused him of using steroids, Rafael Palmeiro appeared before Congress to deny the allegations. Later that year, he was suspended from baseball for testing positive for steroids. He maintains to this day he has never knowingly taken performance enhancers.
Few NBA players have tested positive for steroids, not only because the sport relies less on raw strength and speed than other sports but also because the league didn't begin testing until 1999. Miami Heat forward Don MacLean became the first to fail a test in 2000, and he was suspended for five games.
After racking up awards in college football, Ricky Williams was picked in the first round of the pro football draft in 1999. After testing positive for marijuana in 2004 as a Miami Dolphin, Williams retired and studied holistic medicine in California. He returned to the Dolphins the following year, only to have more run-ins with the NFL drug policy. He retired again in 2011.
Bill Romanowski was known for hard hits on the gridiron, but he also violently attacked teammate Marcus Williams during a scrimmage while playing for the Oakland Raiders. In a lawsuit, Williams blamed the attack on Romanowski's "roid rage." Romanowski settled the suit and in 2005 admitted to "60 Minutes" that he used steroids.
Sprinter Tim Montgomery set the world record in the 100-meter dash in 2002, but the time was scratched after he was found to have used performance-enhancing drugs. Since his retirement, he has had other legal troubles including arrests for money laundering and heroin offenses. He was sentenced to jail time for both.
An Olympian and renowned longball hitter, Mark McGwire spent his entire career with the Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals, breaking the single-season home run record in 1998. In 2010, he admitted using steroids over the course of a decade but told Bob Costas in an interview he took them only for health reasons.
Ross Rebagliati won a gold medal during the first year of snowboarding at the 1988 Olympics. He was stripped of the medal after testing positive for the active ingredient in marijuana. It became fodder for late-night talk show jokes, but Rebagliati eventually got his medal back after it was determined marijuana was not a banned substance.
A winner of eight Grand Slam events, Andre Agassi was considered one of the most dominant tennis players of the 1990s. In 2009, the tennis pro acknowledged in his autobiography that he had failed a drug test for methamphetamine in 1997 but skirted punishment by blaming an assistant.
Regarded as the best soccer player after Pele, Diego Maradona was known for his deft footwork and knack for finding the net. In 1991, he was suspended for 15 months after testing positive for cocaine. He would later admit he was addicted to the drug for about 20 years and began using when he was playing for Barcelona in the 1980s.
A prolific sprinter in the 1980s, Canadian Ben Johnson routinely bested American Carl Lewis in the 100-meter dash. After winning the gold at Seoul in 1988, Johnson tested positive for a steroid. His coach said Johnson took the drugs to keep up with other athletes and later wrote a book saying all top athletes were using in those days.
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