"They were his drugs. I know they were his drugs. His issue was, what did you tell Major League Baseball detectives?"
Major League Baseball officials declined to comment for this story.
Former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette denied that the team kept the steroid story quiet.
"There's no secrets about the baseball team in Boston," he said with a laugh. "I don't feel the need to speak for the club. It was a police issue, not an organizational issue."
The Sox released Alexander, said Duquette, but not because of the steroids. "He was released on his ability," said Duquette.
Adamant denial The 2000 season was the only one Alexander spent with Boston in a nine-year career. He hit just .211 with 4 HRs and 19 RBIs for the Sox, then spent most of the next four years in the minors. He split last season between Triple A Oklahoma City and the Texas Rangers, and was a nonroster invitee with the Rangers in spring training in Arizona this season.
When approached by a reporter at Phoenix Municipal Stadium during the last days of spring training this year, Alexander, now 34, says he has a couple of minutes to talk. But at the mention of steroids, he starts walking briskly toward the clubhouse. Asked about Cowart, he says, "I don't know that guy." "Then whose steroids were in the car?"
"I'm not going to tell you that. If it was me, they would have taken me to the court. It wasn't mine."
He says seven times that the steroids weren't his. But a New York Times report in October 2000 said Alexander's name was on the envelope containing the steroids and the hypodermic needles in the glove compartment.
"Major League Baseball did my test," Alexander said. "They tested me in New York after that thing. I think you got the wrong guy to ask questions to. I know you're not accusing me, but you're not going to find out, either, because I don't know who it was for. I know it was in my car.
"Maybe it was Carlos's or somebody else's. I don't know. Ask Carlos. We're friends. He was my boy in Boston. Ask him."
Cowart says Alexander is "a snake." "Alexander left me out in the cold," said Cowart. "He never apologized. He owes me."
Cowart blames the Red Sox for his current mental state. He knows he needs medical attention, but he has yet to receive it.
"It's put a lot on my mind," he said. "It hurt me mentally. They put me in the shadow. They let me take the fall. They didn't want me near the players. To this day I go [there] and I can't get into Fenway. That hurts.
"I'm an emotional person and I know what this did to me. It put too much stress on me. To know this organization that I sweated for set me out like this . . . I cannot forget about this. I want a job with the Red Sox. I would love to talk to [Red Sox owner] John Henry."
"This is a terribly sad story from years ago," said Dr. Charles Steinberg, the Red Sox vice president of communications. "We will see what we can do to help."
Cowart said he is trying to put his life back together.
"I went back to school," he said. "I attended the Institute of Art and Communication in Brookline. I tried to work. I had three jobs in three months. Bouts of depression. I just shut down.
"How can you go from chilling with millionaires to washing dishes for old folks?"