Mannygate II

[NewsWhore]

It seems there are no clean baseball players left. At least, this is the underlying sentiment felt by fans after it was revealed that star slugger Manny Ramirez had been suspended for 50 games after failing a drug test. Ramirez is suspected of testing for hCG, a testosterone booster usually prescribed as a fertility treatment for women. He was also found to have elevated levels of unnatural testosterone in the body. According to sources, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a substance of choice for many athletes because it restarts the body's natural testosterone production, acting as a masking agent for other drugs and is difficult to detect by some standard tests. The news has sent shock waves around Major League Baseball as Ramirez was thought to have been one of the few superstars who would emerge untainted from the dirt known as the Steroid Era. More damaging for Ramirez is the timing of his positive testing. In the past, athletes have hidden behind excuses like they "didn't know" or "it was a mistake." These excuses were used by Alex Rodriguez or even Rafael Palmeiro, but the prevalence of MLB's testing program and continued warnings by baseball officials against using unknown substances could be said to reflect Ramirez's indifference or arrogance towards the game and its policies. No longer can Ramirez's lackadaisical play be chalked up to "Manny being Manny." Ramirez is expected to lose US$7.5 million from his US$25 million salary for 2009. Players aren't paid when they are suspended for performance enhancing drugs. In a prepared statement released by the players' association, Ramirez said: "Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons. I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I'm sorry about this whole situation." Word of the scandal quickly reached the White House, when WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs described the incident as shameful.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4148907

More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)