Major League Baseball’s highest paid player allegedly tested positive for anabolic steroids during the 2003 baseball season. Alex Rodriguez, the American League’s Most Valuable Player in 2003 for the Texas Rangers, tested positive for testosterone and methenolone according to a report by Sports Illustrated (SI) reporters Selena Roberts and David Epstein. Sources citing the results from MLB’s anonymous and non-disciplinary steroid testing results have identified A-Rod as one of 104 players to fail the test (”Sources tell SI Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003,” February 7).
Rodriguez’s name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball’s ‘03 survey testing, SI’s sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.
The MLB list was seized by the federal agents during a raid of Comprehensive Drug Testing Incorporated (CDT) as part of the investigation into the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) to MLB players.
Dr. Bryan Smith, the administrator of the Major League Baseball (MLB) anti-doping program, published a report summarizing the positive doping test results from the 2008 anti-doping samples. The big news was not the number of doping protocol positives for steroids (only five) or amphetamines, but the number of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) that allow MLB players to use testosterone, Adderall, etc. Three players were presumably permitted to use testosterone because they were diagnosed with hypogonadism and 106 players were permitted to use stimulant drugs like Adderall because they were diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) (”Report: Amphetamines still in play in MLB,” January 9).
Meanwhile, 106 players filed paperwork with the league claiming to have ADD, excusing themselves from punishment if a laboratory encountered signs of Adderall in their samples. [...]
There were five positives for clobenzorex, the proper name for greenies, in this most recent sampling. Only five samples were positive for muscle-building drugs, including two positives for androstenedione and one each for the steroids nandrolone, stanozolol, and testosterone.
Other TUEs were issued for hypertension (3), hypogonadism (3), post-concussion syndrome (1) and metabolic myopathy (1).
Clearly, athletes should be given the same medical care available to the rest of the population. But the use of TUEs is controversial in drug-tested sports because many people question whether the athletes really need the medications for therapeutic reasons or are simply looking for a way to circumvent anti-doping rules.
J.C. Romero of the Philadelphia Philles and Sergio Mitre of the New York Yankees have both tested positive for androstenedione, an anabolic steroid under the Major League Baseball (MLB) drug policy. The Major League Players Association (MLPA), Romero and Mitre all claim the positive steroid test resulted from the respective ingestion of the dietary supplements 6-OXO by Ergopharm and Halodrol Liquigels by Gaspari Nutrition purchased from GNC. The players allege that 6-OXO and Halodrol were contaminated with androstenedione which was not disclosed on the label. Androstenedione has been prohibited by MLB since 2004.
There are two glaring problems with their androstenedione defense. The first problem is that 6-OXO itself, as an “aromatase inhibitor”, appears to be banned by the MLB anway, not to mention WADA. The second problem is that neither of the supplements are actually contaminated with androstenedione. The MLBPA, Romero and Mitre are, purposefully or unintentionally, deceiving the public in order to save face and appear innocent. The erroneous claim that 6-OXO contains androstenedione is based on the assumption that if 6-OXO produces the same urinary metabolites as androstenedione then it most contain androstenedione. This is false … Read the rest of this entry »
A new off-broadway play about the Major League Baseball steroid scandal opens at the New York City Center MTC Stage 2 on November 18, 2008. Daniel Aukin directs the Manhattan Theatre Club production of “Back Back Back.”
Does greatness always come with a price? Can only someone with nothing to lose tell the whole truth? From the acclaimed writer of last season’s MTC Stage II hit The Four of Us and Bach at Leipzig comes a stirring new drama about America’s favorite pastime. Back Back Back follows the turbulent careers of three very different teammates in baseball’s steroid era whose clubhouse secrets bring them under federal scrutiny.
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