Surely there must be at least one player in the big leagues who hasn’t purchased PED’s online? (You can put your hand down, Boomer, it was a rhetorical question). The following comes from SI.com’s Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim :
A source in Florida with knowledge of the client list of Signature Pharmacy, an Orlando-based compound pharmacy, alleges that between September 2003 and May 2004, multiple shipments of nandrolone and testosterone were sent to Troy Glaus at a Corona, Calif., address that traces to the player. Though the information only pertains to receipt and not actual use of steroids, both nandrolone and testosterone were on Major League Baseball’s banned list at the time.
Glaus, then with the Angels, missed much of the 2003 season with a tear in his right rotator cuff and frayed labrum and underwent season-ending shoulder surgery after attempting a comeback in 2004.
The prescriptions, written in Glaus’ name, were obtained through New Hope Health Center, a California-based anti-aging clinic that advertises the sale of anabolic steroids and human growth hormones on its Web site. The prescription was processed by Signature. The prescribing physician was Ramon Scruggs, M.D. According to the Medical Board of California, as of March 2007, Scruggs has been on probation and is prohibited from prescribing drugs over the internet. He also was reportedly involved in a lawsuit with Mobile-based Applied Pharmacy, which, ironically, was the subject of a previous multi-agency raid. (Contacted through New Hope and given the chance to comment on Friday, Scruggs responded with expletives and ended the conversation abruptly.)
There was a terrific call earlier today on Charley Steiner’s XM “Baseball Beat” program with the opinion Rick Ankiel’s alleged HGH use was no big thing compared to Barry Bonds’ crimes against the game. The difference? “Joe from St. Louis” insisted that Ankiel’s PED use was all about trying to heal from an injury, while the Sultan Of Surly was “jealous of Mark McGwire”.
Never mind the wonderful phenomena of aspiring med students like Rick Ankiel writing their own prescriptions, it’s just awesome that Steiner’s show provides a vehicle for callers with the ability to guess each player’s motivations.
My theory that no one outside the media really cares unless it’s someone they don’t like and/or an opponent of their favorite team they can boo will be borne out by the public’s non-reaction to this.
Is anybody up in arms over Rodney Harrison? Nope. Visit a Patriots message board and you’ll see rationalizations of all stripes (“it was to heal from an injury”/”everybody does it”/”at least owned up to it”), even though those fans were slightly vociferous about Shawne Merriman’s suspension last year. November 1st, he’ll be back in a Pats uniform and no one will say another thing.
The steroid story may represent the biggest disparity between media attention and public interest since Chandra Levy.
the majority of the public doesn’t give a hoot about Darfur, either, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of examination.
and there you have it — I AM COMPARING RICK ANKIEL BUYING DRUGZ ON THE INTERWEB TO GENOCIDE. how’s that for perspective?
Is anybody up in arms over Rodney Harrison? Nope. Visit a Patriots message board and you’ll see rationalizations of all stripes (â€it was to heal from an injuryâ€/â€everybody does itâ€/â€at least owned up to itâ€), even though those fans were slightly vociferous about Shawne Merriman’s suspension last year. November 1st, he’ll be back in a Pats uniform and no one will say another thing.
as far as i’ve heard they’ve only proved that harrison purchased HGH during a time where he wasn’t on the field as opposed to merriman. so that would be one difference but then again i’ve always assumed that 90% of the NFL was on some sort of illegal ped (as opposed to 100% playing under the influence of league-sanctioned ped’s).
Well, I agree it’s worthy of examination. My problem is with the intensity of the focus, and the slightly overheated rhetoric by commentators. If you watched any of the ESPN afternoon talk shows yesterday, it was like Ankiel was an uncle who molested these guys when they were kids, and ruined their childhood.
there’s little to be gained by villifying Ankiel, I agree. I’m mostly interested in the very different way some (not all fans) can rationalize his chemical experiments but consider the achievements of Barry Bonds to be tainted.
and I’ve got to admit, I actually thought there would be a bigger flap over Harrison. At least one or two calls for Super Bowls to be forfeited. I guess part of it might be the tacit acknowledgement that NFL players deal with such crazy levels of pain, their shortcuts are somehow permissible.
But it is very interesting, btw, to see how the NFL has already had their sitdown with Harrison and Wade Wilson and their suspensions were announced at the same time their HGH possessions were made public. Once again, the relative strength of the MLBPA is demonstrated.