PDA

View Full Version : O.T:Cal Ripken&Steroids



dodgersfan
05-15-2009, 11:34 AM
Cal Ripken Jr. (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=789), the Hall of Fame shortstop who played in an MLB-record 2,632 straight games for the Baltimore Orioles (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/clubhouse?team=bal), wonders what Alex Rodriguez (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=3115)'s motives were for using performance-enhancing drugs and plans to ask the New York Yankees (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/clubhouse?team=nyy) third baseman himself.



Ripken

"I really want to know why," Ripken said Thursday night at a banquet in Florida, according to the Palm Beach Post. "I'm going to make it my business to find out."
Ripken, who the report said has known Rodriguez for 16 years, said in a speech at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's Men's Night Out that he thought the problem of steroids in baseball was improving, and "the willingness to suspend Manny Ramirez (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=2974)" is proof.
"The steroid era really puts a dark cloud over baseball," said Ripken, who was inducted into the Hall in 2007. "And that dark cloud is hanging and hanging."
Rodriguez returned to the Yankees last Friday after missing the first month of the season as he recovered from hip surgery. He acknowledged in February to using performance-enhancers while with the Texas Rangers (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/clubhouse?team=tex) from 2001-03.
Ramirez was suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball last Thursday for violating baseball's drug policy.

kingjammy24
05-15-2009, 11:48 AM
jack clark on manny ramirez:

"They always have a story," Clark told Burwell about the players caught cheating. "No one ever 'fesses up to it. No one did anything wrong. It was always the doctor's fault or their mother's fault or someone else's fault. But they always took the money and everything was happy. But when it comes down to being a man and standing up to it, they cower and whimper and blame someone else."
Clark and Burwell drew the same conclusion: This story is far from over.
"Someone else is going to be exposed," Burwell wrote. "That list of 104 anonymous players who tested positive several years ago is still out there, and you can believe that A-Rod won't be the only one exposed."

anyway, here's the latest on the manny debacle from the LA Times:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
HCG not found in Manny Ramirez drug test

Anti-doping experts say the absence of the drug indicated that the Dodgers outfielder used steroids.

By Lance Pugmire
May 15, 2009

No trace of the medicine HCG was found in Manny Ramirez's system at the time of his drug test, three sources with specific knowledge of the results have told The Times. It was a prescription for that drug, which is a non-steroid but banned by Major League Baseball, that led to the outfielder's 50-game suspension for violating the league's drug policy.

One of the sources with knowledge of the test results confirmed that the outfielder's sample was flagged for having an unusually elevated synthetic testosterone level, more than four times that of the average male. Sources also said that MLB's decision to move to suspend Ramirez would have happened only if the report showed a banned substance. Anti-doping experts said the absence of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), coupled with the league's action, indicated that the Dodgers' outfielder used steroids.

MLB officials had begun the process of disciplining Ramirez for a positive drug test when they obtained his medical records that contained a prescription for HCG. At that point he was suspended for "just cause" based on "non-analytical evidence" and for which a "therapeutic use" exemption was available but never requested. Once MLB had the prescription, Ramirez dropped the appeal and was suspended.

All the sources asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the test results.

Attempts to reach Ramirez were unsuccessful. The Dodgers referred all questions to MLB.

At the time his suspension was announced, Ramirez said in a statement that his doctor, "gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me." Ramirez has not publicly commented since but is expected to meet with his teammates this weekend when the Dodgers are in Miami, where he has a home.

Before the prescription came to light, Ramirez's representatives had been expected to argue on appeal that the elevated testosterone level was caused by DHEA, said authorities familiar with MLB's testing procedure, who also asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The World Anti-Doping Agency considers DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) a steroid and has banned it but baseball hasn't.

These authorities, however, said the league would not have considered a test a positive if it were known that DHEA caused the spike in a player's testosterone-epitestosterone (T-E) ratio, a key marker relied upon by international doping authorities to establish if an athlete is using steroids.

Speaking generally about the MLB testing procedures, Professor Christiane Ayotte, director of the WADA-accredited lab in Montreal where Ramirez's sample was tested, said her facility reports test results "as precisely as possible," knowing what substances are on a specific sport's banned list and detailing if exogenous testosterone (steroids or its precursors) or DHEA provoked the elevated T-E ratio.

The lab report would include whether the individual tested positive for DHEA even though Ayotte added, "We know DHEA is not on baseball's prohibited list of substances."

The authorities with knowledge of baseball's testing procedures stressed that MLB would not have declared a drug test a positive if the Montreal lab reported that DHEA had caused the elevated T-E ratio.

One of the three sources with information about the test results said baseball had three "powerful analytic foundations" to say the positive drug test was not caused by DHEA.

First, scientists have testified in other doping cases that DHEA does not raise an average person's T-E ratio (1:1) to more than 4:1, where Ramirez's was, the source said. Second, MLB could produce the player's urine sample showing how much manufactured DHEA was in his system. Finally, the WADA lab conducts a Carbon Isotope Ratio (CIR) test on DHEA that identifies the level of the substance and whether it was naturally occurring or manufactured.

"We can show the difference, with DHEA [and] testosterone . . . the CIR tells us if it's natural or doping," Ayotte said, again speaking generally about her lab's procedures. "There's no miracle in nature."

Even if previous DHEA use boosted natural testosterone production after the substance had left the system, Ayotte said the CIR can establish if synthetic testosterone caused a significant T-E ratio spike.

One of the sources familiar with the test result said baseball officials were confident in their case against Ramirez. Once they found a prescription of HCG, which Ramirez has said he was given, then the 50-game suspension was clinched -- the same penalty Ramirez would have received if it had been proved he used steroids.

Performance-enhancing drug experts said Ramirez's best legal argument in an appeal would have been to prove he has a naturally high level of testosterone -- for example, that his T-E ratio was naturally around the 3:1 range -- and to argue that any manufactured DHEA in his system caused the elevated result.

As for HCG, Dr. Glenn Braunstein, an expert in reproductive endocrinology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said the drug slightly bumps up testosterone production but typically not to the level that would cause a T-E ratio such as 4:1. A typical dose leaves a person's system in 36 hours.

At the time of Ramirez's suspension, not much was known about HCG among the general pubic. The drug can be used to boost sex drive but can also assist steroid users to repair testosterone production at the end of a cycle, medical authorities say. According to sources in Ramirez's camp, the player's need to improve sexual performance was a factor in his use of the drug.

Gary Wadler, a New York sports medicine expert and WADA's chairman of the prohibited list and methods, said if HCG was not present, Ramirez's explanation would ring hollow.

"Maybe they hoped this would never surface, but in the name of transparency, you'd like to know who flunked a steroid test," he said.

The confidentiality of positive drug tests in MLB, crafted in collective-bargaining negotiations with baseball's strongly organized union, is "not good -- for the public, or the individual," WADA Director General David Howman said. "We don't get the blow by blow with MLB and we know why."

Under baseball's drug policy, if a player is suspended on a basis other than a positive test for a banned substance, "the only public comment from the club or the commissioner's office shall be that the player was suspended for a specified number of days for a violation of this program." Ramirez's suspension was not based on a positive test but on the evidence of the prescription without a therapeutic use exemption.

While the drug policy restricts the disclosure of the specific substance that triggered a positive test and resulted in suspension, the commissioner's office can disclose how the substance was classified -- as a performance-enhancing substance, drug of abuse or stimulant.

In January, for example, Selig's office announced that pitchers J.C. Romero of the Philadelphia Phillies and Sergio Mitre of the New York Yankees each had "received a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program."

The Ramirez announcement said only that he had "been suspended 50 games for a violation of Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program."

Times staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this report.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

not sure how forthcoming ripken really expects arod to be when he's publically announced he plans on asking him, especially given arod's affinity for lying and deception in general. also not sure there's much more to it beyond arod being a liar and a cheater who wanted to bloat up his statistics to satisfy his ego. arod said he took it because of the pressure of his contract. the contract he demanded and brought on himself with the help of boras. now another boras client is caught and boras crafts a ridiculous explanation for him about it being a doctor's fault. while arod and manny take the hits, boras is laughing all the way to the bank.

rudy.

justinwc80
05-15-2009, 02:48 PM
Does anyone else agree that Ripken needs and should be the commissioner of baseball?

ironmanfan
05-15-2009, 03:04 PM
On Ripken's XM show this afternoon he brought up how this whole thing kind of got exaggerated. The question was asked at a speaking engagement last night as to what he thought of A-Rod and his admission to steroid use (believe me that this wasnt the first time he was asked this) and all Cal said was that he has known Alex since he was 16 and at some point he would simply like to know what he was thinking when he took them. Cal said he is not seeking Alex out and the subject may not come up with him for another five years. Cal also said whatever A-Rod tells him (if he even chooses too) would be between them privately and Cal would not share that information with anyone.

David
05-15-2009, 04:28 PM
My feelings have along aligned with Clark. These athletes act like they're big men, but when many of them are asked to man up to the truth they turn out to be little boys. I don't know if little boys is the right word, as many little boys would tell the truth.