[外電] 2007年時A-Rod獲准使用禁藥?
Alex Rodriguez Reportedly Granted Permission from MLB to Use PEDs in 2007
Just when you thought Alex Rodriguez wasn't going to get any attention while
serving a season-long suspension, new allegations arise about
performance-enhancing-drug use, pulling the three-time American League MVP
back into the spotlight.
Only this time, the story takes a different twist in which Major League
Baseball reportedly granted Rodriguez permission to use testosterone during
the 2007 season.
A new book called Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis and the Quest to
End Baseball's Steroid Era, written by Tim Elfrink of the Miami New Times and
Gus Garcia-Roberts of Newsday, details A-Rod's history with Biogenesis head
honcho Anthony Bosch.
An excerpt from the book appearing on SI.com and in this week's edition of
Sports Illustrated alleges that Rodriguez received a therapeutic use
exemption (TUE) that allows players to take substances banned by MLB.
According to the excerpt, Rodriguez reportedly received an exemption for
testosterone from an independent program administrator before his third MVP
season:
Before the 2007 season, Rodriguez asked for permission to use testosterone,
which has been banned by baseball since 2003. The IPA in '07 was Bryan W.
Smith, a High Point, N.C., physician. (Baseball did not yet have the advisory
medical panel.) On Feb. 16, 2007, two days before Rodriguez reported to
spring training, Smith granted the exemption, allowing Rodriguez to use
testosterone all season.
It also mentions how infrequently exemptions for testosterone are granted, at
least back in 2007, thanks to the government's scrutiny of baseball's drug
problem:
In 2007, of the 1,354 players subjected to testing, 111 were granted a TUE.
Only two, apparently including Rodriguez, received an exemption for "androgen
deficiency medications," the category that would include testosterone.
MLB chief operating officer Rob Manfred, who testified against Rodriguez
during the grievance hearing last fall to determine if A-Rod's suspension
would be upheld, was included in the excerpt.
Manfred's testimony stated that exemptions for testosterone are "very rare,"
since "some people who have been involved in this field feel that with a
young male, healthy young male, the most likely cause of low testosterone
requiring this type of therapy would be prior steroid abuse.”
The fact that Rodriguez's alleged exemption happened in 2007 is going to
raise a lot of eyebrows because it's the last year he won an MVP award. It
also happened to be the best season of his career with a .314/.422/.645 slash
line, 54 homers, 156 RBI, 143 runs scored and 376 total bases.
However, based on the information contained in this new book, Rodriguez
wasn't technically doing anything wrong because he received permission from
MLB.
Rodriguez received a second exemption for the 2008 season as well, according
to transcripts from his arbitration hearing featured in the excerpt, this
time for clomiphene citrate (Clomid), "a drug designed to increase fertility
in women."
The article also points out that Clomid is used to increase testosterone
production in the male body:
It is also prescribed to men who suffer from hypogonadism -- a testosterone
deficiency -- to block the production of estrogen in their bodies. The drug
is popular with bodybuilders at the end of steroid cycles because it can also
stimulate the body to make more testosterone.
Bryan W. Smith, the doctor who approved Rodriguez's exemption in 2007, also
granted his request in 2008.
Another report surfaced from Steve Eder, Serge F. Kovaleski and Michael S.
Schmidt of The New York Times during A-Rod's appeal of the 211-game
suspension that claimed "he failed a drug test for stimulants in 2006."
However, one of Rodriguez's lawyers, James C. McCarroll, said in a statement,
via ESPN.com news services, that his client wasn't suspended for use of
stimulants and "has passed all tests under the MLB drug program."
Rodriguez wasn't suspended for a failed drug test, but because of the
Biogenesis scandal that Elfrink broke in January 2013, MLB found the
ammunition it needed to suspend one of the sport's biggest stars.
Of course, the suspension came nearly six years to the day when the book says
that Rodriguez was granted an exemption under the system that MLB agreed to
in the collective bargaining agreement.
With Rodriguez suspended and refusing to comment on the report, it remains to
be seen what will come from the news as the Yankees slugger waits for the day
where he can return to the game.
bleacherreport http://ppt.cc/cRNK
--
We all go round and round
Partners are lost and found
Looking for one more chance
All I know is
We’re all in the dance
--
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