In a bizarre attempt to avoid a 50-game drug suspension, San Francisco Giants star Melky Cabrera created a fictitious website and a nonexistent product designed to prove he inadvertently took the banned substance that caused a positive test under Major League Baseball’s drug program.
But instead of exonerating Cabrera of steroid use, the Internet stunt trapped him in a web of lies. Amid the information-gathering phase of his doping case last month, his cover story unraveled quickly, and what might have been a simple suspension has attracted further attention from federal investigators and MLB, the Daily News has learned.
Famed steroid cop Jeff Novitzky, a criminal investigative agent for the Food & Drug Administration), and agents from MLB’s Department of Investigation have begun looking into Cabrera’s associates and his entourage, including trainers, handlers and agents, as they search for the source of the synthetic testosterone that appeared in a sample of the All-Star Game MVP’s urine.
...As the website alibi imploded, so did Cabrera’s hopes of getting off and leading the Giants to the World Series. Once a candidate for the National League’s MVP award, Cabrera is now serving the 50-game suspension and has exposed his associates to scrutiny from Novitzky, who uncovered the BALCO doping ring and Kirk Radomski’s steroid distribution network, and other investigators.
According to Seth Levinson, the agents hired the Spanish-speaking Nunez to help them obtain and deal with their Dominican clients, including Cabrera. On Saturday, Levinson distanced himself and his brother from Nunez.
“Juan Nunez is NOT a salaried employee of ACES and does NOT receive the benefits that all ACES employees receive,” Levinson said. “Most importantly, any and all calls, texts and emails that he sends come from his own PERSONAL devices (BlackBerry).”
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When did that happen? Has someone that's not the frigging *Daily News* independently confirmed the story yet? Their coverage of the steroid issue in baseball to-date has been embarrassing, sub-Duranty-level crap.
He was probably referring to the "did he use PEDs" aspect, which Cabrera has admitted to.
BTW, is/should there be any additional punishment in store for Melky if this story proves to be true? I'm inclined to say that attempting to scam the arbitration should be a punishable offense in itself, assuming there's proof of it. It's one thing to present an insufficient defense and be ruled against, quite another to present fabricated evidence.
Did he do this at some point?
This seems to barely qualify for a charge of "attempted lying"
If this is true, could he be charged with "attempt to plan to lie"?
When a union has a significant number of its members operating in a manner similar to an organized crime syndicate, eventually they're going to attract the attention of the feds. If they really thought otherwise, that they were going to be able to get away with this kind of stuff forever, then they're pretty freaking stupid.
Those aren’t biscuits in my pants, it is actually an iron horse.
Oh and pre-registration days I posted as Smitty*
Oh, and don't you like pants?
I think the Daily News uncovered a fake duck under a suspension bridge.
That's a clown question, bro.
Even worse, I stole the phrase from the biographical paragraph of a National Spelling Bee competitor.
All I can really confess to is being a really bad speller and rarely posting anything relevant.
(Note: For the record, I find the subhed "MAN-WEASEL' OR MONGOOSE?" off-putting.)
In this aspect, this is true for at least 90% of us...
From the article:
So clearly Cabrera told MLB that he was using the fictitious supplement.
“Juan Nunez is NOT a salaried employee of ACES and does NOT receive the benefits that all ACES employees receive,” Levinson said. “Most importantly, any and all calls, texts and emails that he sends come from his own PERSONAL devices (BlackBerry).”
How is this the "most important" thing? I suppose these are both good facts for the Levinsons from a legal perspective, but neither proves anything.
Was it random?
What about surströmming?
I've never tried the Icelandic rancid shark dish (Hakarl) but that sounds like another level of disgusting.
It doesn't seem particularly surprising to me either. These are controlled substances after all, whatever the agreement between MLB and the MLBPA. Someone's getting this stuff for these guys, I doubt very much Melky Cabrera enters the United States every year with eight months worth of synthetic testosterone stuffed down his pants. Whoever that is is trafficking in controlled substances, whatever one thinks of the law.
On a pizza? Sacrilege!
I kind of wonder if surströmming ever was anything more than a macho trip for northerners. If it was used to avoid starvation, wouldn't the season for it have been in the middle of the winter like lutfisk instead of August-September when there's plenty of palatable foodstuffs around?
The other important event on the calendar in northern Sweden is the elk hunt in late autumn, so maybe a minor macho trip before the big one.
I don't use this word lightly: indescribable. Made the Beijing Night Market seem like McDonalds
Finns are truly vile people.
And it hardly needs to be said that the Dominican Republic is one of the biggest sources of the problem. It's only a matter of time before eventually the feds are going to find out what person or people are behind this little Dominican mafia-style drug trafficking outfit operating within baseball, and when they finally get busted, they're going to be looking at big-time prison sentences.
Considering their most famous dessert, mammi, resembles nothing so much as a lump of fresh dog ####, you might be on to something.
* Because, unlike my former spiritual leader, I really, really do hate pants.
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