The mega Biogenesis (eat your heart out Jim Shooter!) story.
Then check out the main column, where their real names flash like an all-star roster of professional athletes with Miami ties: San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera, Oakland A’s hurler Bartolo Colón, pro tennis player Wayne Odesnik, budding Cuban superstar boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa, and Texas Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz. There’s even the New York Yankees’ $275 million man himself, Alex Rodriguez, who has sworn he stopped juicing a decade ago.
Read further and you’ll find more than a dozen other baseball pros, from former University of Miami ace Cesar Carrillo to Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal to Washington Nationals star Gio Gonzalez. Notable coaches are there too, including UM baseball conditioning guru Jimmy Goins.
The names are all included in an extraordinary batch of records from Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic tucked into a two-story office building just a hard line drive’s distance from the UM campus. They were given to New Times by an employee who worked at Biogenesis before it closed last month and its owner abruptly disappeared. The records are clear in describing the firm’s real business: selling performance-enhancing drugs, from human growth hormone (HGH) to testosterone to anabolic steroids.
Interviews with six customers and two former employees corroborate the tale told by the patient files, the payment records, and the handwritten notebooks kept by the clinic’s chief, 49-year-old Anthony Bosch.
Repoz
Posted: January 29, 2013 at 10:03 AM |
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Any good Cooperstown prospects on the horizon, aged 2 or younger?
With sports parents these days, 2-year olds are probably already on HGH.
Has MLB started testing for HGH yet?
Why would that be dickish? A DL stint shouldn't allow you to avoid your suspension.
Freddy Galvis sneaked through this loophole last year. I don't think they've closed it. MLB would be walking into an unwinnable grievance.
What does the agreement say about this type of issue? If a guy is on the DL when his positive test result comes back, does the suspension overlap or must it wait until he's on the active roster?
Is there a procedure for punishing players who haven't failed tests?
EDIT: Looks like minor league, though reports at the time conflicted. Here's a quote from one article:
edit: Guess I'm wrong. MLB transactions say Schafer was optioned in March 08, but I think that's a mistake and he wasn't added to the roster until 2009.
It says only games that he would have otherwise been eligible to play count.
And another part discusses whether an injured player can be eligible:
So it sounds like any game he's too injured to reasonably play in wouldn't count toward his suspension. One could argue that the "reasonable" standard only applies to postseason games and that leaving him off the DL makes him eligible--but I doubt MLB would accept that interpretation.
Manny didn't have his suspension run when he was "retired", he still has to sit out 50 games or whatever it is if he ever comes back. I know its not exactly the same, but the principle seems similar.
What about guys suspended for beanball stuff? The DL doesn't save them from suspensions, does it?
If they could suspend these guys, they would have suspended Ryan Braun. I don't see how any suspension based on this evidence would hold up to a challenge by the MLBPA.
Correct.
Honestly, I think there should be a difference. Manny should have had to sit before he came back, but if you nail a guy when he happens to be on the DL, that just seems like good fortune.
Yep, good call.
Or it allows a guy to use whatever he wants while he's recovering from TJS.
and freddy galvis' positive test for using a vaginal suppository (seriously, that really IS what the stuff is) came after he was already injured. i guess he had sand in his vagina all right. seeing as how his stats and his body really changed all righty
I suspect the procedural protections aren't anywhere near as strong for minor leaguers, though.
Although I despise of steriod and HGH use and firmly beleive that any of these people should not be allowed to play. They haven't flunked a test? When they do they should be penalized more harshly.
I do not think that baseball can do anything about this, unless the player admits.
AROD and Cruz bought the stuff for a friend. That is what they will say, and has gotten many athletes off in all sports.
Actually, Galvis' power has advanced as he has. And he got bigger. Maybe it's natural, maybe not. He's gone from a guy whose bat would keep him from ever sniffing the majors to a guy sniffing the majors. Those are the guys with the biggest incentives to cheat in my opinion.
I do not think that baseball can do anything about this, unless the player admits.
AROD and Cruz bought the stuff for a friend. That is what they will say, and has gotten many athletes off in all sports.
There has to be some non-test evidence admissible. I mean, if they catch a guy with it in his locker, or records surface showing regular steroid injections at one of these "clinics" I can't see how that's not admissible.
Albatross Rodriguez--completely unsurprising. He is a pretty compelling argument for having some provisions to allow teams to void long-term contracts.
I am disappointed to hear about Nelson Cruz. Innocent until proven guilty and all, but in retrospect, I guess it's not that surprising that a late-blooming AAAA hitter who is completely jacked might have had some help.
So the most pressing issue: whither the Boomstick?
EDIT: I'm sure the Yankees' insurer of A-Rod's deal will be very curious about this as well.
Will wait for more information before drawing any conclusions, however.
All the evidence against Braun was analytical so far as I know. If you establish a procedure regarding analytical suspensions you can't just circumvent it with a catch-all clause. Standard interpretation of agreements requires that the specific controls over the general language.
I don't know. It would be too easy for an outside party to arrange that evidence. A clinic could just make up a schedule. Maybe they're fans of (or paid by) an opposing team and want to get a player suspended. A team could slip something into a player's locker. Especially if voiding a horrible contract is on the line.
Yea, but like ColonelTom says in #28, that "analytical" test applies to A-Rod, Nelson Cruz and the others who presumably are tested throughout the year and presumably passed. You can't say they passed the test, then come back and say, "but we have some evidence against you anyway."
And like #37 says, they just bought it to help their dad lose weight. You can't prove they used it themselves.
Good news for MLB: This is during Super Bowl week, so most people won't even notice.
I agree Pops, players are protected more than years ago. MLBPA was not around for the Black Sox scandal in 1919. A "Back to Future" movie pitting the MLBPA and Keenisaw Mountain Landis would be interesting.
It once was not uncommon for philosophers to write hypothetical conversations between noted figures who otherwise never would have met.
A conversation between Landis and Marvin Miller would be great.
That should raise some skepticism, but FWIW Gio Gonzalez's dad confirms he worked with Bosch, allegedly so he could lose weight, not so his son could use any products.
Is any of the stuff he reportedly received ("Order 1.c.1 with Zinc/MIC/... and Aminorip. For Gio and charge $1,000.") banned?
There was also this FTFA:
He could have faked the famous athlete ones and added them to the legit entries, but the report goes beyond simply relying on a disgruntled employee.
In regard to content, this is pretty lame. It's not good for anybody to have more of this coming out. I foolishly hoped/thought it might be done, at least for now.
Sure. Think back to the drug wars of the mid-80s. The commissioner can use things that are a matter of public record in the disciplinary process. (see for instance the fallout from the Curtis Strong affair)
Now there are limits to his powers of discipline in this area. The commissioner tried to suspend Pascual Perez for a full year based on his arrest and it got rolled way back.
I don't insist that the commission would win the inevitable grievance though. This is uncharted territory given that there's formal testing. I suspect an arbitrator would want more than "he's a client", but that he'd want at least a plausible explanation from the player for his dealings with the company (which could be as simple as "convenient and reliable". Their core business might well be PEDs but that doesn't mean that's all they did)
There's a lot more than an "anon[ymous] guy" providing "implausibly detailed notes to [a] reporter" here:
cmon, galvis is a 22 year old guy - you seriously expect him to gain no weight/muscle from age 17 on? he is hardly canseco
and his stats hardly show all this increased power
FWIW, those mid-80s drug suspensions were rolled back too by a judge, at least in the case of the year-long suspensions for cocaine use for Willie Wilson, Jerry Martin, Willie Aikens and Steve Howe in 1984.
Probably, although it should be noted that New Times is a weekly, and it's not uncommon for publications like that to be marked as being an edition for a future date. For example, you sometimes get March magazines in February.
The source would not confirm if the Schafer investigation was an offshoot of the hotline, but the source did say the line was available to anybody in baseball with access to its private code, including players, managers and front-office personnel. Tipsters can also report rules violations through a secure Web site.
The hotline goes directly to the Department of Investigation, said the source.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/baseball-anonymous-hotline-nab-steroid-cheats-article-1.278822#ixzz2JNlQt6aV
Does this system presuppose that a player can be "caught" through investigative means rather than drug testing? Without knowing the protocols for the actions from such tips, it's hard to say.
Ah got it. I've never come into contact with the paper, I thought it was a day to day.
MLB's record in drug arbitration hearings was not very good, but it wasn't quite zero.
Oh, how I long for simpler times when drug conspiracies centered around people of obvious and undeniable virtue.
ISO disagrees: .049 -> .050 -> .056 -> .078 -> .114 -> .137 (Majors)
He was reported to have put on muscle before 2012, FWIW.
I did lay out a caveat: "Maybe it's natural, maybe not. "
You are not laying out a caveat. I don't see how you can be so sure.
fwiw
@GioGonzalez47 I've never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken w/Bosch
Could be. Although he seemed pretty determined to come back strong after the end of last season. If these allegations hold up reasonably well, he can kiss the HOF goodbye. "Albatross" is right.
Such as, for example, the good folks of Downton Abbey?
This may have been one of the best sequences in BBTF history.
2008: 89.7
2009: 91.6
2010: 92.2
2011: 92.8
2012: 93.3
It is unclear at this point how involved the Nationals' starter was with the clinic. Gonzalez was unable to be immediately reached for comment and the Miami New Times' report doesn't address him with nearly as much detail as it does players like Rodriguez and Cabrera, though noting his name appeared five times in what was believed to be the owner's ledger
Gio from Deadspin today
restates what Howie said already, sorry, Howie
What a collapse at the end if true, though.
Lots of Hispanics in Miami? Shocking!
From "Best non-steroid hope to break Bonds record" to "Manny Ramirez has a better chance now of getting into the HOF"
Pretty sure Conte has spokena about how one should be able to take testosterone and be very difficult to catch because it leaves the system so quickly.
FTFY.
(also alluded to in [86])
How does it work if it leaves the system fast? Do you have to take it every day?
Primey.
My understanding is that you'd take a short-acting Testosterone after a game or after workouts to help you bounce back quicker than normal.
"Tip one: Wear a watch. Tip Two: Keep your cellphone handy. Tip three: Know your glowtime, how long you'll test positive after you take the substance. What you'll notice is that none of these things is particularly difficult to do."
(Keep the cellphone handy because the team trained in the same place. Anybody associated with the team who saw a tester -- and they knew them all -- would call.
"If you were careful and paid attention, you could dope and be 99% certain that you would not get caught."
On one occasion Hamilton heard a knock on the door when he was glowing, and simply hid inside the house in silence until the tester gave up and went away.
And #91 a lot of PEDs aren't directly testable because they're stuff your body produces. So you look for the chemical traces of (say) a synthetic nandrolone. And that (in the currently popular PEDs) is designed to leave the system quickly.
And no, you don't have to take the PED daily. Or even all that frequently. That's the key to beating the testing.
Jeff Passan: Yanks won't be able to void contract
http://www.radiolab.org/2009/nov/30/from-benford-to-erdos/
Until I clicked the link, I thought you were implicating former Yankees reliever Todd Erdos for doing PEDs.
What's implausible about a doctor writing down dosing regimens?
A lot of the documents referred to in the New Times article are billing records. Not hard to believe at all -- the guy's supplying the drugs and wants to get paid for them. The motivation for leaking these records to the paper is also clear -- the guy skated on his bills and left his partners high and dry.
Anyone want to apply Benford's Law to the numbers appearing in the notebook?
Hmmm ... I'm not sure how well Benford's law would apply to prices. The same phenomenon that underlies Benford's law (that numbers you make up in your head will not be distributed the way numbers usually are) is similar to the process of assigning prices, probably especially in small businesses and shady businesses and cash businesses. There are a lot of $500 and $1000 per week quoted in the article but he's not gonna price a week's supply at $476.67. You might get farther verifying that two people receiving the same stuff were being charged the same.
Given their history, I'm guessing the Bosches will be having lots of conversations with the IRS but will get the standard wrist slap for the PED distribution.
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