The New Miami Times has reported that multiple players have been linked to buying HGH, anabolic steroids, and other PED's from a Biogenetic lab in Miami. Among these players are Yasmani Grandal, Bartolo Colon, Manny Ramirez, and Melky Cabrera. The players who haven't officially tested positive but have been mentioned in numerous records and payments are Alex Rodriguez, Gio Gonzalez, and Nelson Cruz.
The man behind the scheme is Anthony Bosch, who ran Biogenesis. He supposedly operated the laboratory that supplied these players with their steroids. Multiple payment records include the names of the players listed, especially Rodriguez, who was referred to as "A-Rod" or "Cacique."
Gonzalez, 21-8 for the Washington Nationals last season, posted on his Twitter feed: ''I've never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance provided by him. anything said to the contrary is a lie.'' Cruz's and Colon's representative's also issued statements saying that the allegations were false.
But let us delve into this. Four players linked to Biogenesis have already been caught, being Grandal, Colon, Ramirez, and Cabrera. A-Rod, Cruz, and Gonzalez are all Latin-American players who spend considerable time in Miami during the offseason. Now this is totally assuming things, but Nelson Cruz exploded onto the baseball scene in 2009 with 33 homers, having only 22 homeruns the previous four seasons combined. Gio Gonzalez went from having a 6-7 record with a 5.75 ERA to going 15-9 with a 3.23, one season apart. And probably the biggest news surrounding all of this is that Alex Rodriguez, who already came out with the truth once and said "I'm a new man now," has been caught again. I don't know if it's just me but all of this seems to add up pretty well.
Alex Rodriguez: 3 time all-star, world series champion, 647 career homeruns, career .300 batting average, 1950 RBI's. Shoo in hall of famer, right? Wrong. Alex admitted four years ago that he used PED's from 2001-2004, but adding that after that he'd quit and realized the risk/reward factor was too high. He looked reporters, fans, and even team executives behind closed doors in the face and said that he hadn't used since 2004.
Right on the heels of Lance Armstrong ruining his reputation through lies and deceit, A-Rod did his best to match that. The once loved, heralded superstar that hit 500 homeruns quicker than anyone else and was predicted by some to break the all time homerun record has come crashing down. The Yankees owe their "slugger" $114 million over the next five years. It's sure to be five more years of declining productivity, drama and scandal, and absolute hate from New York fans. Rodriguez was already disliked by New York fans, but this takes it to a different level. Something tells me that Yankee fans knowing that they've been lied to multiple times, and that Rodriguez is guaranteed about $27 million a year for 5 years will just rub them the wrong way. It's a shame too because A-Rod was a hero for Latin-American players and for a long time represented the notion that sluggers didn't need to use PED's to be dominant.
It seems that with better testing and more investigation, it's becoming harder and harder to trust athletes. Whether it's Lolo Jones, Lance Armstrong, Rashard Lewis, or Shawn Merriman. Almost every sport has been affected by the darkness known as steroids. But none more affected than baseball. Heck, baseball even has a period of time called the "Steroid era." For the first time in more than 20 years, nobody was elected to the HOF in part because of steroids. 6 out of the top 15 players in career homeruns are linked to using PED's. It's been a major issue in the sport for some time, and for awhile it was ignored.
In the last 10 years or so, it seemed that baseball had cleaned the game up. HGH testing was in place, although not very effectively. The Mitchell Report gave an idea of who used and who didn't. And suspensions were to be given to offenders of new rules. But as testing has become more strict and frequent, we're just now learning what's really going on inside baseball.That players are paying thousands of dollars for hard-to-detect substances made in laboratories, and that a simple 50-game suspension won't stop them from going for big contracts.
If the MLB really wants to crack down and stop this nonsense, then harsher penalties are required. It shouldn't take three offenses to finally throw someone out of the league, considering few people(besides Manny Ramirez) are stupid enough to get caught three times. More frequent and accurate testing has been implemented for this season, which will help. But young players like Grandal and Gio Gonzalez are realizing that using PED's overall is worth the risk, which is scary considering young players should be the ones least likely to use it. Baseball has been dancing around this subject for awhile, but now is the time to take a stand and crack down on this debacle, before the sport is even more disgraced.
