Rick HGHankiel

by dahlian on Sep 7, 2007 1:01 AM EDT

In case anyone was looking for new sign material at this weekend's series.

"St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel, baseball's feel-good story of the season, received a 12-month supply of human growth hormone in 2004 from a Florida pharmacy that was part of a national illegal prescription drug-distribution operation, the Daily News has learned."

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2007/09/06/2007-09-06_ankiel_received_12month_supply_of_h gh_ne.html

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Ruh-roh.

If that's true, baseball's feel good story of the summer just took a very wrong turn.

Stay grindy, my friends.

by soco on Sep 7, 2007 1:15 AM EDT reply actions

Just read the full article

and it mentions that if he did take HGH, he stopped before the official MLB banning of the substance and well before he was converted to a hitter. So any punishment at this point, if true, would come from the feds not baseball.

Ankiel hasn't commented and neither has his agent, Scott Boras.

Stay grindy, my friends.

by soco on Sep 7, 2007 1:17 AM EDT reply actions

Technically

The article points out he stopped receiving HGH from that source. The assumption is that he stopped taking it, having not received any from any other source, but that's only an assumption.

I'm sure there are many other sources available to individuals like Ankiel.

Another baseball black eye. <sigh> It's just going to get worse before it gets better.

This is a "problem" that will never go away. Ever. I think the only way to mitigate the impact is to have a zero tolerance policy. Period. Found guilty of buying, possessing, or using any banned substance and you are Shoeless Joe Jackson-ed.

Harsh? Not if baseball is truly concerned with the 'integrity' of the sport.

Of course, I don't believe they are...

by cavscout on Sep 7, 2007 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions

Even more technically...

...it's merely an assumption he was taking the HGH he was receiving, isn't it? For all we know he was creating giant mutant hamsters in his basement.

Yep, that's the story. ;-)

by cavscout on Sep 7, 2007 10:55 AM EDT up reply actions

Yes...

But can the giant mutant hamsters his a curveball?

by Jim McLennan on Sep 7, 2007 11:27 AM EDT up reply actions

Perhaps Rick Ankiel...

IS a mutant hamster!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

(Does the baseball banned substance policy apply to hamsters? Certainly the Players Ass'n will say no...)

Come on, Sandy Baby, loosen up. You're too tight.

by DbacksSkins on Sep 7, 2007 1:23 PM EDT up reply actions

MOI

"Let's make the water turn black"

We will meet in Red 3 at the hour of scampering.

by hotclaws on Sep 7, 2007 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions

Well

I'm still going to not make any judgment as we don't know anything about this. Could have used it in 2004 and then stopped. Could still be on it. Could have never used it.

Stay grindy, my friends.

by soco on Sep 7, 2007 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions

My instinct is...

That is you start taking it, and it does what it's touted to, why would you stop? Just 'cos baseball banned it? I doubt it, since you're already breaking the law anyway, IIRC - possession without a valid prescription, etc. And it's not as if there's a test for it, so baseball banning it is largely a paper tiger.

I think we can look forward to recycling a lot of Barry Bonds heckles this weekend.

by Jim McLennan on Sep 7, 2007 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions

Correction

According to the story, "Ankiel's prescriptions were signed by Florida physician William Gogan, who provided them through a Palm Beach Gardens clinic called "The Health and Rejuvenation Center," or "THARC."" So it looks as if he had a prescription, though as the story goes on to say, "Physicians can distribute growth hormone only in connection with either treatment of a disease or another medical condition authorized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. "You need a bona fide doctor-patient relationship and a bona fide disease to distribute growth hormone," Wadler said. The list of possible uses of HGH by a healthy man in his mid-20s is "extremely narrow," Wadler added."

This certainly would help explain his remarkable resurrection in a new form...

by Jim McLennan on Sep 7, 2007 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions

Is that around the time of his injury?

One wonders if maybe it was for that, similar to Harrison in the NFL.

In my nightmares, I see Brian Bruney...make it stop...

by Azreous on Sep 7, 2007 2:50 AM EDT reply actions

Good question.

It was before he was converted to outfielder, yes? IIRC, Barry started taking steroids to help him recover from injury as well, so that would certainly explain how it STARTED...

I agree with the fellows at Viva El Birdos that this "no comment" thing from Ankiel and Scott "Infectious Human Waste" Boras makes him look guilty as sin, and it'll ultimately be better to take the Jason Giambi route than the Barry Bonds route. He should come clean. Certainly, the public would be more likely to forgive, not because he did something wrong, but because compared to everyone else who's flat-out denied it, even in the face of positive drug tests, he'll look like an angel.

The problem is, if the feds decide to make a case, will/can they use his public admission against him? (I'm unclear about the "can".) He can't very well mount a legal defense at the same time as publicly admitting what he's being accused of.

OTOH, if the case is strong enough, a public admission might ingratiate him with the judge. (A la Señor Vick)

IF the case is strong enough.

Come on, Sandy Baby, loosen up. You're too tight.

by DbacksSkins on Sep 7, 2007 1:18 PM EDT up reply actions

good scoop

Dahlian. Seems more and more like the day of the unpolluted feel good story is over.

by johngordonma on Sep 7, 2007 7:03 AM EDT reply actions

Larry at Viva El Birdos

Has a good, well-balanced take on the revelation. An extract:

if he truly did nothing untoward and has nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of, then he can kill this story in a single day. if i were his pr advisor, i'd get him out in front of the microphones immediately --- call a press conference and sit rick down to tell his side of the story. i'd have him lay out the facts --- explain why he needed the drugs, what the medical benefit was, and how he didn't break any laws or any mlb rules. i'd have him state publicly that when mlb instituted its formal steroid ban in 2005, he stopped using the drugs. that'd make this story go fizz in a new york minute.

he's got no legal obligation to do this, of course, but he has a selfish reason to do it --- he wants to avoid a swirl of controversy and suspicion. the "innocent-til-proven-guilty" standard doesn't apply here; we're not in a courtroom. we're in the court of public opinion, and in this venue the burden of proof tends to fall upon the accused rather than the accuser. fair? maybe not, but life often isn't. if ankiel just issues a "no comment" or a two-sentence statement written by a boras flunky, it will leave the impression that he's got something to hide, and many will judge him harshly. ankiel can create the opposite impression by facing the story openly and unabashedly.

by Jim McLennan on Sep 7, 2007 11:54 AM EDT reply actions

Damn those guys at the Daily News

are good. They source broadly, they find the scoop, and they run with it. Old fashioned muckraking at its newfangled best.

by andrewinnewyork on Sep 7, 2007 10:55 PM EDT reply actions

To steal a page from Jim's playbook,

Rick HGHankiel: he's vastly overrated.

(1 for 4, 0 RBI, 1 LOB)

Come on, Sandy Baby, loosen up. You're too tight.

by DbacksSkins on Sep 8, 2007 1:22 AM EDT reply actions

watched Ankiel's defense this morning

he was pretty terrible. I was going to say awful, but he barely avoided that. Clearly he was coached for the statement, but coached by an idiot. Stumbling over his words he managed to basically admit to everything while still putting out the offensive and irritating "client...er...doctor-patient... uhhhh..." then a helpful reporter chimed in: "privilege?"

Very unsatisfactory. Whoever was coaching Ankiel obviously has no clue. The public (including me) has no patience for doctor-patient privilege in this sort of thing. He should have hauled his doctor down with him and had his doctor explain why this was the correct course of rehab for Ankiel and why it doesn't violate any ethical standards.

For the time being, Ankiel just lost himself a fan.

by johngordonma on Sep 8, 2007 3:13 PM EDT reply actions