Most Valuable Prescription

I went on the record a couple of weeks ago and said that the Rick Ankiel comeback story was a great thing for baseball. In fact, I thought it was a great thing for life: the story of a pitcher that loses his stuff, then re-tools himself as a superb hitter. As Charles Krauthammer pointed out, it's a real life version of The Natural.

With everything I've seen from baseball in the past ten years, how could I have been so stupid?

All of Ankiel's greatness now comes crashing down with the news that he used human growth hormone (HGH) all through 2004. That year was early days for his comeback quest, when he was just so-so at the minor league plate. Then Ankiel got good. In only 23 games this season, he's hit 9 home runs, 29 RBIs, and owns a .358 batting average with 22 runs scored.

Those are impressive numbers. The problem with baseball today is that anything impressive must be looked upon with deep suspicion. Too many times we have found out that these guys are cheating via the pharmacy. It places every player under suspicion, because time and again, we find out that the players are juiced.

According to the Daily News, Ankiel purchased 8 shipments of HGH between January and December, 2004. Ankiel's defence will be that he quit using HGH before Major League Baseball banned the substance in 2005. This sounds shady. It may just be coincidence that Ankiel stopped purchasing HGH moments before the league banned it, or it may be he heard the news on the wire and got out while the getting was good.

It's not like he was dealing with reputable physicians. The pharmacy where he purchased HGH is under investigation for illegally distributing prescription drugs. This brings up an interesting question that no one has yet asked: if Ankiel stopped purchasing HGH from these Florida quacks in 2004, what's to say he didn't start buying them somewhere else in 2005? Or '06? Or yesterday?

There is no sure way to test for HGH. ESPN had a spot the other night where a doctor said you'd have test a man within minutes of his taking HGH in order to find the stuff. A 100% test for HGH does not yet exist, which is why Ankiel was discovered the old-fashioned way: paperwork. His name appeared on some reports recently obtained by the Daily News. They saw that he purchased Saizen and Genotropin, two forms of HGH. Then they exposed him.

La Russa
Ankiel's manager, Tony La Russa, must be ready leap from a cliff. First he has to go through the whole Mark McGwire fiasco. Then he sends Ankiel down to the minors because the kid lost his stuff. Then he brings Ankiel back on a wing and a prayer, hoping he'll do well as a fielder. And man, does he ever. At a press conference, La Russa was reduced to tears just thinking about the recovery this amazing player had made, right before his eyes.

And now this. If La Russa is not a cynic yet, then he is not a human being.

Today, another player got hit on the nose by a different publication. Troy Glaus. This one hits close to home, as the Blue Jays are my club. SI.com reports that Glaus received steroids from an allegedly illegal internet drug distributor between September 2003 and May 2004. SI.com points out that their information deals only with the receipt of the drugs, and that they don't have evidence of actual use.

So if the allegations are true, Glaus is either a steroid dealer, or a juicer. Wonderful.

The dates of Glaus' steroid purchases is interesting. They match the time that he was out with a bad rotator cuff and shoulder surgery. It's not a stretch to imagine that he wanted the juice in order to help him through the recovery process.

Jose Canseco released a book a couple of years ago. In it, he fessed up to his steroid use, and said that while he was in the bigs, approximately 80% of the league was juicing. He was lambasted by sportswriters, players, and fans as a dirty rat.

It's turning out that he's likely the most honest man this league has produced in decades.