Told you it would be INTERESTING to find out what the substance was!

Talk about corking a bat.

From River Ave. Blues: ESPN reports that the fertility drug Manny was using is a steroid booster. The Worldwide Leader writes, “HCG is a women’s fertility drug typically used by steroid users to restart their body’s natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle.”

So apparently Manny’s designer ‘roid was good enough to avoid detection, but he got caught with this one. ‘Fraid that somewhat undermines your “if Manny got caught, anyone can” point, Craig. Though you could still argue that if one of the best paid, best advised players gets caught then anyone can get caught. If Boras really were a super-duper-uber agent, he would pull out his old, tell the client to throw him under the bus trick that he used when A-Rod opting out blew up on him. Boras should have Manny come out and say “yes I used a steroid. The lengthy off-season process that was mismanaged by my representation left me feeling that I owed it to the Dodger’s to perform to the very best of my abilities and since I hadn’t had enough time to prepare with the team, I felt this was one way I could overcome the injuries and ineffectiveness that inevitably appear early in the year.”

the full ESPN quote…

“However, two sources told ESPN’s T.J. Quinn and Mark Fainaru-Wada that the drug used by Ramirez is hCG—human chorionic gonadotropin. HCG is a women’s fertility drug typically used by steroid users to restart their body’s natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle. It is similar to Clomid, the drug Bonds, Giambi and others used as clients of BALCO.”

I sure hope David doesn’t find this.  He’ll have you all pegged as gay….  I’M not going to comment on the drug taken, or it’s potential purpose.  I’m just glad they aren’t handing out any free passes…..

The other thing that doesn’t make sense to me about the drug being hCG is Manny’s statement. Presumably, he didn’t write that thing himself. Scott Boras and his pr team were clearly all over that thing, carefully crafting it. After what’s just happened with A-Rod and the demolishing of all of his prior statements on steroids, wouldn’t they be super careful in what they said in this statement?

If Manny was taking a drug that is directly listed as a PED under the program, why would they give the “doctor excuse”? That makes no sense. I can’t believe that Boras and his team are that dumb…

Everyone needs to settle down and give Manny the benefit of the doubt.  He’s in his late 30’s and probably thought this was his last chance to get pregnant.

Beanster - I damn near ruined my laptop with a spit-take reading that.  :-D