| 07 May 2009
From Yahoo!:
A source close to Manny Ramirez said Thursday that the illegal substance for which the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger tested positive was not "an agent customarily used for performance enhancing."
At least not on the baseball diamond. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the substance is supposed to boost sex drive.
Two sources said Ramirez tested positive for a gonadotropin. Major League baseball's list of banned substances includes the gonadotropins LH and HCG, which are most commonly used by women as fertility drugs. They also can be used to trigger testosterone production. Testosterone is depleted by steroid use, which can cause sexual dysfunction.
"Testosterone and similar drugs are effective for erectile dysfunction in that they jazz up your sex drive," said Charles Yesalis, a professor at Penn State who has testified before Congress on issues of performance-enhancing drugs. "But far more clinicians accept that affect with Viagra and Cialis. It's hard for me to understand if it was erectile dysfunction why they would use it."
Ramirez tested positive for the substance during spring training, then was administered a second test more recently, and it also was positive. Major League Baseball notified Ramirez of the second positive test after Wednesday night's Dodgers victory over the Washington Nationals. Ramirez admitted to having taken the substance and declined to appeal. His 50-game suspension begins today.
"The substance is not a steroid and it is not human-growth hormone," the source said.
Bottom Line: At first I found it hard to believe that Manny wasn't simply covering up his use of PEDs with a mysterious medication he was handed... but I doubt he'd let this "sexual enhancer" story get out if it wasn't true.
Or... Scott Boras is simply the greatest liar in the history of mankind.
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