Say it ain’t so, Rick! Seriously…say it ain’t so.

Noooooooo!  Baseball was doing so well…well, sort of.  The Yankees were leading the wild card race, the Red Sox were maintaining their lead, the NL West is exciting, and in the NL Central…there is a 3 team race of mediocre teams, with one man leading the way for the Saint Louis Cardinals.  Who am i referring to?  He’s called Roy Hobbs (The Natural) in some circles, but us common folk know him as Rick Ankiel.  His comeback seemed almost too good to be true.  Baseball being baseball, it may very well be the case.

The bad news? The New York Daily News is reporting that Ankiel received a 12 month supply of human growth hormone (HGH) from a Florida pharmacy in 2004.  The good news? Ankiel apparently stopped receiving the drug before major league baseball banned it in 2005.  Great, from a baseball standpoint, because it seems like the only thing MLB will be able to do is question Ankiel about any possible HGH use after the drug was banned (players found using HGH after it was banned could face a 50 game suspension).  It is still yet to be seen how this will legally affect Ankiel, as HGH is considered illegal under federal law unless its use is “in connection with treatment of a disease or another medical condition authorized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services”.

Baseball just can’t seem to catch a break.  Every time there is a story which is positive, or seems to be rebuilding the image of baseball (the Barry Bonds records for example, or Ankiel) another story comes along, just as quickly, which seems to pull baseball back into the world of illegal drug use.  Bud Selig is probably somewhere pulling his hair out.  On the other hand, had he started taking a harder line on illegal drug use in the 90′s (when everyone knew everyone was on drugs) then maybe we’d already be past this problem.

Ankiel is represented by Scott Boras, of the Scott Boras Corporation.

NY Daily News:  Rick Ankiel received a 12 month supply of HGH, news learns

Category: Baseball