Baseball Has a Steroid Problem... Again

this offseason mob completely stopped testing for beds last season they didn't test a single player for human growth hormone and in the month of august alone seven players have been suspended for taking banned substances including an 80 game suspension for fernando tati's junior but according to him he never meant to take this substance coming up with an excuse so bizarre and far-fetched he's been universally labeled as not only a cheater but a liar and also an idiot however his excuse actually makes sense based on the test results when he took it and why it doesn't really add up for tatis to take the ped he's accused of taking on purpose whether tati's took peds or not players across the league definitely are and have been for over a hundred years babe ruth reportedly got a boost by injecting himself with an extract from sheep testicle this made him sick and he had to miss a game with a stomachache in the past five years eighty percent of mlb ped tests came from dominican born players the same country tatis is from where peds can be bought in convenience stores without prescription according to reports some of these players are forced to take pds as early as 11 years old when players do get caught they almost always come up with an excuse resulting in some of the most ridiculous made up stories ever told and just like fernando tatis's ridiculous sounding story nobody ever believes them on august 12 2022 mlb announced the suspension of fernando tatis jr since then adidas has terminated their multi-million dollar endorsement deal former pitcher jonathan papelbon said he would drill him every time he faced him his own teammates said he needed to grow up and that the padres quote didn't need anyone else and his general manager said the team no longer trusted tatis and needed him to mature villainizing players who test positive is standard practice in mob because there is a long history of peds tarnishing players careers hood galvin was the first all the way back in 1889 when he admitted to taking brown sequoia lexor a testosterone supplement derived from the testicles of sheeps and dogs in the 80s players began using a ped that was way more dangerous and way more illegal than what is used today tim raines admitted to keeping a vial of powder in his back pocket during games and only slid headfirst so he didn't break it this problem peaked for mlb in 1985 when 11 players were called in front of the pittsburgh grand jury to testify with their involvement with the substance and ended with the pittsburgh pirates mascot being sentenced to prison for supplying the players with powder and then there were steroids causing arguably the biggest ped scandal in sports history forever giving mlb the reputation of a league filled with ped users but compared to other sports this really isn't the case and today mlb may have the strongest testing system out of any of the major american team sports leagues in 2021 mob players got tested on average seven times a season the average nba player got tested half as frequently the nba and nfl both use iso form tests for hgh instead of the more sophisticated and accurate biomarker test mlb uses the test nfl and nba players get only detects hgh if it was injected 10 to 20 hours before the test is taken and on game days players aren't even allowed to be blood tested until the game is over meaning if you take hgh at midnight the morning of a game in the small likelihood that you are tested it will be out of your system and in the nba just to be safe players get an extra 90 minutes from the time they're told they're being tested until they actually have to take the test but mob testing is far from perfect in fact in 2021 they didn't give a single hgh test due to the pandemic and this offseason mlb wasn't even allowed to test players because of the league-wide lockout giving players a great opportunity to take peds without detection fernando tatis jr claims he is not one of these players on the day his positive test went public he released a statement saying that he took the banned substance close to ball but didn't know he was taking it that night his mother came to his defense on instagram posting several pictures of a rash he had on his neck saying the positive test came from a medication he used to treat his skin condition a few days later his father went on a radio show claiming tatis got ringworm from a haircut and used a topical spray with the ingredient costa ball a banned substance that according to tatis's dad added no strength or on-field performance whatsoever this explanation seems far-fetched but it is nothing compared to past excuses barry bonds admitted to taking peds but said he only took them because he thought they were flaxseed oil ryan braun set the record for having the highest testosterone levels in the history of mlb ped testing with levels twice as high as the person with the previous record braun claimed he only tested positive because the person handling his sample sabotaged him because he was a cubs fan and was anti-semitic braun ended up winning the appeal getting his suspension reversed a year later he got caught again and was suspended 65 games melky cabrera failed a test in 2012 he made a fake website with fake supplements and started running ads for it then pretended like he saw one of the ads while browsing the web then bought a supplement from the fake website which actually turned out to be synthetic testosterone causing a positive test mlb found out this was a lie immediately and suspended him 50 games fernando tatis jr's excuse was also immediately dismissed several doctors spoke out saying an anabolic steroid would never be prescribed for ringworm a dermatologist claimed that a different topical steroid called cll beta sol is hinting that tatis tested positive for closta ball googled it got the drug confused with a similar sounding drug called beta saw found out that clobetasol is used to heal skin rashes then claimed he had a ringworm so he could say he used it for his skin the problem is clobatusol doesn't help ringworm and doesn't have the substance he tested positive for in it but these doctors were actually wrong but before we get to why they're wrong a quick word from today's sponsor if you think you may be feeling depressed stressed anxious or overwhelmed today's sponsor betterhelp is here to help you betterhelp offers licensed therapists who are trained to listen and help you from the privacy of your own home whenever it is most convenient to you no matter who we are or what we do pretty much everyone can benefit from therapy and better help make sure to match you with the right therapist they offer a broad range and expertise with a network of 20 000 plus therapists that give you access to the help that might not be available in your area just fill out a questionnaire to help assess your specific needs and then you get matched with a therapist in as little as 48 hours then schedule your secure video and phone sessions plus you can exchange unlimited messages and everything you share is completely confidential you can request a new therapist at any time with absolutely zero additional charge so join the three million plus people who have taken care of their mental health with an experienced better health therapist and get 10 off your first month at betterhelp.com baseball doesn't exist that's better h-e-l-p dot-com slash baseball doesn't exist lost the ball is illegal and would never be prescribed in america but tatis is from the dominican republic where it is legal and widely available unlike what this dermatologist claimed tati's didn't get claustrophobic confused with the medication called beta sol because the medication he actually claims to have taken was a topical spray called trophable which does contain klostabal and is used for several skin conditions but would it actually be prescribed for ringworm dr david chow and jacob cisneros pulled three different pharmacies in the dominican two said that there are better medications to take for ringworm but agreed that trophable is widely available the third said that they regularly sell it to patients with ringworm so the notion of tatis being told to use this for ringworm is plausible but if he did why doesn't he have proof in the dominican republic most medications including pds can be bought in pharmacies by anyone without a prescription so even if tatis is telling the truth he wouldn't have a prescription to prove it it also is why players from the dominican seem to be doing more steroids than anybody else since ped testing began in mlb dominican born players make up 57 of positive tests since 2017 they make up 80 of positive tests despite making up only 10 percent of the league's population players from the dominican consigned to a major league team as early as 16 years old most of these players go to an academy to train full-time in their pre-teens a former dominican pitcher estimated in 2005 that 90 percent of players inside these academies were on steroids according to at least one account it isn't uncommon for a player to start juicing at age 11 or 12 and some of these players may not even have a choice according to one player at his academy he was given what he thought were protein shakes in reality it was a cocktail of peds he never had any idea he was taking pedro martinez says that 99 of dominican players who test positive don't even know what drug it is because they're given supplements by their coach agent without any choice or knowledge of what's in it the average income in the dominican republic is seven thousand dollars a year a player who signs a fifty thousand dollar contract gets cut two years later without even coming close to the major leagues still makes life-changing money so the decision to take peds is easy especially since so many other people are doing it dominican born players might not only be more likely to take them they're more likely to get caught because they can't afford the sophisticated substances doctors blood tests constant testing and everything that goes into taking and making peds undetectable six dominican players were suspended recently for all taking the same ped called staniszola a ped that has been used since the 80s and can apparently stay in your system for months it is extremely outdated and a smart player with enough money would never take this fernando tati's junior doesn't have this problem he just signed a 340 million dollar contract and if he wanted to juice taking clausta ball might be the last thing he'd choose colostoball is an old anabolic steroid that compared to other steroids is extremely mild when it comes to building strength and muscle the only reason an athlete would take this is because it doesn't have a ton of side effects and it used to be hard to detect but due to better testing it can now show up in your system at least 31 days after taking it and what makes it an even worse drug for tati specifically is klostabal is known to slow down bone healing in 2021 tati separated his shoulder five times the padres medical staff advised him to get surgery on it but he declined he then proceeded to crash his motorcycle and fracture his wrist and didn't tell the padres until he got to spring training when asked when the motorcycle crash happened he responded by saying quote which one after a month of rehab his manager claimed he gained 10 pounds of muscle but before and after picks up tatis don't show any significant muscle gain and coming off an injury it makes way more sense for him to take something like hgh just known to speed up healing as good as anything and even with mlb's biomarker test it seems almost undetectable the only mlb player to ever be suspended for hgh was a-rod and he never even failed a test so tatis either got terrible advice and was told to take clausta ball which isn't that effective is easy to detect and prohibits healing which is why he's had so many injuries or he's telling the truth about ringworm which on the surface seems far-fetched but klaustobal does have a history of causing false positives a norwegian skier had a very similar story after claiming she tested positive for klostabal because a team doctor gave her a lotion to stop sunburn on her lips the team doctor later resigned admitting fault another athlete claimed he tested positive because he had intercourse with a woman who was using a cream with costa ball in it this was later tested in a lab using two couples as subjects and they both tested positive proving that this is a possibility unfortunately for the athlete his suspension was not overturned tatis is in a similar position in order to win an appeal he has to prove the positive test was not the result of faults or negligence even if tatis's story is true he practiced extreme negligence because all he had to do was call the team doctor and ask if the spray he was about to use for ringworm was legal the doctor would have said no and all of this would have been avoided when team doctors suggested he get shoulder surgery he didn't listen to them when he crashed his motorcycle and fractured his wrist he didn't even tell them so it seems like tatis doesn't trust team doctors which may have costed him an 80 game suspension or he just wanted to get a performance benefit and picked one of the worst peds possible

Channel: Baseball Doesn't Exist

Views: 1,908,865

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Id: _mys5RqtAy4

Length: 13min 24sec (804 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 31 2022