More news about the recent steroid bust is starting to come out. Sports Illustrated writers Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim actually accompanied federal agents on the raid in Florida, and they confirmed Gary Matthews' involvement in the case. From SI.com: SI.com: Gary Matthews, Jr., who had a career year in 2006 and signed a $50 million deal with the Angels this offseason, has already been linked to a customer list of a raided pharmacy. Do you have more information on him?This bit of information is interesting for a couple of reasons: 1) taking HGH in 2004 wasn't technically against Major League Baseball rules, since that substance wasn't added to the banned list until 2005; and 2) there's no evidence linking Matthews to any performance-enhancing drugs last season, which is when he enjoyed completely out of nowhere success in a contract year with the Rangers. (That's not to say that he didn't still take something he acquired from another source, but there's no actual evidence to support that he did.)
Llosa/Wertheim: Yes. According to law enforcement documents we've reviewed, Matthews is not just on a customer list, as was reported Tuesday. In August 2004, he was allegedly sent Genotropin -- a brand of synthetic human growth hormone typically prescribed to children suffering from growth failure -- at an address in Mansfield, Texas. We traced the address and it is the residence of a former minor league teammate of Matthews', who told us that he is friends with Matthews.
Interestingly enough, Matthews had a prescription for the substance, though doctors are looking into the legitimacy of the doctor who wrote it:
SI.com: How did Matthews get a prescription?As much as I'm in favor of outing of dirty, rotten cheaters, I'm a little confused how a couple of private citizens had access to customer lists from a pharmacy, especially before a trial has run its course. I'm not a lawyer, but I've heard of the HIPAA statute, and I know that it's supposed to protect medical privacy. While I may be showing my ignorance, I would've guessed pharmacy records were somehow protected by this or another such law.
Llosa/Wertheim: This, allegedly, goes to the root of what has prompted this massive investigation. According to the document we've reviewed, Matthews received the prescription through a doctor at Health Watch, a now-defunct anti-aging clinic in south Florida. According to the report, the drugs came from Applied Pharmacy services, a compound pharmacy in Mobile, Ala., which was raided last fall by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). This shadowy nexis between anti-aging centers and compound pharmacies is at the heart of this multi-agency investigation.
But even if Matthews is saved by the letter of the law, he still did something incredibly unethical if he took HGH for performance-enhancement purposes -- and since he's not a scrawny, undersized child, there doesn't appear to be any purposes but performance-enhancing ones.
Previously:
Gary Matthews Allegedly Named in Steroid Bust
The Gary Matthews Media Checkup
Evander Holyfield, Gary Matthews Implicated in Steroid Bust? Not So Fast, My Friends
How to Police Steroids?
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Not to condone the use of steroids or HGH but why do these players use there real name when purchasing the product. They use Alais to check into hotels but not to purchase drugs.
http://www.yankstalk.com
Since it wasn't banned when he was taking it, should it really be a problem? Why he used his real name, but a fake address is really weird.
I am a firm believer that a hitter matures somewhere between ages of 27 thru 34 and that's what I believe happened to Gary Matthews Jr. This HGH thing with him is that someone is fishing for anything at this time. There's no proof that he did anything illegal. Until then, leave the young man alone!!!!!
In a few years taking homeopathic HGH oral spray will be like taking aspirin because they are both legal to purchase over the counter and very gentle on the system. Matthews made the mistake of having pharmaceutical HGH shipped to his house, as bad as having meth amphetamine or any other narcotic or steroid shipped to his house, without a prescription.
Most athletes in the know today are using homeopathic hgh in a generic formula so it can be obtained from any one of 30 companies on the internet. It must be "homeopathic" to be legal.
Luckily for Gary, he'll be able to hire good lawyers with that new contract. He may even have Johnnie Cochran exhumed.