As news about Manny Ramirez’s steroid use dribbles out more questions need to be asked.
As of Friday night, May 15, 2009 here’s where we stand with Manny Ramirez’s steroid suspension story.
- Manny’s HCG use was a distraction from the real issue that Manny had synthetic testosterone in his system
- HCG use does not produce synthetic testosterone
- HCG was not present in Ramirez’s failed drug test
- Manny’s testosterone/epitestosterone ratio was between 4:1 and 10:1 (99.999% of humans have a 1:1 ratio)
- Manny’s first attempted defense of DHEA use was laughable, farcical, ham-handed, etc.
- There are now questions about the mysterious Florida doctor who Manny alleged prescribed HCG, the female fertility drug
The media has done a pretty good job covering the story thus far, and many analysts have come down hard on the steroid using Los Angeles Dodger slugger. However, there are plenty of issues that need to be brought up and considered, and questions that need to be asked.
The most obvious issue is that given what Manny has pretty much ‘fessed up to or been caught “doing” – HCG use, synthetic testosterone use, DHEA use, T/E ratio between 4:1 and 10:1 – we can posit that Manny is either a heavy user of steroids, a long time user of steroids or both. This stack is so old school that you can wonder if it has been the preferred cocktail of choice of Manny for quite a long time.
In this day and age every meathead bodybuilder wanna-be with access to a computer and an Internet connection knows that there are better, undetectable ways to build a better body so it strains credulity to make the case that Manny got caught the first time he used a drug(s) that could be detected by the most primitive testing protocols.
Guys who experience success with a cycle over time tend to stay with what they know best and what works for them. HCG is used by steroid users to jumpstart their testosterone production because their natural production shuts down. Long-term, heavy use of steroids can result in endocrine system problems and sexual dysfunction.
Just as in the ARod case, you have to wonder if Manny Ramirez also used human growth hormone (HGH). Since drug screening cannot detect HGH use there’s no way to know if Ramirez used but, given what we know about baseball players, the question still needs to be asked. It hasn’t been.
As the story develops more details will emerge and the big break could be the identity of Manny Ramirez’s Florida doctor. The bottom line is that the Manny Ramirez story is yet another indication that elite athletes use drugs to produce remarkable results.
