Melky Cabrera Suspended 50 Games

[Balta1701]

Well, then, I guess it's now time to remove any statistics of anyone ever busted for roids.

Great. Does Giambi count? I want Frank to get his 3rd MVP.

[Kyyle23]

Well, then, I guess it's now time to remove any statistics of anyone ever busted for roids.

 

Cabrera did this himself, so it isnt like the league stepped in and stopped it.

 

 

I kind of respect Cabrera for doing it. He still cheated, but at least he has enough self respect to do this. After he got caught, of course

[southsider2k5]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/mlb/story/2...ness/57838978/1

 

LONG ISLAND EXPRESSWAY, N.Y. -- Kirk Radomski clutches the steering wheel of the white Lexus sedan, his bulging biceps stretching the seams of his black knit shirt, cursing at the driving rainstorm and the motorists clogging the highway.

 

Radomski is meeting with the owners of fitness and body-building stores in the New York City area. He's passionately peddling his new supplement products made in conjunction with EPSG Labs (www.epsglabs.com). It's a familiar line of work -- only this time it's legal.

 

Radomski, 42, is the former New York Mets batboy and clubhouse attendant who pleaded guilty in April 2007 to one count each of money laundering and distributing steroids. He was the key figure in former senator George Mitchell's report on steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, a 409-page independent study commissioned by Major League Baseball and released in December 2007.

 

Now, with five months remaining on his probation, Radomski is focused on his new business, as well as some old business: performance-enhancing drug use in baseball, which he says still widely exists.

 

Radomski secretly met last week with Major League Baseball investigators -- including Dan Halem, senior vice president and general counsel-labor, and George Hanna, vice president of department of investigations -- to detail his previous relationship with player agents Sam and Seth Levinson of ACES Inc., and their role in making steroids and performance-enhancing drugs available to clients, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

 

Four-time All-Star catcher Paul Lo Duca, whose history of purchasing performance-enhancing drugs from Radomski was outlined in the Mitchell Report, is a former client of the Levinsons' and has provided information to MLB and the players union about how the agents were directly involved in procuring banned substances, according to the official.

 

The Levinsons deny the charges and say Lo Duca is not a credible source because of a grievance they filed against him in May for $50,000 in unpaid fees.

 

"Shortly after being served with the grievance, Mr. Lo Duca contacted my office, verbally harassed my staff and made certain threats against my office and ACES," the Levinsons' attorney, Jay Reisinger, said in an issued statement. "I was (then) informed by a third party who had spoken to Mr. Lo Duca that if the ACES continued to prosecute their grievance against him, Mr. Lo Duca would go to the media and state that ACES supplied him with steroids, and that he would â??write a book' about his steroid use and who supplied him with steroids during his career.

 

"Implied in that conversation was that if ACES were to withdraw the grievance, Mr. Lo Duca would not publicize his threats. It is clear that Mr. Lo Duca is fabricating this story as some measure of revenge for the filing of a fee grievance."

 

Lo Duca declined to comment. Michael Weiner, executive director of the union, said he would not comment on any "potential or actual'' investigation. MLB officials also declined, citing an ongoing investigation.

 

Radomski was thrust back into baseball's drug wars when San Francisco Giants All-Star outfielder Melky Cabrera was suspended for 50 games Aug.15 after he tested positive for testosterone. MLB determined that Cabrera had been assisted by Juan Carlos Nunez, an employee of ACES Inc. who took responsibility for an elaborate scheme that included purchasing a website and advertising a fictitious product in order to rationalize Cabrera's positive test.

 

"Baseball is pissed off beyond belief," Radomski tells USA TODAY Sports. "These new (MLB investigators) are working with the government. It's not like the old regime. Before, the government never wanted me to talk to anybody in baseball. They didn't trust them."

 

Pushed into controversy

 

Radomski's 7-year-old cellphone constantly rings on the 250-mile trip through Long Island, Queens and upstate New York. MLB investigators are calling to ask for his help. Federal agent Jeff Novitzky is checking in. Brian McNamee, the former trainer for Roger Clemens, is sharing details about his divorce. Former major leaguer David Segui is seeking advice about supplements for him and his wife. News reporters are asking what he's hearing on the streets.

 

"If Major League Baseball would have taken care of itself when they should have, I don't think anybody would have known who I am," Radomski says in his thick New York accent. "I wish there were more guys that had got caught. I wouldn't have been the go-to guy for everything. It's been six years since my name was let out, and they still want to talk to me.

 

"I don't want to be in it, but I've been pushed into it. Baseball used to hate me. They're playing nice with now. They really need my help."

 

Radomski told federal investigators in 2005 and the Mitchell Report team two years later that he provided steroids and other banned substances from 1999 to 2005 to players represented by the Levinsons, and that the agents were complicit in those deals.

 

Radomski's allegations regarding the Levinsons do not appear in the Mitchell Report. In addition, at least two checks Radmoski received from Lo Duca in the amount of $3,200 each included the names of Lo Duca and Samuel W. Levinson/ACES Inc. as joint account holders. In the Mitchell Report, Radomski said the checks were in payment for human growth hormone. Levinson's name and ACES Inc. do not appear in the report.

 

Mitchell, in an e-mail response last month to a series of questions from USA TODAY Sports, said: "In no instance did we exclude credible information from the report in response to a witness' request for confidentiality."

 

Radomski repeated the claims to MLB investigators last week in a sworn affidavit and provided supporting phone records, the official said.

 

"I'm telling the truth and have sworn testimony," Radomski says. "I remember for so long, I would say, 'Who benefits as much as the players?' It wasn't me. It was the agents. I wasn't making money off it."

 

Radomski won't say how much he made while selling performance-enhancing drugs. Segui says it was common for players to "stiff him. I know who the guys are, and I'm embarrassed for them."

 

Says Segui, who was named in the Mitchell Report, and admits to obtaining performance-enhancing drugs from Radomski: "He was doing guys a favor. He didn't want them to buy junk at their local gyms, and get stuff that would hurt them. People trusted him. He had the knowledge, was a likeable guy, and word of mouth spread all over the league."

 

'Everyone was juicing'

 

Radomski, with his business partner Steve Cohen in the passenger seat, heads north to Tommy K's in Mamaroneck, a suburb of New York City. They have known each another for about 30 years, and Cohen recalls being the first person Radomski called Dec. 14, 2005, when Novitzky, then an IRS agent, showed up at his Long Island home at 5:30 a.m. with a search warrant.

 

"People say, 'Why would you want to go into business with someone like him?' " Cohen says. "I tell them, 'I trust Kirk more than I trust my own family.' Why wouldn't I want to go into business with him? He didn't do anything wrong. He just happened to be a scapegoat."

 

On this day, they are making sure their products -- Mass-Arrival X-Treme and High-Heat -- are on the shelves. They hand out T-shirts and caps, and it's back on the road. Next stop: Natural Body Inc. in Queens.

 

"I've been on both sides of the fence -- legal and illegal," says Radomski, who launched his brand, which he says is FDA compliant, on Feb. 28. "I've got to be careful what I put out there because I know the government is always going to be looking at me. I'm not stupid."

 

Radomski drives past Citi Field, which is next to where Shea Stadium stood. He spent 10 years there working in the Mets clubhouse but hasn't been to the new ballpark. Radomski says players and other friends from the organization turned their backs on him when the legal troubles started.

 

"It was like I was the bad guy, like I'm some sort of drug dealer," he says. "I wasn't a drug dealer. A drug dealer lives on people's misery. I don't see myself that way. All I did was help people make money.

 

"Did I know I was doing something illegal? Of course, I did. Was I looking to get caught? No. I got myself into the situation I was in because I grew up around ballplayers. I knew these guys. And I knew they needed help."

 

Radomski says the need still exists, and he believes there are plenty of players using performance-enhancing drugs despite MLB imposing stronger drug policies over the years. He can even pick them out. He sees the taut sinews in their necks. The skin texture. The spike in performance as the season endures.

 

"It's not as bad as it was, but I know what's going on," Radomski says. "I always tell people, 'Somebody getting stronger and stronger when the season goes on, that just never happens.' I don't care who it is. That has to raise red flags.

 

"With the money now, one large contract, and you're set for life. You're going to tell me you wouldn't?"

 

Radomski says steroid use was rampant when he was working the clubhouse. The Mitchell Report says, "Radomski identified a large number of current or former major league players to whom he said he illegally sold steroids, human growth hormone, or other substances."

 

"That's why I laugh when people talk about it not being a level playing field," Radomski says. "There was never a straight playing field in baseball. Everyone was juicing. So why punish guys who dealt with me? I know guys don't like (Barry) Bonds or (Roger) Clemens, but you still had to have talent."

 

Bonds, the all-time home runs champion with 762, and Clemens, with 354 wins, have denied using banned performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds was found guilty in April 2011 of obstruction of justice from his 2003 testimony to the grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). Clemens was acquitted in June on charges he lied to Congress four years ago in testifying that he had never taken performance-enhancing drugs.

 

Radomski, like Bonds and Clemens, can't seem to extricate himself from the past.

 

"There would be no Mitchell Report without Kirk, and now that this has become a full-bore fire again, now MLB is trying to get to the bottom of it," Segui says. "Why didn't they care before? He has something they need now."

 

Working to live a clean life

 

Radomski must meet his probation officer once a month. He is required to disclose the money he has made, how much he has spent and where he has been. He can't travel outside the New York City and Long Island area without requesting permission. And he must cooperate with the government when questions come his way â?? or when Novitzky calls.

 

Novitzky was a special agent for the IRS when he led the BALCO investigation and the lead investigator in Radomski's case. He now works for the FDA and continues to pursue doping in sports.

 

"He was the easiest guy to deal with," Radomski says. "Honest. He told me the way it was. If I was honest with him, he would be honest with me. We had a really good working relationship. He was never vindictive. I never took it personal.

 

"I tell people, really, it was a relief getting caught. You get tired."

 

Radomski, whose father died when he was 3, grew up in the Bronx and has friends serving life sentences in prison for their role in organized crime. He has never been afraid of jail and says he's living a clean life. He has been married for nearly 15 years and has a 13-year-old daughter.

 

He is a convicted felon, and because of that, there will always be doors that never open to him, but he can't wait until his probation is over and the phone stops ringing.

 

"People look at me and say I was bad for baseball," Radomski says. "Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. I'm not going to judge it. Was I right? I don't know. Ask the guys that I helped, the guys who made over $1 billion. Ask them. Ask their families.

 

"How can you feel bad about that?"

[bigruss]

You can feel bad for those families when those husbands/fathers start having terrible medical issues from taking your supplements you prick.