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Ring of online steroid suppliers busted


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http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...sdate=2/27/2007

 

The Times Union has learned that investigators in the year-old case, which has been kept quiet until now, uncovered evidence that testosterone and other performance-enhancing drugs may have been fraudulently prescribed over the Internet to current and former Major League Baseball players, National Football League players, college athletes, high school coaches, and a former Mr. Olympia champion and another top contender in the bodybuilding competition.

 

The customers include Los Angeles Angels center fielder Gary Matthews Jr., according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.

 

More names coming?

 

EDIT: Jeez, I misspelled MatThews' name in the description. Can someone fix that?

Edited by aboz56
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QUOTE(Middle Buffalo @ Feb 27, 2007 -> 07:37 PM)
If this is true, the Angels should be able to void Matthews' contract for misrepresenting himself.

Hopefully, teams are smart enough to include steroid-related out clauses in newer contracts after the whole Giambi mess. But then again, who knows if the union would even tolerate that, I doubt it honestly. I bet that the Angels are on the hook unless he winds up in jail.

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By virtue of it being an actual contract they signed, wouldn't his covering up of steroid use constitute fraud? Unless there is some special clause for UNION contracts, the team should be able to get out of it if he misrepresented himself in the contract negotiations to the point of lying about steroid use. Either way, the club should do it just to punish the jackass. If he did it, that is.

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Fraud is a very specific legal term. Mathews would have had to take actions to induce the Angels to sign him, and the Angels would have to prove that if not for those inducements they would not have signed him. This is highly unlikely because I just cant see the question:

 

"Oh Mr. Mathews are you taking steriods?" Coming up in a contract negotation.

 

I doubt that the contract is voidable, but I would have to see the contract before I could say that with any sort of certainty. The bottom line is this, Mathews was in a very good position to negotiate the contract as multiple teams were looking at him. It is doubtful that in such a circumstance that the player would take a contract with a bunch of hidden "void" clauses. Also he has an agent/attorney so they were most likely looking for things.

 

Since other players have violated the substance abuse policy before and none have had their contracts voided, it would be hard to imagine that this one is substantially different.

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Sometimes it's nice when stories are leaky. SI has more on what exactly the documents may show about Matthews. It doesnt' look pretty, or surprising given his year last year.

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?

 

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.

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Matthews talks a little about it here:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb

 

Asked if he knew how his name got involved, Matthews said: "I don't. That's exactly what we're working on right now. Gathering information. I will address the matter again at the appropriate time, and I just wanted to just express that I will come out and talk to you guys about it when the appropriate time comes. I want you guys to respect my position and I don't want to become a distraction for my team and my teammates."
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QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 08:11 PM)
If there is some sort of behavior clause than yes the contract could be voided.

 

I dont know the specifics of the contract, Im sure its a few pages and quite a few clauses.

 

As I understood it, it is a part of the standard baseball contract. It is an MLB thing. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that from when Ponson got released.

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QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 1, 2007 -> 05:47 AM)
As I understood it, it is a part of the standard baseball contract. It is an MLB thing. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that from when Ponson got released.

I believe you're right that a behavior clause is sort of a standard out built into almost every contract, but I think it's also worth noting that the Yankees would have had a similar clause for Giambi, and despite the size of his contract and the 1.5 years or so worth of complete suckiness related to coming off of the steroids, it seems they didn't think they had a strong enough case to use it.

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QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 1, 2007 -> 10:40 AM)
I believe you're right that a behavior clause is sort of a standard out built into almost every contract, but I think it's also worth noting that the Yankees would have had a similar clause for Giambi, and despite the size of his contract and the 1.5 years or so worth of complete suckiness related to coming off of the steroids, it seems they didn't think they had a strong enough case to use it.

 

In the cases of "good" players, its not worth it to the teams to use it. Also they didn't have the 100% proof of an arrest, guilty plea, positive test, etc to give them an open and shut case for Giambi.

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