During a season in which he leads the National League with 159 hits and is second in batting average, Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera has been suspended for 50 games without pay for testing positive for testosterone.
The suspension means that Cabrera will miss the remainder of the regular season plus playoff games or the first games of next year.
In a statement, Cabrera said that he did use the drug he tested positive for.
“My positive test was the result of my use of a substance I should not have used. I accept my suspension under the Joint Drug Program and I will try to move on with my life. I am deeply sorry for my mistake and I apologize to my teammates, to the San Francisco Giants organization and to the fans for letting them down.”
While the positive test is bad, manning up for your wrongdoing like Cabrera did helps the situation.
Although the use of steroids has been a hotly contested issue for sometime, there are still those who think steroid use is rampant.
According to a report in the USA Today, Victor Conte, founder of the steroid producing company BALCO, was reported as saying that he thought about half of baseball is still using illegal steroids.
“I’m not going to name names but I have talked to a lot of top players in Major League Baseball, and they tell me this is what they are doing,” Conte said. “There is rampant use of synthetic testosterone in Major League Baseball.”
Coming from a man who spent time in prison for his illegal distribution of the drugs, MLB vice president Rob Manfred doesn’t buy it.
“There is no way that Victor Conte would have information that would allow him to have any basis on that,” Manfred said in a recent USA Today article. “He’s just making that up. It’s a guess.”
Whether it’s a guess or not, this positive test proves that steroid use is still happening, whether MLB officials want to admit it or not.
