Major League Baseball announced on Monday that it was suspending 13 players for receiving performance-enhancing drugs from a Miami clinic. Yankee star Alex Rodriguez was one of the players suspended.
NBC Sports reported that Rodriguez received a 211-game ban from the league, which would be effective on Aug. 8 and last through the end of the 2014 season. He is appealing the ban, the league said, and is eligible to play until an appeals verdict is rendered.
“As a social institution with enormous social responsibilities, baseball must do everything it can to maintain integrity, fairness and a level playing field,” MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. “We are committed to working together with players to reiterate that performance-enhancing drugs will not be tolerated in our game.”
“The New York Yankees in no way instituted and/or assisted MLB in the direction of this investigation; or used the investigation as an attempt to avoid its responsibilities under a player contract; or did its medical staff fail to provide the appropriate standard of care to Alex Rodriguez,” the team’s statement said.
He admitted in 2009 that he used steroids for three years, from 2001-03, while he was a member of the Texas Rangers. His name also appeared on a list of 104 players who tested positive for PEDs in a 2003 MLB survey, according to a report by Sports Illustrated.
The Yankees and Rodriguez have been in a dispute about whether he is physically ready to play, after an injury--the Yankees have said no and Rodriquez says yes.
This post is an excerpt from NBC Sports; read the full story here.