NY Daily News story
Key statement:
Ankiel, 28, has not been accused by authorities of wrongdoing, and according to the Signature records obtained by The News, he stopped receiving HGH just before Major League Baseball officially banned it in 2005.
So if this story goes no further, Ankiel is not in any trouble from the U.S. judicial system, or even from MLB because the Daily News story has disclosed no laws or MLB rules that he has broken.
However, because he is linked to a shady Florida pharmacy and physician, and with baseball being the competitive undertaking that it is, Rick may not fare so well in the court of public opinion.
What are we to make of this? For myself, I'm still trying to decide. Controversy exists as to whether HGH should be a banned substance: does it really do anything to improve baseball performance? More to the point, does it really have harmful long-term health consequences for athletes? I guess I believe that if the answer to the second question is "yes," then HGH should most certainly be banned; if it is "no", then it shouldn't be banned even if the answer to the first question is "yes". But so far as I can tell, not enough is yet known about the consequences of athletes taking HGH: here are a couple of further articles about it.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/growth-hormone/HA00030
That is what I would assume is an objective assessment released by the Mayo Clinic.
And courtesy of bigboy, here is a link to another reputable news source that clearly questions baseball's stance of banning HGH:
http://www.slate.com/id/2162473/nav/tap1/
Discuss?