Ankiel cheats

The New York Daily News is reporting that Cardinals pitcher turned slugger Rick Ankiel received a 12-month supply of human growth hormone in 2004 from a Florida pharmacy that was part of an American cross country illegal drug distribution operation. According to the Daily News, Ankiel received eight shipments of HGH from Signature Pharmacy in Orlando from January to December 2004, including the brand-name injectable drugs Saizen and Genotropin. Ankiel's prescriptions were signed by Florida physician William Gogan, who provided them through a Palm Beach Gardens clinic called "The Health and Rejuvenation Center," or "THARC."

Ankiel has not been accused by authorities of wrongdoing, and according to records obtained by The Daily News, he stopped receiving HGH just before Major League Baseball officially banned it in 2005. MLB does not test for HGH, but a player who is known to have used it or even possessed it from the time it was banned can face a 50-game suspension.

I wonder if Ankiel's excuse will be this was to better his quality of life too? When you have seen the high life in the majors and then end up back in A ball, desperation has to set in. Obviously this has the potential to take him from hero to zero at warp speed. In which case it would make this the biggest career damaging injection since the one Mike Tyson gave that beauty pageant contestant.