Biogenesis in the MLB

Deviance in Sport

Biogenesis

By: Emily Forloines & Alex Wenrich

In class we discussed the topic of the values of sport in of all levels from little league to the majors.  During the lecture we learned that a value is anything that is desirable and important (personal, societal, and organizational). Values are like a coin they have two sides; with every bit of positive there are negatives to follow. An amoral society or graying of right and wrong, cheating, lying, deceiving, rule breaking, and lack of respect for authority.   When someone asks the question, what is the most amoral event you could think of in professional sport, what do you think of? Some may say the “Black Sox Scandal”,  “Pete Rose Gambling Problem”,  “Michael Vick Dog Fighting”, or even the “Shapiro Scandal?”

Anthony Bosch

Most recently during the year of 2013 a document was leaked out of Coral Gables, Florida from a practice named Biogenesis that specialized in anti-aging. A gentleman named Anthony Bosch ran the practice. He was supplying anabolic steroids to Major League Baseball players. A list of 13 names was listed in the documents that were attached to the practice. The largest names attached to the Biogenesis Clinic were New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, Milwaukee Brewers Ryan Braun, and Washington National Gio Gonzalez. Rumors have been flying around since the 2012 season. Due to the rumors Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, and Yasmani Grandal served their 50 game suspensions that season. Gio Gonzalez and Danny Valencia had their names cleared from the list because they ended up doing nothing wrong. Other players that received suspensions were Nelson Cruz, Everth Cabrera, Jhonny Peralta, Antonio Bastardo, Francisco Cervelli, Jordany Valdespin, Jesus Montero, Cesar Puello, Sergio Escalona, Fernando Martinez, Fautino de los Santos, Jordan Norberto. They all received 50 game suspensions. Ryan Braun received a 65 game suspension and  Alexander Rodriguez received a 211 game suspension. Players all had their own rights to appeal the case. Anthony Bosch originally would not speak up about the leaked document and was sued by the MLB. After time has pasted, Bosch came clean with the media and the MLB and said that the document was true and that he had personally injected some of the athletes himself.

According to Coakley’s text, page 180-89 talks about the substance abuse in sport and the consequences that occur to someone. He argues that steroid users do not deserve to keep their league-recognized records such as Barry Bonds’ homerun record, and Roger Clemens not being admitted to the hall of fame in Cooperstown. Coakley also believes that drug testing needed in all professional and colligate level sports. I could not agree with this statement anymore, their needs to be an agreement with the leagues and the players’ association stating that each athlete will be tested once every six months. Even thought this process will be expensive the drug usage in sport is higher then ever, and we need to clean up our business before we can take another step forward towards the future of the games.