Tag Archives: PED

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Donovan Mitchell hit with random PED test, league said 71-point performance shouldn’t have happened

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Donovan Mitchell’s 71-point performance on Monday night didn’t come without a cost.

The Cleveland Cavaliers star was hit with a performance-enhancing drug test on Tuesday, he said on Twitter. The team confirmed the test to ESPN.

Now, tests are a normal occurrence for players through the league. They are usually hit with four random PED tests during the season, and then two more during the offseason. The key word there, though, is random.

While there’s no real way to prove otherwise, a test coming just hours after Mitchell’s historic performance certainly doesn’t feel random — which is likely why Mitchell found it so funny.

Mitchell led the Cavaliers back from a 21-point hole to beat the Chicago Bulls in overtime on Monday night with his franchise-record 71 points. That marked the most scored in a single game in the league since Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant dropped 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006. Mitchell’s performance was the eighth-highest scoring game in league history, and the most scored by anyone this season.

“It’s humbling. I’m speechless to be honest with you when you say that,” Mitchell said. “I think for me, not only did I do that but I did it in an effort where we came back and won. And it’s how we won. That’s really what, for me, it’s like man, this is nuts … I’m extremely blessed, humbled that I’m in that company, in that group.”

NBA: Donovan Mitchell’s 71 points shouldn’t have happened

Though it can’t be rescinded, the NBA said on Tuesday that Mitchell’s 71-point performance shouldn’t have actually happened.

Mitchell sent the game into overtime after he purposefully missed a free throw and tipped it back in in the final seconds on Monday night. The sequence was incredible.

Yet on Wednesday, the NBA said that Mitchell actually stepped into the foul lane early — which should have voided his basket and given the Bulls the win.

“One, it’s a clear violation,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said after the game. “Unequivocally, he’s crossing the line on the basket before the ball ever touches the rim. That’s the first thing … And he just shot it and really kind of beat Patrick. And I think part of the reason why he beat Patrick is because he went in there too early.”

But, as that wasn’t called in the moment, there’s nothing that can be done.

Mitchell then dropped 13 points in overtime to get to 71 and take the win.

Players are generally hit with a PED test randomly four times during the season. Donovan Mitchell’s came immediately after he dropped 71 points on the Bulls. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)

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San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. suspended 80 games after testing positive for PED

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7:09 PM ET

  • Jeff PassanESPN

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      ESPN MLB insider
      Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”

San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. has been suspended for 80 games after testing positive for Clostebol, a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

Tatis’ suspension, announced by MLB on Friday, is effective immediately, meaning the All-Star shortstop cannot play in the majors this year. In a statement, Tatis said he is not appealing the ban as it was his “mistake” that was the cause of the positive test.

“It turns out that I inadvertently took a medication to treat ringworm that contained Clostebol,” Tatis said. “I should have used the resources available to me in order to ensure that no banned substances were in what I took. I failed to do so.

“I want to apologize to Peter, AJ, the entire Padres organization, my teammates, Major League Baseball, and fans everywhere for my mistake. I have no excuse for my error, and I would never do anything to cheat or disrespect this game I love. I have taken countless drug tests throughout my professional career, including on March 29, 2022, all of which have returned negative results until this test.

“I am completely devastated. There is nowhere else in the world I would rather be than on the field competing with my teammates. After initially appealing the suspension, I have realized that my mistake was the cause of this result, and for that reason I have decided to start serving my suspension immediately. I look forward to rejoining my teammates on the field in 2023.”

Tatis, 23, is one of the biggest stars in MLB, the centerpiece of multiple marketing campaigns and is in the second season of a 14-year, $340 million contract.

Tatis is currently on a minor league rehabilitation assignment after missing the first four months of the season with a broken left wrist and will now be on the restricted list for the final 48 games of the Padres’ regular-season. Any postseason games the Padres play this season will not count toward Tatis’ 80-game total. The remaining 32 games of the suspension will be served at the beginning of the 2023 season.

After emerging as a star in his rookie season at 20, Tatis, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound shortstop whose power, speed and penchant for the spectacular won him legions of fans, finished fourth in the National League MVP voting in his sophomore campaign. Last year, he was even better, signing the record deal, finishing third in MVP voting and solidifying himself as one of the game’s finest players.

The Padres collapsed down the stretch but held high hopes for 2022 after hiring Bob Melvin as their new manager. During the lockout that delayed spring training, Tatis fractured his wrist in a motorcycle accident that required surgery. San Diego vowed to take his rehabilitation slowly and was teeming with anticipation of a lineup with Tatis leading off, new acquisition Juan Soto hitting second and third baseman Manny Machado third.

Tatis’ contract remains fully guaranteed for the next dozen seasons, during which he’s owed $324 million. Tatis has a full no-trade clause through 2028. In 273 career games, Tatis is hitting .292/.369/.569 with 81 home runs, 192 RBIs and 52 stolen bases.

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Sports

DeAndre Hopkins suspended: Cardinals star hit with six-game ban for violating NFL’s PED policy

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The Arizona Cardinals didn’t have DeAndre Hopkins on the field for their final four games of the 2021 season, and now, it looks like they also won’t have him on the field to start the 2022 season. 

The NFL announced on Monday that the Cardinals star receiver has been suspended six games for violating the the NFL’s policy on the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The suspension means that Hopkins will be out until mid-October. The ban will keep him off the field until at least Week 7 and it could keep him out until Week 8 if the Cards get a bye during the first six weeks of the season.

Later Monday, DeAndre Hopkins’ brand manager, Doug Sanders, released the following statement regarding the suspension (via ESPN):

“Today the NFL announced their decision to suspend DeAndre Hopkins as a result of a November drug test that came back with trace elements of a banned substance. DeAndre and everyone who works with him is completely shocked by this finding because he is extremely diligent about what he puts in his body. His October and December tests were negative and we are investigating how the November test came back positive. DeAndre is committed to demonstrating that he did not knowingly take a banned substance. He has never once tested positive throughout his 10 year career. We’re currently testing every product he used to figure out how this could have happened and will release any new information as soon as we have it.”

If the Cardinals knew this was coming, that would explain why they made the surprising trade for Marquise Brown during the draft. On the first night of the 2022 NFL Draft, the Cardinals sent the 23rd overall pick to Baltimore in exchange for Brown and the 100th overall pick that was later used to select defensive lineman Myjai Sanders out of Cincinnati. 

The loss of Hopkins is a devastating one for a Cardinals’ offense that always seems to struggle when he’s out. In 2021, the Cards’ star receiver missed a total of seven games due to injury and in those games the Cardinals went just 3-4. To put that in perspective, Arizona went 8-2 in the 10 games that Hopkins played in last season. 

Despite missing seven games in 2021 due to a knee injury and a separate hamstring injury, Hopkins still led the team with eight touchdown catches, which was three more than any other receiver. The 29-year-old, who turns 30 in June, also finished the season with 42 catches for 572 yards and eight touchdowns. 

The five-time Pro Bowler has been a huge part of the Cardinals offense since arriving in Arizona following a trade prior to the 2020 season. In his lone full season with the Cardinals, Hopkins caught 115 passes for 1407 yards. His receptions total in 2020 ranked second in the NFL while his yardage total ranked third that year. 

With Hopkins out for the the first six games, that will turn up the heat on the Cardinals’ other receiver to produce. The Cardinals will need players like Hollywood Brown, A.J. Green and Rondale Moore to come up big while Hopkins is out. Another receiver, Andy Isabella, was reportedly on the trade block before the draft, but the Cardinals might change their minds about that now that Hopkins is out. 

Arizona’s leading receiver from last season, Christian Kirk, is no longer on the team after signing a four-year deal with the Jaguars in March. 

Despite the suspension, Hopkins is eligible to participate in all preseason practices and preseason games. The Cardinals will find out exactly which games Hopkins will be missing when the NFL schedule is released on May 12. 

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Sports

CBA Notes: Arbitration, Waivers, Schedule, PED Testing, Minor League Salary

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MLB and the MLBPA finally reached a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement on Thursday, ending a contentious lockout that spanned over three months. The major elements of the deal, such as the CBT levels and the bonus pool for arbitration-eligible players, were reported on as the negotiations transpired, but some of the minor details are still trickling out. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com revealed one such detail on Twitter, writing that, “Beginning after 2022, salary arbitration eligible players who settle with their teams on a salary for the subsequent season without going to a hearing will be eligible to receive full season termination pay, even if released prior to the start of the season.”

This is a small change that could potentially have significant ramifications. Under the previous CBA, arbitration contracts were not fully guaranteed until Opening Day, with players cut during Spring Training only earning a portion of the agreed-upon salary. If a team released a player more than 15 days prior to Opening Day, they only had to pay the player 30 days’ salary as termination pay. If the player was released less than 15 days before Opening Day, they would get 45 days’ pay.

This makes for an interesting tradeoff. On the one hand, this could be viewed as a gain for the players, as they now have access to greater security, knowing that the salary they accept will be locked in once they agree to it. But this also gives them incentive to accept terms without the hearing, perhaps leading to them accepting lower terms than they otherwise would have earned, thus benefiting the teams. It is well established that teams put a high priority on stifling salaries as much as possible. In 2019, it was revealed that MLB holds an annual symposium where the team that best succeeds at opposing the players in arbitration is awarded a wrestling-style championship belt, something that surely didn’t help with the animosity that’s lingered between the players and the league since the signing of the last CBA. This wrinkle in the new CBA could help the teams further those goals, but at least could give some borderline non-tender candidates the silver lining of greater financial security.

Elsewhere in the CBA, Jayson Stark of The Athletic provides an interesting nugget on Twitter. “If a team has already claimed a player once on waivers that season, it can’t claim him again until every other team has passed.” Stark aptly refers to this as the “Jacob Nottingham Rule,” in reference to the fact that Nottingham was the centerpiece of a game of hot potato between the Brewers and Mariners last year. Beginning the season with the Brewers, the catcher was put on waivers in April, claimed by the Mariners, who put him back on waivers on May. The Brewers brought him back on a waiver claim, only to send him back onto the waiver wire two weeks later. On May 2oth, Seattle claimed him again, before putting him back on the wire in early June, when he finally cleared. Waiver claim priority generally goes in reverse order of the current standings. (For the first 31 days of the season, the standings of the previous season are used.) In the case of Nottingham, there would have been some teams that never even had the ability to make a claim on him for most of that sequence last year, as he would have been scooped up before their turn. Going forward, they will have a greater chance to interrupt such a unique back-and-forth as occurred with Nottingham last year.

In a detailed column about the CBA, Stark adds some details about the schedule changes that will begin in 2023. While it had been previously reported that teams would play all 29 of the other squads in the league each year, with the number of divisional games being reduced, the details were not known at the time. Stark lays out the format that will begin next year, with each team playing its divisional rivals 14 times per season, down from 19, for a total of 56. Teams in the same league but not the same division will be played six times each, a total of 60. When it comes to interleague play, each team has a “rival” that they will play four times, with three games against the other 14 teams in the opposite league. That amounts to 46 total interleague games. All of those categories are evenly split between road and home, except for the final one. In the case of the 14 non-rival teams that are in the opposite league, the home team for the three-game series will alternate from year to year.

Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com has a couple of other details in his rundown of the CBA. In terms of PEDs, he says, “There will be an increase in the number of in-season urine tests for performance-enhancing substances and drugs of abuse, as well as adjustments to the scheduling of these tests to make them less predictable.” He then adds that, “the program will now utilize dried-blood spot-testing rather than venous blood draws for hGH testing, making Major League Baseball the first professional sport drug testing program to adopt this new technology.”

Finally, while the increase in the minimum salary for MLB players was reported throughout the negotiations, there is also a bump for some players in the minors. From Kubatko: “The minor league minimum salary for players signing a second major league contract or with prior big league service will increase from $93,000 in 2021 to $114,100 in 2022, $117,400 in 2023, $120,600 in 2024, $123,900 in 2025 and $127,100 in 2026.”



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Bill Maher on Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’: They’re ‘not wrong’ to be ‘p—ed off’ at elites

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“Real Time” host Bill Maher kicked off his panel discussion Friday night on the ongoing Canadian Freedom Convoy protest that has garnered international attention. 

“What’s happening this week, it looks like, is people are understanding this is about something more than just the vaccine mandate,” Maher said. “It’s becoming a big thing. It’s happening all over the world now. They’re thinking it might happen here in Washington on Super Bowl Sunday.”

“People are understanding this is about something more than just the vaccine mandate.”

— Bill Maher

ONTARIO, CANADA LEADER DOUG FORD DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY OVER TRUCKER PROTESTS

“Woke, Inc.” author Vivek Ramaswamy agreed, telling Maher it’s about the “uprising of everyday citizens” against “the rise of this managerial class in democracies around the world.” 

“These are the unelected class leaders that ultimately, I think, are using the bureaucratic power to supplant the will of everyday – not only Americans but Canadians and Western Europeans too – and that’s why we’re seeing a fusion of both the left and the right here saying that, ‘Actually we want our voices heard. We want to be able to speak without fear of putting food on the dinner table,’” Ramaswamy said. 

A girl and her family walk through a line of truckers, handing out thank-you notes
(Lisa Bennatan/Fox News Digital)

Maher asked himself “why truckers” specifically were organizing such a protest and went on to answer his own question by pointing out they were the ones making the deliveries to the people working from home during the pandemic. 

“You didn’t use that word ‘elitist’ in your whole speech, but, like, that’s the word I think is on people’s tongues and minds,” Maher told Ramaswamy. “There is this idea, and it’s not wrong, that some people are staying home in their Lululemons and other people can afford to, like, wait out and get a free vacation and money from the government, and other people can’t. And they’re p—ed off- the people who can’t.” 

BILL MAHER SLAMS CANCEL CULTURE AFTER WHOOPI GOLDBERG, JEFF ZUCKER SCANDALS

Trudeau sounds ‘like Hitler’

The HBO star then took aim at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who he initially thought was a “cool guy,” for his vicious attacks toward the unvaccinated throughout the pandemic and his smearing of the trucker protesters. 

“He was talking about people who are not vaccinated. He said, ‘They don’t believe in science. They’re often misogynistic, often racist,'” Maher said, quoting Trudeau.

“No, they’re not,” Maher reacted. “He said, ‘But they take up space. And with that we have to make a choice in terms of a leader as a country. Do we tolerate these people?’ 

“‘Tolerate these people’? Now you do sound like Hitler,” Maher said.

“And recently, he talked about them holding unacceptable views… I mean, c’mon!” Maher exclaimed. “I think that’s what get under people’s skin.”

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said that he had tested positive for coronavirus, speaks during a media availability held at an undisclosed location, near Ottawa, Canada, Jan. 31, 2022.  (Reuters)

Maher went on to cite a New York Times report about the $800 billion in COVID relief that was spent and how “72% of it “ended up in the households with income in the top 20%.”

“I think this is what the truckers are mad at … all that money went up to the people who are in the top 20%?” Maher asked. 

MAHER PANICS ABOUT DEM PROSPECTS IN 2024: ‘AMERICA HAS LOST ITS FAITH IN JOE’ AND ‘THEIR BENCH IS SO THIN!’

‘The system is so corrupt’

“This is what people are angry at because the system is so corrupt. The system is so corrupt, and it’s not just corporate elites, it’s the corporate elites who are corrupting the system because of the money that corporation, their undue influence on a very, very corrupt government. This corruption is so baked into the cake and, of course, people are angry, people are enraged and they are legitimately enraged,” former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said.

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“The Small Business Administration tried to keep it secret. They said because of privacy, they didn’t want to let out the numbers. And the judge said, ‘Oh no, the people need to know this’ and made those numbers public. So what’s happening is the people are getting receipts for what we have been feeling for so long. This kind of economic injustice, this type of structural rigging so that whenever there’s a problem, take care of the people who already have, and then the rest of the people who don’t have — well, good luck. We’ll drop a few crumbs to you. It’s been going on for decades, people have felt it, they acted on it, and now we are getting the receipts,” Williamson added. 

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Sports

Oakland A’s outfielder Ramon Laureano suspended 80 games for PED violation

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Oakland Athletics outfielder Ramon Laureano was suspended 80 games without pay by Major League Baseball on Friday after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

MLB said Laureano, a 27-year-old who is in his fourth season with the A’s, tested positive for nandrolone, a performance-enhancing drug. The suspension is effective immediately.

Laureano denied that he knowingly took the banned substance in a statement released by the players’ association and said he “was shocked” when he learned about the positive test.

“I have worked too hard and given too much to this sport to disrespect or cheat the game that I love,” he said in the statement. “I would never do anything to dishonor my family, teammates, and coaches or do anything to let down the many young ball players that look up to me.

“I take great care of my body and have an extremely regimented diet. Based on the minuscule amount that was briefly in my body, I’ve learned that it is likely that it was contamination of something I ingested.

“I have been educated about PEDs through the RBI program and Baseball Factory while growing up. I know I don’t need any of that to perform on the baseball field. All my athletic success has come from my hard work, focus and dedication to the game.”

The penalty came down just over four hours before the A’s were to begin a weekend home series against the Texas Rangers.

“The A’s were disappointed to learn of this suspension. We fully support MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program and we will welcome Ramón back after the discipline has been served,” the A’s said in a statement.

Fellow A’s outfielder Starling Marte, acquired by Oakland in a trade July 28, was suspended 80 games by MLB for testing positive for the same substance in 2017 while he was the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Laureano is hitting .246 with 14 homers and 39 RBIs in 88 games this season. He has regularly made highlight-reel throws from center field to save runs.

Oakland, the reigning AL West champion having reached the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, is in second place behind the rival Houston Astros in the division race.

“I’d like to apologize for the distraction that this might cause my teammates, Billy Beane, David Forst, and the entire Oakland organization, community, and fan base,” Laureano said. “I am devastated. Anyone who truly knows me as a person knows how much I love the game and that I would never intentionally do something like this.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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