Bronson Arroyo, honest, selfish, or both?
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Bronson Arroyo, the Reds starting pitcher, is making news by publicly declaring that he is taking diet supplements that are not on the approved list of supplements that have been tested by MLB.
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who last month admitted to using a now-banned supplement earlier in his career, says he uses a number of over-the-counter supplements not on Major League Baseball's approved list, according to a USA Today report.
With the much more stringent anti-enhancement rules in MLB, Arroyo's admission is a rare moment of media-honesty from a MLB player. I can't decide if I'm proud of Arroyo for making his own decisions and publicly stating that he's willing to take the risk of running afoul of MLB's substance abuse policy, or if he's being a selfish ingrate who's risking his team's performance by recklessly taking supplements that could easily land him a 50 game suspension.
The first thing I'll say is that I like Arroyo's honesty. It does a couple of things for me:
• It gives the sports world something interesting to talk about. (Sports is entertainment.)
• It advances the discussion about what is and isn't appropriate as a supplement.
• It serves as fair warning that Arroyo could be on the receiving end of a 50 game suspension in the near future.
• It defuses the potential "steroid" bomb before it explodes.
However, since there are both sports fans and participants, I think I'd be pretty ticked at Arroyo if he were my teammate. Not that the Reds are going anywhere anytime soon, but a 50 game suspension to a starting pitcher is not a laughing matter. Anyone who breaks the substance abuse rules is placing their own performance above the team's. No matter what he says about the comprehensive nature of MLB's approved supplements list, Arroyo would be wiser to stick to the approved list until he's tested his own array of supplements. Afterall, Arroyo admits he was probably on the 2004 substance abusers list because of a spiked supply of Andro. If it can happen once, it will happen again.
Posted by Byron at August 13, 2009 4:13 PM
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