The doctor who allegedly prescribed Manny his drugs is under the federal microscope:
As Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez nears the end of his 50-game suspension, Drug Enforcement Administration investigators are looking at a Miami doctor and his son as the source of his banned performance-enhancing drug, sources familiar with the investigation told ESPN . . . Investigators believe the prescription for human chorionic gonadotropin, known as hCG, was written by Pedro Publio Bosch, 71, a physician who has practiced family medicine in Florida since 1976. His son, Anthony Bosch, 45, is believed to have worked as a contact between his father and Ramirez . . .
. . . Anthony Bosch is well known in Latin American baseball circles, sources say. His relationships with players date at least from the earlier part of the decade, when he was seen attending parties with players and known to procure tickets to big league ballparks, especially in Boston and New York.
If a doctor is writing improper prescriptions, that’s usually a state matter (i.e. the medical board). As far as a federal drug crime matter, the case of Manny Ramirez in and of itself is so small its almost non-existent. I mean, yes, there’s the suggestion of illegality here, but there aren’t exactly hordes of marauding female fertility drug lords shooting up the streets of border towns.
But read that last-quoted bit again -- the part about the doctor’s son knowing lots of ballplayers -- and realize that the feds have generally had their PED-interest limited to those cases in which there are multiple athletes involved: BALCO, Radomski, McNamee, etc. Then realize that, despite the fact that Latin players have constituted a disproportionate number of positive drug tests since the beginning of the testing program, very few of them were named in the Mitchell Report or have had their names mentioned in any of the other high-profile investigations.
Taken together, these facts lead me to wonder whether the Manny Ramirez affair isn’t the beginning of the next big PED story. The Latin-BALCO, if you will.