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Representatives for Manny Ramirez contemplated filing for a therapeutic-use exemption about the same time the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger was suspended last season under baseball's drug policy, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Ramirez's high-powered agent Scott Boras was among those close to Ramirez who ultimately decided not ask for the medical waiver, although the Times said the idea of asking for exemption was brought up again after Ramirez returned from a 50-day ban for taking human chorionic gonadotropin.
A Dodgers spokesman told the Times that the team never looked into asking for such an exemption and Ramirez declined to discuss the matter.
The granting of therapeutic-use exemptions has been a touchy subject for Major League Baseball. At a hearing in 2008, Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) took issue with the 103 therapeutic-use exemptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs issued in 2007, a rate much higher than the general population. Ritalin and Adderall are stimulants that are often prescribed to combat ADHD, and it was seen as a maneuver by players looking to get around MLB's ban on stimulants.
But getting human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) approved by baseball's independent administrator that issues medical exemptions would be a difficult challenge. The drug coaxes the body into producing more testosterone and it's usually only prescribed for female fertility.
While rare, sports governing bodies have approved the use of testosterone or testosterone boosters. Those exemptions, however, are usually only granted for male athletes whose ability to produce testosterone is diminished in the aftermath of testicular cancer or another disease.
Ramirez argued in a statement that his use of hCG was inadvertent.
"Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue," Ramirez said. "He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy."
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