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Rios Released

July 15, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Just as they said they would in the days after he tested positive for banned substances, the Swallows released pitcher Danny Rios yesterday, according to an announcement from the NPB Commissioner’s office.

Photo by Deanna "Marinerds"

Readers of the Tsubamegun will recall that Rios tested positive for hydroxystanozolol, which can indicate use of the anabolic steroid stanozolol, twice, in tests a month apart. 

Rios appealed his suspension based on the claim that permitted supplements he was taking triggered a false positive in his random doping tests.   He has until July 29th to let the NPB know what steps he will take to make a review of his one-year suspension (still in force) possible. 

Rios was the third player in NPB history to be suspended for doping.  The second, Yomiuri’s Luis Gonzalez, who was suspended in May and released in June, has had his appeal rejected.

Filed Under: 2008 Season, The Team Tagged With: , , ,
  • John Lewis

    Why is it that the only three players that have been suspended for illegal substance usage are all non-Japanese? (Gutthormson, Gonzalez, Rios)

    I totally agree with Bobby V. that the if NPB is going to test players it should test ALL players rather than randomly choosing scapegoats.

  • http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Garrett DeOrio

    Ditto. If testing is truly randomized (which I highly doubt), then the obvious answer would be that use of the substances that are being tested for is less prevalent among Japanese players than foreign players. This could be the case, especially considering that there are more foreign players entering the later part of their careers, who could be looking for that extra boost.

    Or it could be discriminatory.

    Either way, the number of 1-gun ballplayers is finite, known, and monitored. To test all players would not be a herculean task.

  • http://marinerds.blogspot.com Deanna

    Yeah, I think it is pretty weird that they seem to always get a foreigner on every one of these tests. I don’t know how they select people to test, but you know, given the ratio of Japanese to foreigners, it seems odd how it’s worked out.

    Shame about Rios though — I was excited about him coming to Japan and hoped he’d have a good year. And thank you a bazillion, bazillion, bazillion times for crediting me for the photo. :)

  • http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Garrett DeOrio

    Crediting you was the least I could do. Thank you a bazillion times for (now, tacitly) letting us use it. You do great work.

    We were stoked about Rios, too. Oh well. I hate to admit it, but I think I’d be a lot more worked up over the apparent inconsistencies in the drug-testing regime had Rios been living up to the hype.