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Dozen More Players Suspended

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Kathy Willens
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

A dozen more Major League Baseball players were suspended on Monday for taking performance-enhancing drugs at Biogenesis, a Coral Gables “anti-aging” clinic, the Miami New Times reports. Eleven were suspended for 50 games, but New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez drew 211 games -- a penalty he called unfair and said he would contest. Rodriguez will be allowed to keep playing while the appeal continues. 

In all, 13 players have been suspended,  including one named last month: the Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun, whose suspension is for 65 games.

In light of the scandal, the Florida High School Athletic Association announced in a Monday email that it will be holding a call with reporters to describe what they’re calling “an aggressive step designed to target performance-enhancing drug use by student athletes,” the Miami Herald reports (Editor’s note: Readers may encounter paywall).

But, the association lacks the power to test for such drugs, and most schools do not have the budget to give their own drug tests. So far, the list of Biogenesis customers that felled the pros reportedly also included two high school players.

In 2007, a legislative grant funded a random testing program and screened 600 players at a cost of $105,000. But the costly operation yielded only one guilty football player.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.