CINCINNATI -- St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel says he met with Major League Baseball officials earlier this week and answered questions about the human growth hormone he was reportedly prescribed in 2004, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Ankiel met with officials from the commissioner's office on Tuesday in Cincinnati before the Cardinals' series opener with the Reds, Ankiel said, according to the newspaper. MLB sought the meeting after the New York Daily News reported that Ankiel had been shipped HGH by a pharmacy connected to a criminal probe of distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.
"I answered all their questions ... and, absolutely, they were happy I was in full compliance," Ankiel said, according to the Post-Dispatch. Ankiel has said he took what a doctor prescribed him while he was recovering from elbow surgery and declined to address the specifics of what he took, or comment on the validity of the report.
A baseball source told the Post-Dispatch that information collected from the interview might be forwarded to the Mitchell investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.
Under its current drug policy, baseball does not test for HGH and the drug was not banned by Major League Baseball until 2005 -- after Ankiel received the shipments. According to the Daily News report, Ankiel stopped receiving shipments before the ban took effect.
A baseball official declined to confirm the meeting took place, the Post-Dispatch reported. However, a baseball source agreed with a characterization of Tuesday's interview as a "fact-finding trip."
According to reports, records stemming from the criminal probe by the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney's office have shown Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Troy Glaus and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons reportedly received shipments of performance-enhancing drugs from Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Fla. Major League Baseball has requested meetings with both players.
The probe also resulted in New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison and Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson being suspended by the NFL. Harrison has admitted using HGH while recovering from knee and shoulder injuries, while Wilson said he had been using a banned substance to help treat diabetes and impotence.
Source: ESPN.com
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