Colabello

He denies that he did it, and says he has no idea how it got in this system. More than that, he has pointed out that he had 19-20 drug tests in the last 4 years with no problems. He has also noted that he got caught after he made it to the Big Leagues - there was no question that he would be a starter this year, so why cheat? Finally, he has said that he will not rest until he gets to the bottom of this mystery!

Regardless of the denials, the fact is that Chris Colabello was caught with dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (DHCMT) or Oral Turinabol in his system, apparently in the first day of training camp.

What is this stuff?

Turinabol was the steroid of choice for use by the notorious East German doping campaign from the 1960s to the late 1980s. It is no longer legitimately produced, and is only available on the black market (i.e. on the Internet). It has been illegal worldwide for at least a decade.

This stuff doesn't mistakenly make its way into your Cornflakes on occasion. It only exists for purposes of illicit, drug-based cheating. Saying you didn't know how this got into your system is very close to someone saying they didn't know how a blood-covered knife got into their hand as they are caught standing over the corpse of their most hated, sworn enemy. Really?

The Blue Jays claim that Colabello was only supplied with approved stimulants during his time with the team. He also claims that this is true - that he only took what the team gave him, even before he came to training camp. The team was quick to emphasize that he got caught on Day 1 of training camp, subtly suggesting that they could not know what he was doing beforehand.

In short, Colabello is implicitly blaming the team for at least a catastrophic mistake, and the team is blaming him for at least being extremely sloppy with what he was taking beyond what the team gave him.

This should be pretty simple. If the team was supplying others with stimulants before the start of the pre-season, and no one else got a positive test, then Colabello was taking something other than what the team was sending him in the off season. This means he is either a cheater or at least very sloppy.

He is what the world was told was normal in female swimmers coming out of East Germany during their doping campaign in the 1970s....all a product of good living, training, and healthy Socialist eating...



To be fair, these women were not told that they were being given steroids.

Sadly, Colabello's story, at least for now, is just not believable. It would be great if we were to discover that there is some honest explanation out there, but this would be just about the first time that ever happened. The fact is that after the Steroid Era, we are fast approaching a point where anyone caught with PEDs in their system will simply not be given the benefit of the doubt anymore.  You cheat; you get caught; you are gone - simple.