Former Met Carlos Delgado to be Questioned Regarding HGH & Anthony Galea

According to the New York Daily News, former Met Carlos Delgado, who was acquired via trade from the Marlins before the 2006 season and played with the Mets until his retirement in 2009, will be questioned regarding his relationship with hGH (human Growth Hormone) provider Anthony Galea:

"Former Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado will be questioned Wednesday about his relationship with the human growth hormone guru, and whether he used performance-enhancing drugs, in a deposition on Long Island, a source familiar with the case told the Daily News."

Galea, who was based out of Toronto, treated a number of high profile athletes in addition to Delgado, including Alex Rodriguez, Tiger Woods, Carlos Beltran, and Jose Reyes.  According to the Daily News, Galea denied ever providing those athletes with banned substances.

This development with Delgado doesn’t stem from a smoking gun or any evidence that he used banned substances (from Galea or anyone else).  Rather, Delgado is being questioned due to a lawsuit Delgado filed in 2009 against memorabilia dealer Spencer Lader that claimed Lader and his partners owed Delgado $767,500 from a 2006 autograph deal.

In response, Lader asked the court to investigate whether Delgado had ever used performance-enhancing drugs, arguing that if he did, the autographs Delgado provided to him and his partners would be close to worthless.  Lader notes that he isn’t accusing Delgado of using banned substances, but that he has “a right to know if he did.”

Thoughts:

On its face, this seems simply like a relationship gone wrong.  Delgado signed a deal with memorabilia dealers, the deal went sour, and Delgado filed a lawsuit.  In return, the memorabilia dealers are asking investigators to grill Delgado about whether he ever used performance-enhancing drugs – noting that his autograph would be worthless if he did (making his lawsuit worthless in the process).

At present, there’s no reason to believe that Delgado is guilty of anything.  At the same time, the amount of names that have been outed as cheaters, there isn’t one athlete that I’d truly be surprised about being outed as a user.  However, that doesn’t mean Delgado was one.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow@RisingAppleBlog on Twitter and Instagram, and Like Rising Apple’s Facebook page  to keep up with the latest news, rumors, and opinion.