Posted at 1:20 a.m., Friday, August 10, 2007
Baseball: American 1st player to fail drug test in Japan
By Jim Armstrong
Associated Press
The commissioner of Japan professional baseball said today that Rick Guttormson tested positive for a banned substance and has been suspended for 20 days. Guttormson pitches for the Softbank Hawks in Japan's Pacific League
Japanese baseball officials said a postgame test July 13 revealed Finasteride in Guttormson's system. Finasteride was in a hair-growing agent Guttormson had been taking for two years. It's banned because it can be used as a masking agent.
Guttormson is 5-6 this season with a 3.37 ERA for the Hawks. He was the winning pitcher in Thursday night's 5-1 win over the Seibu Lions.
Guttormson, a native of Torrance, Calif., who has no major league experience, is in his third season in Japan, with the highlight being a no-hitter in 2006 when he played for the Yakult Swallows of the Central League.
This isn't the first time an athlete has run into trouble using hair-growth tonic.
In 2006, NHL goalie Jose Theodore failed a drug test prior to the Olympic Games.
It was later revealed to be caused by hair-growth supplements that Theodore had been taking legally for eight years.
The hair supplement Theodore was using, Propecia, could be used as a masking agent for the performance-enhancing drug Nandrolone.
The goalie did not face any punishment from the NHL because he had received approval for therapeutic use, but was suspended from international play for two years.
