The made-up stories from Fernando Tatis Jr.’s camp about PED mistaken for tinea and/or fungus for a “bad haircut” belie the reality that he never said a word when it it mattered.
When Tatis found out about his drug test failure a few weeks ago, he didn’t argue, protest and ultimately force his test result to be presented to a referee as he is entitled to. It’s said Tatis was one of the clearest drug fraud cases on record – with the failure coming just a couple of weeks before the announcement, possibly delayed by just a couple of hours or a day to bury the news on a Friday night.
Of course, that couldn’t be buried, because Tatis is a “transformational” player who helped transform San Diego into a baseball hotspot, arguably one of baseball’s greatest talents and the signing of a record $340 million contract.
Although Tatis is unavailable well into the 2023 season due to a combination of mistakes of his own making, including motorcycle accidents and the wrist injury that was kept secret until his injured arrival in the spring, that contract is likely to remain in place barring any more developments are available.
According to connoisseurs, the drug push was simply stupid. “Clostebol is not what makes him a great player,” is the belief of one informed person. At best, it helps “on the edge”. Also, Tatis wasn’t even playing when he broke in midsummer.
Fernando Tatis offered apologies for his PED suspension but didn’t question them. AP Photo
In any case, there hasn’t been much sympathy for Tatis – not from teammates, media or fans – since he failed the steroid test and his camp followed with a statement making the ridiculous claim that he’d been arrested because he accidentally took the anabolic steroid when he was taking a medication for ringworm. However, if some quack prescribes the wrong drug, they would also have documentation from a doctor or pharmacist for a real complaint, not just wild words for the internet.
None of the drug scammers ever get completely clean, but Tatis may be the first case in which parents have fallen into the well-known act of denial. While they didn’t affect anyone, it perhaps shed some light on why Tatis would choose to go this route.
First the mother tried to back up the tinea story with pictures on Instagram (apparently these have since been deleted), then the father, the former St. Louis Cardinals player, came up with the fantastic story that it came from a spray that he had earlier treated a “fungus due to a haircut,” as he tells respected journalist Hector Gomez.
Of course, no one outside of the Tati family actually believed any of these stories. Padres leader Joe Musgrove summed it up well, saying he was “a little bit depressed, a little bit pissed off”.
Only a few former stars blamed MLB, including David Ortiz.
“MLB needs to have some sort of regulation before they post public news [what happened] to Fernando Tatis Jr,” Ortiz said (also via Gomez). “We cannot kill our product. We’re talking about a great player.”
Of course, MLB can’t decide to only suspend average players, so it’s unclear what Ortiz thinks — although Rob Manfred’s continued support of Big Papi after he was revealed by the New York Times that he failed the 2003 poll’s steroid test, has clearly disappeared unnoticed.
Anyway, Tatis has time to revive his reputation. Starling Marte did it. He failed a test but made no BS excuses and continues to post similar numbers while testing clean. Tatis should have admitted he had taken the PED but hinted he was keen to get back on the field after his serious injury – if that was indeed the reason.
He still has 13 years to close his deal, plenty of time to change his ways. Tatis needs to surround himself with a better class of people. He’s only 23 so hopefully it’s not too late.