Sunday, June 18, 2006

Ex-Met Segui In IRS Affidavit [J. Mark English]

The following is from ESPN:

David Segui, a 15-year major league baseball player who last was on an MLB roster in 2004, says he's one of the players whose names were redacted in the IRS affidavit that said Jason Grimsley received two kits of human growth hormone on April 19.
In the affidavit, Grimsley told IRS investigators that a player "told him of a doctor in Florida that he was using at a wellness center to obtain human growth hormone ... the player told him, "If you are going to do this, you should do it right."
Segui told ESPN's Jeremy Schaap in an interview Saturday that he is that player, but said he was under a doctor's prescription at the time.
"It was almost word for word the conversation we had, except there's a couple of key words left out," Segui told Schaap. "You know, 'legal' was one of the major -- probably the most major omission in the affidavit ... I was, you know, deemed human growth hormone deficient through blood work ... the doctor put me on human growth hormone, monitored my levels, monitored blood level, blood work periodically, regularly.
"... It was perfectly legal," Segui said. "You know, I was under doctor's prescription."
Segui played for seven teams during his career. Baseball has banned HGH and toughened its testing for other steroids, but there is no reliable test for HGH.
Segui showed ESPN a prescription for HGH from 2003, and said he continues to take HGH today. He said Grimsley came to him this past offseason, seeking advice about HGH, and how it might help him recover from Tommy John surgery.