APNEW YORK - New York Mets reliever Scott Schoeneweis has denied a report which claims he received six shipments of steroids from the Signature Pharmacy in Florida in 2003, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
Schoeneweis told the Daily News he was unaware of the allegations and insisted they were unfounded.
“I don’t even know what that is,” said Schoeneweis when asked of the report. “Steroids in Florida? I never received anything from Florida. I’m not going to comment. I never even heard of it.”
“We have no knowledge of the situation. We have no comment,” Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said.
ESPN The Magazine reported on Monday that Schoeneweis received six steroid shipments from Signature Pharmacy, the subject of an ongoing investigation by Albany, New York district attorney David Soares, while playing for the Chicago White Sox from 2003-04.
According to a source in Florida close to the ongoing investigation of Signature, Schoeneweis’ name appeared on packages that were sent to Comiskey Park while he was with the White Sox in 2003.
Two more shipments arrived at the stadium in 2004, months before Schoeneweis, a testicular cancer survivor, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow.
The doctor who prescribed the drugs, Ramon Scruggs, also wrote prescriptions for Toronto third baseman Troy Glaus, according to the report.
Scruggs has since been suspended by California’s state medical board on charges that he “prescribed approximately 6,073 prescriptions of dangerous drugs or controlled substances over the Internet without a good faith examination of the patients.”
Last month, Sports Illustrated reported that Baltimore Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons received shipments of steroids and growth hormones from the Signature pharmacy between 2003 and 2005.
Gibbons met with MLB officials on September 17, afterward telling reporters he was “happy to answer all of their questions,” but he did not elaborate on the situation.
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Soares is accusing Signature’s owners, Stan and Naomi Loomis, of running a prescription mill in which doctors furnished prescriptions online for as little as $25 each without ever meeting patients.
The married pharmacists are charged with unlawfully distributing steroids and other drugs. Another 21 people have been indicted and 10 have pleaded guilty, including five doctors.
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