Rocker denies having HGH prescription
But former reliever admits he used the substance

by Michael Hill

ASSOCIATED PRESS - March 8, 2007

Albany, N.Y. - Former major league relief pitcher John Rocker told ESPN
Radio on Wednesday he never bought human growth hormone with a prescription.

On Tuesday, SI.com reported Rocker showed up on a client list of Applied Pharmacy, a mobile, Ala., company raided in connection with a nationwide investigation in the illegal sale of steroids.
"I never had a prescription for any HGH," Rocker told ESPN Radio's "The Herd." "If somebody's got a beef to make with me, show me a prescription."
SI.com reported Rocker received two prescriptions for somatropin, a form of HGH, between April and July 2003.

"I was trying to pitch all the way up until a week before I had my shoulder surgery. And obviously feeling as bad as I was, I called every doctor that I could (to find out) what can I do to strengthen my shoulder and give me more arm strength," Rocker said. "Every one of them said go to GNC, buy something over the counter, human growth hormone, these several amino acids ... basically (that) is the way it's done."

Rocker's publicist told the Daily News the pitcher admitted to taking HGH, now banned by Major League Baseball, for medical reasons. "That was a growth hormone prescribed by a doctor in relation to his rotator cuff surgery in 2003, so I don't think there is anything to the story," publicist Debi Curzio said in Wednesday's editions.

SI.com also reported that major leaguer David Bell, 1996 Olympic wrestling gold medalist Kurt Angle and Victor Martinez, winner of the latest Ohio bodybuilding competition named for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, were Applied Pharmacy clients.

Bell told SI.com he received the shipment of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) last April but said the drug was prescribed "for a medical condition," which he declined to disclose.

As additional athletes were linked to the scandal, two more people were arraigned Tuesday on drug-related charges.

Steven and Karen Lampert of Anti-Aging Centers in Nanuet pleaded not guilty in an Albany County, N.Y., courtroom and were released without bail. They are charged with submitting prescriptions to Florida pharmacy - some "obviously forged" according to district attorney - for drugs totaling more than $50,000 for people without medical need.

Steven Lampert is charged with 20 counts, his wife with two. Prosecutors describe the Lamperts as "criminal associates" of Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Fla. Albany County District Attorney David Soares says Signature was at the center of a web of businesses and doctors that illegally wrote prescriptions for steroids.