Well, you don’t hear this one every day.
Fernando Tatis Sr., father of the major league slugger of the same name who was recently banned for 80 games due to a positive PED test, says that his son’s positive test is the result of a bad haircut.
Speaking to MLB insider Hector Gomez, the elder Tatis says that when his son’s barber cut his hair in a way that left a fungus, his son sought relief from a medicine that included a substance that is banned under Major League Baseball’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
Fernando Tatis Jr. #23 of the San Diego Padres bats against the San Francisco Giants in the top of the first inning at Oracle Park on October 02, 2021, in San Francisco, California. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
“All of this has happened because of something that is not worth this issue,” Tatís Sr. said. “This is something for the skin, that’s something that’s not performance enhancing and has no testosterone. It has nothing to help you improve in the game.”
Tatis Sr. blasted MLB’s decision to follow through with a hefty suspension despite the “mistake.”
“It was a mistake that could have been handled differently,” Tatís Sr. said. “Destroy the image of a player for such a small thing, for a situation like this is a catastrophe not just for Tatís Jr., but for all baseball.
“There’s millions of fans that will stop watching baseball.”
In his explanation of the incident, Tatis Jr. backed up his father’s claim that the positive test stemmed from a skin condition. Though, he accepted full responsibility for the positive test.
“I should have used the resources available to me in order to ensure that no banned substances were in what I took,” he said. “I failed to do so.”