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| Bartolo Colon was presumably a lonely man with a secret in the weeks leading up to his suspension last season. (AP) |
In the midst of making a public apology for last year's PED-related suspension, Athletics right-hander Bartolo Colon disclosed the thoroughly awkward timeline of events. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes:
For six weeks before the suspension was announced, Colon said he knew it was coming. "I continued to pitch, but my mind wasn’t good," Colon said of his time in limbo.
Manager Bob Melvin said he did not know until the actual suspension what was going on; he said that initially, only the player and his agent are informed as the process (appeals, re-testing) can be done if necessary.
Last season, the Athletics, as a consequence of Colon's 50-game suspension (of which he has five games remaining), placed him on the restricted list on Aug. 22. Colon's comments and his 2012 game log suggest that he made seven or eight starts encumbered by the knowledge that he was almost certainly facing a lengthy suspension (worth noting: 2.38 ERA over the eight starts in question). As Slusser notes, Melvin knew nothing at the time.
Confidentiality is essential to the appeals process and, in reality, maybe it was better for the team that they didn't know what was ahead for Colon. Still, it was an awkward situation, even if only one man knew of said awkwardness at the time.
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