Manny Ramirez Suspended 50 Games for Taking Female Fertility Drug

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs is calling the Manny Ramirez situation a "great embarrassment on Major League Baseball." (AP Image)"]

The Los Angeles Dodgers are going to have to play the next 50 games without their star outfielder, Manny Ramirez. The 36-year-old player has tested positive for a banned substance on Thursday.

Although he claims to have "taken and passed 15 drug tests over the past five seasons," Ramirez failed a recent drug test administered during spring training. The drug in question is HCG, which is most often prescribed to women as a fertility stimulant. In men, it can be used to boost testosterone production.

"It's not infrequently part of the mix of the poly-drug approach to doping," said Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of the committee that determines the banned-substances list for the World Anti-Doping Agency. "It typically is used most when people are coming off a cycle to restore to normal biophysiological feedback mechanisms."

In his apology to his fans, Ramirez said that he was "sorry" and added that he was taking the medication on the advice of his doctor, for a "personal issue."

"He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me," Ramirez said in a statement issued by the players' union.

In addition to the suspension, Ramirez will also lose $7,650,273 of his $25 million salary. (Read the whole story and apology on the Los Angeles Dodgers website, the first to report on the incident.)

The Dodgers are at home against the Washington Nationals tonight and are in the midst of an impressive winning streak, which they hope to extend without Ramirez. Oddsmakers currently have the Dodgers listed as 155-moneyline favorites versus the Nationals, while the game's total is sitting at 9.

Get all your MLB baseball odds at the Bodog Sportsbook.