Interesting Jeff Passan article (no, really!) on A-Rod's treatment.

A-Rod went to Germany for HGH treatment after calling MLB asking for permission. They didn't exactly give him permission, of course.

From the Passan article:

Rodriguez isn’t the only player to have called MLB asking permission for blood spinning. Others have contacted the commissioner’s office, too, and have been told essentially the same thing A-Rod was: do it at your own risk.

A-Rod got the injections in his shoulder and knee.

Alex Rodriguez went to Germany for it, though he just as easily could have gone to Italy or Russia or Israel, where doctors too will draw your blood, spin it in a centrifuge with some sort of proprietary concoction to concentrate the growth factors that purport to prevent arthritis and then inject it back into an injured area. A-Rod got it in his balky right knee and left shoulder. He went on the advice of Kobe Bryant, who received treatment on his right knee.

He brings up some interesting points in the article. If HGH is indeed a treatment that's safe when administered by doctors in correct doses, it shouldn't be banned and it should even be used as regular treatment on ball players.

It was a rather interesting article by Passan and he brought up some good points. I was pleasantly surprised by this for I was expecting a load of crap when I saw that he was the author.

So what do you guys think? Should proper HGH treatment even be banned by MLB? Should it be used as a regular treatment on ball players under the correct conditions? Will A-Rod catch even more crap because people think he's legitimately cheating or because his name is Alex Rodriguez and he plays for the New York Yankees? How do they make the distinction between performance-enhancing drug and treatment?