Everyone knows the story by now, J.C. Romero will be banned for 50 games for violating Major League Baseball's substance abuse policy. However it seems that not everyone has heard the entire story, and the national media is largely at fault at that. The MLB is clearly in the wrong here, but without Romero's side of the story in the national light, no one will know.

So, here is Romero's side to the story, as reported by philly.com in the link listed above.

Each July, Romero begins his weight training regimen, and while this goes on he takes a supplement. He went to a retail store in New Jersey to get his usual supplement, which was not there. Instead he took a new product, called 6-OXO Extreme, which was on the shelf next to where his usual product would have been.

The Major League Baseball Players' Association has said in the past that supplements purchased over the counter in retail stores should be safe within the guidelines given in the substance abuse policy. A letter was sent out in November to the players noting 3 supplements that had been found would cause positive test results.

When Romero first got the supplement he gave it to the Phillies strength coach,  and his personal nutrientionist. The nutrientionist saw nothing on the label that was on MLB's banned list. According to the arbitrator, the Phillies strength coach sent a sample to the MLB for testing. The tests revealed that there was something in the supplement that would cause a positive test, these results were then sent to Bud Selig in July.

Romero gave a random drust test in August and September--both were positive. However, Romero wasn't informed about his first test testing positive until four days after he took the second test. According to Romero, he stopped taking the supplement immediately. After not accepting a deal from baseball, arbitration was then held in Tampa Bay, in the morning before Game 1 and Game 2 of the World Series, which Romero obviously lost

This is just another gaffe that has occured during Bud Selig's tenure as MLB Commishioner. There was no intent to cheat, Romero followed the rules, yet he will be banned from baseball for 50 games. Worse of all, Romero's story probably won't come to light in the public eye.