“All Me, PED Free”  –  On Friday in Texas, Jose Bautista met with a group of young baseball players to discuss the dangers of using performance enhancing drugs in an event organized by the Taylor Hooton Foundation. “I think when they hear it coming from me — I’m still active, I’m still successful and I have taken a pledge to continue to play at this level without the use of prohibitive substances,” Bautista told Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com. “I think the message will go a long way. They’ll go back to all their teams and their high schools and their leagues and they’ll relay those messages, and hopefully that way it reaches more kids.” https://jaysjournal.com/2016/05/15/blue-jays-morning-brew-stroman-canseco-floyd-and-notes/ BAUTISTA BACKS COLABELLO: Jose Bautista addressed local youth baseball players before Friday’s 5-0 win over the Texas Rangers as part of an event hosted by the Taylor Hooton Foundation, which works to educate youth on the dangers of performance-enhancing substances. Later speaking with media, the Blue Jays right-fielder – a charter member of the foundation’s advisory board which features 31 big-league players – backed teammate Chris Colabello, who was suspended 80 games last month after testing positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, a banned steroid best known for its usage in the former East Germany’s doping programs. When Colabello’s ban ends, Bautista said he’ll be welcomed back into the clubhouse “because I truly believe him when he says that he didn’t knowingly take any banned substances.” “If anything,” Bautista continued, “I’m more concerned about the integrity of the program and what can be done to make sure that those systems that are in place are fully transparent and human error is taken into account, and I’m sure that the players’ association is going to be addressing situations like Chris’ and others that might have come up in the last few years. “At some point you have to believe in your people and especially when they’re the type of people like Chris with integrity and that claim that they 100 per cent haven’t done anything wrong. “The issue still exists that for some reason that substance was in his body, so that has to be cleared up as well. So I’m not trying to say that just because he’s a nice guy he can get away with just saying that he didn’t do it, but I think that it needs to be looked at in more detail and applied to his individual situation to make sure that everything that was done was fully transparent and that the testing was not compromised in any way.” In an interview with Sportsnet’s Jamie Campbell, Colabello’s only public comments on his suspension, the first baseman didn’t deny that metabolites of the drug were found in his system, but said, “I don’t know where it came from. I’m still trying to figure out how it got there.” At the Taylor Hooton Foundation event, Bautista shared some advice with the kids, something he feels is his responsibility as a way to repay those who helped him on his ascent to the majors. He added he enjoys such gatherings because it’s a way to reach many people all at once. “I think when they hear it coming from me — I’m still active, I’m still successful and I have taken a pledge to continue to play at this level without the use of prohibitive substances — I think the message will go a long way,” Bautista said. “They’ll go back to all their teams and their high schools and their leagues and they’ll relay those messages and hopefully that way it reaches more kids.” http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-notebook-stromans-duke-commencement-long-time-coming/