HOUSTON — In 2018, Jon Singleton requested his launch from the Houston Astros after being suspended 100 video games following a 3rd failed marijuana take a look at whereas within the minors, selecting to stroll away from baseball fairly than face the suspension and all the things that got here with it.

“I just didn’t want to play baseball anymore,” he advised The Associated Press earlier this month. “I knew I had to serve 100 games, and serving 100 games with this organization and the position I was in was not going to be a good thing for me. It was going to take me down a dark road. So, at that point, I just wanted to be done with baseball and kind of get away from everything.”

A yr later, marijuana was faraway from MLB’s banned substances checklist. It could be a pair extra years earlier than the left-handed slugger returned to organized baseball within the Mexican League.

He returned to the majors for the primary time since 2015 this season, first with Milwaukee and now again with the Astros. The former high prospect, now 31, wonders what his profession might have been if marijuana - at the moment authorized in 23 states - was taken off the banned substances checklist sooner.

“I definitely think the way things are handled now, my career would have definitely been a lot different,” he mentioned. “From the way the players see things, the way staff sees things, the way it’s even handled in the commissioner’s office, my career definitely would have been a lot different.”

He’s trying to discover success within the majors for the primary time this season and is getting prolonged taking part in time at first base with José Abreu out with an damage. Singleton starred for the Astros in his first residence sport Friday evening with two homers and a career-high 5 RBIs.

PHOTOS: Astros' Singleton ponders what profession might have been if minor league marijuana testing ended sooner

His profession so far has been noteworthy principally due to his repeated marijuana suspensions.

His first constructive take a look at got here in June 2012 and the second in December of that yr. He was suspended 50 video games for every of these and spent a month in a rehabilitation middle after the second.

Before the 2014 season, he shared his struggles with marijuana in a candid interview with the AP.

“At this point it’s pretty evident to me that I’m a drug addict,” he mentioned then. “I don’t openly tell everyone that, but it’s pretty apparent to myself. I know that I enjoy smoking weed, I enjoy being high and I can’t block that out of my mind that I enjoy that.”

Despite his suspensions, the Astros signed him to a $10 million, five-year contract that summer time simply earlier than he made his main league debut June 3. At that point, main league gamers weren't examined for marijuana.

He was unable to copy his minor league success within the majors and performed in simply 114 video games for the Astros in 2014 and 2015. He was quickly again within the minors - and topic to marijuana testing once more.

He spent 2016 in Triple-A and was in Double-A the complete 2017 season earlier than being slapped together with his final suspension.

The stigma of his constructive checks dogged him for years, and he mentioned many made assumptions about him due to them.

“People thought I was a bad person. I had bad character,” he mentioned. “People didn’t think I deserved the success I had, the money that I had. I was definitely vilified.”

Though loads of others have been suspended for constructive drug checks, Singleton felt just like the poster youngster for baseball’s ban on minor league marijuana use.

“I was definitely made an example of,” he mentioned. “But I’m just glad that things have changed for the better now.”

The suspensions took a toll on his psychological well being. At the time of his final one, Singleton mentioned he merely “wasn’t in a good spot.” He used the time away from baseball to work on himself and concentrate on being a superb father to his younger daughter.

“There were a lot of things I did, from going to therapy, to consistently working out and changing my diet,” he mentioned. “There’s a lot of different things I did in life that contributed to me becoming a different person.”

Singleton mentioned the most important factor that helped him throughout that stretch was remedy.

“It helped me work through a lot,” he mentioned. “It helped me work through anxiety, it helped me work through depression, helped me work through substance abuse.”

Back then, Singleton felt like individuals wouldn’t even contemplate the doable advantages of marijuana.

“I think a lot of that is people were so close-minded when it comes to things like that,” he mentioned. “So, they were not even open to the idea of this being something that can help someone. But everyone has their own opinions. Everyone’s life is affected differently by everything. So, it’s something I can’t really be mad at.”

He believes attitudes on the topic have shifted in the previous couple of years amid a wave of states decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana.

“I definitely get the vibe from the players to the coaching staff that this is not really an issue that anyone’s worried about,” he mentioned. “They’ve all moved forward from it.”

Astros supervisor Dusty Baker advised the AP that whereas he doesn’t know Singleton properly but, he’s under no circumstances involved about his previous. He mentioned Rick Sweet, who manages Milwaukee’s Triple-A group, known as him after Singleton signed with the Astros to say that “he was one of the best guys that he ever had in his life.”

“I’m not here to judge anybody on past crimes that are no longer crimes, because we could all be judged on past crimes,” Baker mentioned. “But who are we to judge each other?”

Baker mentioned he had a chat with Singleton when he arrived in Houston however declined to present particulars of the interplay. He mentioned everybody has a previous and that he offers with gamers primarily based on his interactions with them and nothing else.

“I tell everybody when they come to my team, everybody comes with a jacket, which is a reputation,” Baker mentioned. “And it’s up to you to enhance that jacket or delete the jacket and I’m willing to give you another shot.”

And whereas Singleton mentioned marijuana is not a giant a part of his life and that he solely makes use of it “sparingly” now, he’s glad that gamers aren’t penalized for it anymore.

“I think it helps a lot of people, a lot of people can handle the daily stress better, whether it’s with CBD or marijuana,” he mentioned. “So, I think it helps a lot.”

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