"Mike Jacobs wanted to be remembered by people around the baseball world and, unfortunately, he succeeded.

"I'm trying to show baseball people that I don't belong in Triple- A," Jacobs told The Denver Post last week. "There are times when you think you've been forgotten. I want an opportunity to be remembered — if not with the Rockies, with another big-league team."

Jacobs will be remembered, all right. He'll be remembered as the first ballplayer ever suspended for testing positive for human growth hormone. On Thursday, Jacobs was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball, prompting his immediate release by the Rockies.

Jacobs, a first baseman with 100 major-league home runs on his resume, was signed by the Rockies in December as insurance in case Todd Helton? experienced long- term back problems. Jacobs had spent the entire season at Triple-A Colorado Springs, where he was hitting .298 with 23 home runs and 97 RBIs in 117 games.

According to the MLB commissioner's office, Jacobs, 30, is the first athlete in any North American professional sport to test positive for HGH. A British rugby player tested positive last year, and a German cyclist was caught in March using HGH."