Kansas City Royals infielder Miguel Tejada has been suspended 105 games after testing positive for an amphetamine in violation of Major League Baseball's drug program. 
 
 The suspension of the 2002 American League MVP is effective immediately, the Office of the Commissoner announced Saturday. 
 
 "I admitted I made a mistake. But I want people to understand one thing: I wasn't using a drug to take advantage on the field, or be stronger or hit more home runs," Tejada said to Enrique Rojas of ESPNdeportes.com from his home in Florida. 
 
 "I've been using it [Adderall] for the past five years and had medical permission from MLB. But my last permit expired on April 15 and they didn't gave me another. I knew that I was in risk of breaking the rules, but at the same time, I could not stop using the medicine because I suffer from ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder]. It's not a vice, it is a disease." 
 
 Tejada had previously tested positive under the league's amphetamine policy, so he was subject to a 25-game ban for a second test and an 80-game suspension for a third, both of which occurred while playing for the Royals this season. 
 
 "It doesn't matter if you're MVP or king of the world. If you're going to do things that are illegal, you're going to get caught for it and you're going to get suspended," Royals pitcher James Shields said. "It's a shame because I really like him a lot as a teammate." 
 
 Tejada's ban is the third-longest non-lifetime suspension handed down by MLB, behind Alex Rodriguez's pending 211-game ban and Steve Howe's 119-game sanction in 1992. He also is the third former MVP to be suspended this season under baseball's drug program, joining Rodriguez and Ryan Braun (65 games) of the Milwaukee Brewers. 
 
 Yahoo Sports! reported Tejada's suspension comes after the 39-year-old twice tested positive for Adderall. 
 
 "It is unfortunate for me that things have not gone well, but I want people to be clear about my condition, which affects many other people in the world. When I do not take my medicine, I cannot focus properly, and even forget things very easily," Tejada said. 
 
 Tejada, who signed a one-year deal with the Royals last offseason, will begin serving the suspension while on the 60-day disabled list with a strained calf muscle. He would need to fulfill the remainder of the suspension next season before he's eligible to play. 
 
 Tejada was hitting .288 with three homers and 20 RBIs in 53 games before getting hurt. 
 
 Despite the punishment, Tejada said he did not plan to retire from baseball, and will try to get a contract for next year. 
 
 "I hope to get the contract, and if possible, the renewal of my permission to use a drug which I depend less each time," he said. 
 
 Tejada hurt his calf last Saturday while diving for a ball in the seventh inning of a loss to the Red Sox. He wound up on the DL, and was transferred to the 60-day disabled list -- effectively ending his season -- when the Royals acquired utility man Emilio Bonifacio earlier this week. 
 
 "He definitely played well," Shields said. "I've faced him for many, many years and he's one of the best situational hitters that I've ever seen. I never really knew him. To know how he was a teammate and as a player? He was phenomenal." 
 
 In 2009, Tejada became the first high-profile player convicted of a crime stemming from baseball's steroids era when he plead guilty to misleading Congress about the use of performance-enhancing drugs. 
 
 Under a plea agreement with the same prosecutors that pursued a perjury indictment against Roger Clemens, Tejada admitted he withheld information about an ex-teammate's use of steroids and human growth hormone when questioned by a House committee's investigators in August 2005. 
 
 Tejada, a six-time All-Star, also previously acknowledged he bought HGH while playing for the Oakland Athletics, but said he threw the drugs away without using them. 
 
 Information from ESPNdeportes.com's Enrique Rojas and The Associated Press was used in this report. 

 Kansas City Royals infielder Miguel Tejada has received a 105-game suspension after twice testing positive for Adderall, a penalty that could end the career of the 39-year-old former American League MVP. 
 
 Because Tejada had previously tested positive under the league’s amphetamine policy, he was subject to a 25-game ban for a second positive, which was found in a test this season. A third positive, in close proximity to the second, called for an additional 80-game suspension, totaling a concurrent 105. 
 
 It will be the third-longest non-lifetime suspension ever levied by MLB, behind Alex Rodriguez’s pending 211-game ban and Steve Howe’s 119-day sanction in 1992. 
 
 Widespread amphetamine use throughout baseball led to a crackdown in 2006, though the drugs remain prevalent in clubhouses through therapeutic-use exemptions granted by MLB’s medical staff. Last season, the league gave 116 TUEs for players diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, allowing them to use drugs prescribed to treat ADD without repercussions. 
 
 Tejada did not appeal the penalties and will begin serving them immediately from the 60-day disabled list, where the Royals placed him this week with a strained calf. After serving the remaining 41 games in Kansas City’s season, Tejada would be ineligible to play in the first 64 games of 2014, though one source close to Tejada indicated he is strongly leaning toward retiring. 
 
 It would end an up-and-down career that peaked with the 2002 AL MVP and saw its nadir when he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2005 about his knowledge of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. Though Tejada never was suspended for PED use, he later admitted to buying more than $6,000 worth of human growth hormone, which he claimed to have thrown away before injecting. 
 
 By then, he had parlayed his success in Oakland into a $72 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles, who after four years traded him to Houston. In 2008, his first season with the Astros, Tejada admitted he had falsified his age before signing with Oakland by two years, and he was actually 34, not 32. 
 
 After bouncing around among four teams from 2009-11 and spending 2012 in Triple-A, Tejada looked better than he had in years playing for Aguilas of the Dominican Winter League. After starting at third base for the World Baseball Classic-winning Dominican team, Tejada made the Royals as a utilityman and resurrected his career as the team’s everyday second baseman before the injury sidelined him. 
 
 The only other player to receive an 80-game suspension for amphetamines was utilityman Neifi Perez, who, like Tejada, tested positive twice within a month during the 2007 season.Were Tejada to continue playing and test positive a fourth time, he would receive a lifetime ban. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports: 
 
 • Report: Ryan Braun ready to admit PED use and apologize 
 
 • Yankees' Alfonso Soriano ties MLB record with 18 RBIs in four games 
 
 • The Juice: Braves up NL East lead to 15 1/2 games thanks to Justin Upton 
 
 
 
 
 

– Kansas City Royals infielder and six-time All Star Miguel Tejada has been suspended for a whopping 105 games after twice testing positive for an amphetamine. It's not quite the 211-game ban A-Rod is facing, but it's still the third-highest non-lifetime ban in MLB history, reports ESPN. Why so high? Tejada has tested positive for drugs before, so he faced an automatic 25-game ban when he tested positive for Adderall this season. But shortly after, he tested positive a third time, netting him an additional 80-game suspension, Yahoo! Sports reports. Tejada was charged in 2009 for lying to Congress about teammates' drug use, and previously admitted to buying $6,000 of human growth hormone, but claimed he never used it. He is not appealing the suspension, which will begin immediately—though he was sitting on the bench anyway, thanks to a strained calf muscle. A source tells Yahoo! Tejada is now "strongly" considering retiring.