Baseball might be getting an HGH test

[southsider2k5]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3017042

 

Report: HGH test near, would require union OK

ESPN.com news services

 

Updated: September 13, 2007, 10:27 AM ET

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Major League Baseball is eyeing the development of a mass-use blood test for human growth hormone and would push to have it implemented, USA Today reported.

 

The blood test, which was developed under the oversight of the World Anti-Doping Agency and was used on a limited basis in the 2004 Summer Olympics and 2006 Winter Games, will be available for mass use within months, WADA science director Olivier Rabin told the newspaper. "This is great news, because we strongly believe that human growth hormone is abused in sports," he said.

 

"We're cautiously optimistic," Gary Green, a UCLA doctor and consultant for MLB, told the newspaper. "Talking to [Commissioner Bud Selig,] if the test becomes widely available, he certainly would be in favor of getting that implemented."

 

"If there is a valid blood test, I'm sure baseball will consider it," MLB spokesman Rich Levin told USA Today.

 

 

Adding an HGH test to baseball's drug-testing program would be subject to collective bargaining with the Major League Baseball Players Association. Union executive director Donald Fehr declined comment, USA Today reported.

 

 

The NFL said it was not aware of the test, and NFL players union head Gene Upshaw said he is opposed to blood testing: "There's no way I'm having my guys punched for a blood test every time they walk into a locker room," he told the newspaper.

 

Baseball, which has been dealing with allegations of past performance-enhancing drug use for years, now finds itself facing current players being linked to HGH.

 

 

This month, reports linked St. Louis outfielder Rick Ankiel, Toronto third baseman Troy Glaus and Baltimore outfielder Jay Gibbons to Signature Pharmacy. MLB has asked to meet with the three players and has met with the Abany County (N.Y.) district attorney's office, which is conducting the probe, seeking its cooperation.

 

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

[Balta1701]

If they could get this in place, it would leave MLB 1 step short of what I'd consider my ideal testing system; blood and urine tests, including all known steroids and HGH...but you still need to arrange for some sort of sample storage to allow for testing in the future as new designer steroids are uncovered.

[NorthSideSox72]

Mentioned in the Diamond club. Probably better to have its own thread though, this is a big topic.

 

[southsideirish71]

I am sure that Donny will be open to this. Edited September 13, 2007 by southsideirish71

[Texsox]

I have really mixed feeling on this. I oppose random searches, without some cause, in the workplace. Then I wonder if a MLB Ballpark is a usual workplace. If the cops can not open up your closet without a probable cause, why should we allow someone to open up your vein? But I don't see anyway other than drug checks to assure compliance.

[BobDylan]

I have really mixed feeling on this. I oppose random searches, without some cause, in the workplace. Then I wonder if a MLB Ballpark is a usual workplace. If the cops can not open up your closet without a probable cause, why should we allow someone to open up your vein? But I don't see anyway other than drug checks to assure compliance.

 

The minimum salary in MLB is lucrative as is. I don't need to mention what an average paid player earns. Fact is, they don't deserve that type of money. If they want keep getting that kind of money, pee in a cup every once and awhile and show them some blood.

[NorthSideSox72]

I have really mixed feeling on this. I oppose random searches, without some cause, in the workplace. Then I wonder if a MLB Ballpark is a usual workplace. If the cops can not open up your closet without a probable cause, why should we allow someone to open up your vein? But I don't see anyway other than drug checks to assure compliance.

Eh, I think its akin to physical requirements for certain jobs. Firefighters have to be in a certain level of physical shape for their job, so they require fit test results. They have to be sober and clean, so they drug test. Same here - the physical nature of the job requires certain physical skills, so I think they have the right to make sure the players are clean.

 

[Texsox]

The minimum salary in MLB is lucrative as is. I don't need to mention what an average paid player earns. Fact is, they don't deserve that type of money. If they want keep getting that kind of money, pee in a cup every once and awhile and show them some blood.

 

I have a hard time equating salary with a loss in rights. If there was some cause I can see. In the real world, why ask your 60 year old accountant who has never missed a day of work in twenty years, and no one has seen him take even a sip of beer, for a blood test*?

 

 

* True story by the way. After a merger the new parent company came in and hit us with random tests. Let's just say some of the tests were more random than others.

[BobDylan]

I have a hard time equating salary with a loss in rights. If there was some cause I can see. In the real world, why ask your 60 year old accountant who has never missed a day of work in twenty years, and no one has seen him take even a sip of beer, for a blood test*?

 

 

* True story by the way. After a merger the new parent company came in and hit us with random tests. Let's just say some of the tests were more random than others.

 

I understand what you're saying. But, and correct me if I'm wrong here, the rule says a player may not take performance enhancing drugs. If it's clear players are using them, I don't think anyone's rights are infringed upon. It's also clear that not just a handful of people have taken them. The names of dopers just keep coming and coming.

[Gregory Pratt]

I love it.

 

How many months would we give players to get clean before we start keeping negative tests locked in a drawer somewhere?

[BearSox]

If they could get this in place, it would leave MLB 1 step short of what I'd consider my ideal testing system; blood and urine tests, including all known steroids and HGH...but you still need to arrange for some sort of sample storage to allow for testing in the future as new designer steroids are uncovered.

agreed on all accounts...

[Texsox]

I understand what you're saying. But, and correct me if I'm wrong here, the rule says a player may not take performance enhancing drugs. If it's clear players are using them, I don't think anyone's rights are infringed upon. It's also clear that not just a handful of people have taken them. The names of dopers just keep coming and coming.

 

If it is clear (kind of a pun eh?) that a player is using, then you have probable cause, and should test. Same with the workplace. An airline pilot shouldn't be smoking crack, but do we test everyone before each flight, or watch for behavioral signs and then test?

 

I can see the other side, and would have to say I am uncomfortable, not strongly against.

[Gregory Pratt]

The Union probably won't allow tests.

[NorthSideSox72]

The Union probably won't allow tests.

And if the owners and MLB start them anyway, then the union has a choice - get tested, or not play (aka strike).

 

[Gregory Pratt]

Right. I don't think the league will insist on it, though. They'll bicker and compromise on something that makes it so that you can fail a test but no one will ever know.

[WCSox]

And if the owners and MLB start them anyway, then the union has a choice - get tested, or not play (aka strike).

 

I'll call their bluff right now: they won't strike over additional testing.

 

 

[Gregory Pratt]

I'm calling baseball's bluff: they don't care and have no interest in suspending the game's biggest stars.

[WCSox]

I'm calling baseball's bluff: they don't care and have no interest in suspending the game's biggest stars.

 

If few fans outside of SF care when one of greatest to every play the game (Barry) breaks Aaron's HR record, I'd say that the owners have ample interest in cleaning up the game.

 

[Gregory Pratt]

If few fans outside of SF care when one of greatest to every play the game (Barry) breaks Aaron's HR record, I'd say that the owners have ample interest in cleaning up the game.

 

Ummm, no. They don't want to give up the longball and the league definitely doesn't want its biggest stars testing positive.

[southsider2k5]

The Union probably won't allow tests.

 

The Union might not have a choice. Being a legalized monopoly, baseball doesn't have to submit to the will of labor. As a matter of a fact one of the clauses that Kenesaw Mountain Landis had put in as a condition of his accept the position, was that he could have the power to make unilateral actions. The comissioner of baseball has the authority to act "in the best interest of baseball" if he deems the situation necesary. Tomorrow Bud Selig could say you will all be subject to olympic style testing, and the union would have no choice but to agree to it, or to strike. If the union chose to strike because they didn't want to be drug tested, they would be fried by the media and fans alike. Its the reason that I have believe that Bud Selig has been just as complicit in the baseball drug problem as any player who took steroids or speed. He could have stopped this years ago, but he chose not to do so. Now he has to live with the results.

[NorthSideSox72]

The Union might not have a choice. Being a legalized monopoly, baseball doesn't have to submit to the will of labor. As a matter of a fact one of the clauses that Kenesaw Mountain Landis had put in as a condition of his accept the position, was that he could have the power to make unilateral actions. The comissioner of baseball has the authority to act "in the best interest of baseball" if he deems the situation necesary. Tomorrow Bud Selig could say you will all be subject to olympic style testing, and the union would have no choice but to agree to it, or to strike. If the union chose to strike because they didn't want to be drug tested, they would be fried by the media and fans alike. Its the reason that I have believe that Bud Selig has been just as complicit in the baseball drug problem as any player who took steroids or speed. He could have stopped this years ago, but he chose not to do so. Now he has to live with the results.

^^^^^^^^

 

Exactly. Selig is most definitely complicit. And as you point out the union has very little recourse available to them, which is why I said earlier that the only way they could really fight back would be to strike.

 

[southsider2k5]

^^^^^^^^

 

Exactly. Selig is most definitely complicit. And as you point out the union has very little recourse available to them, which is why I said earlier that the only way they could really fight back would be to strike.

 

Unless Congress were to cancel MLB's anti-trust exemption, the union really has zero recourse. They could strike and hope to freeze Selig into submission, but legally they couldn't do a damned thing. That is the most frustrating part of Bud Selig acting like he has done everything he can to fix the game. He hasn't. He say on the sidelines hoping it would go away, and acting like it was a players problem. Its not just their problem when he alone as the ability to fix the problem.

[NorthSideSox72]

Unless Congress were to cancel MLB's anti-trust exemption, the union really has zero recourse. They could strike and hope to freeze Selig into submission, but legally they couldn't do a damned thing. That is the most frustrating part of Bud Selig acting like he has done everything he can to fix the game. He hasn't. He say on the sidelines hoping it would go away, and acting like it was a players problem. Its not just their problem when he alone as the ability to fix the problem.

I think at this point there is zero chance that Congress would side with the players in that or any other fashion. That would be a terrible PR move for anyone voting for such a measure.

 

[WCSox]

Ummm, no. They don't want to give up the longball and the league definitely doesn't want its biggest stars testing positive.

 

Then the league's "biggest stars" will have to stop cheating. I don't think you realize how much pressure MLB is under from the federal government right now. As has been discussed by NSS and SS2k, all Congress has to do is threaten the owners with yanking MLB's anti-trust exemption. They'll implement stricter testing and risk another strike before giving up that kind of power to the MLBPA.

 

[southsider2k5]

Then the league's "biggest stars" will have to stop cheating. I don't think you realize how much pressure MLB is under from the federal government right now. As has been discussed by NSS and SS2k, all Congress has to do is threaten the owners with yanking MLB's anti-trust exemption. They'll implement stricter testing and risk another strike before giving up that kind of power to the MLBPA.

 

Pretty much. But Congress hasn't had the stones to do anything more than hold hearings. Boy I bet Bud Selig is scared now... I know they want "labor peace" but something are more important. The integrety of the game is on trial, and what are we doing about it, well nothing really. MLB needs to come clean, and now. Bite the bullet and fix the game.