HGH Test in MLB?
Bob Nightengale of USA Today is reporting that Major League Baseball could soon be adding Human Growth Hormone testing to their drug program. Major League Baseball has been dealing with a drug problem in what has become known as "The Steroid Era" and they are trying to strengthen their drug testing program. As of right now, HGH is not being tested in MLB and because of this they are subject to some scrutiny. The testing of HGH would give Major League Baseball one of the top drug testing programs in all of sports.
___________________________
"Human growth hormone is a problem for all sports," said Rob Manfred, MLB's chief labor lawyer. "I know the other leagues are concerned about it, too."
The commissioner's office, Manfred said, plans to meet with three players who recently were identified by the Albany, N.Y., prosecutor's office for allegedly being involved in a Florida pharmaceutical company providing performance-enhancing drugs: Jay Gibbons of the Baltimore Orioles, Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals and Troy Glaus of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., who was identified by SI.com in March as receiving HGH several years ago, may also be summoned when he is no longer targeted in a criminal investigation, Manfred said.
MLB has also met with officials from the Albany district attorney's office, offering its cooperation. Former senator George Mitchell's steroid investigative team met once with Albany investigators, Manfred said, and plans to meet again in an attempt to seek additional names.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: HGH Test in MLB?.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.globalsportsbuzz.com/mt4/mt-tb.cgi/55
"The testing of HGH would give Major League Baseball one of the top drug testing programs in all of sports." That should be changed to all of "U.S. professional sports".
The minimum WADA penalty is a 2-year ban and the IAAF will be pushing for that to be doubled to 4 for major infractions at the Nov. 15-17 WADA conference in Madrid since they don't feel that the 2 year ban has been an effective deterrent (http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=2982689). WADA has been testing blood for HGH since the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
What you will likely see from MLB is window dressing such as the NFL's headline grabbing increase of the number of times a player can be tested (note CAN be tested) in the offseason to 6 prior to being called before congress. A good indication of how often they actually get tested might be found in the case of the dirty, Superbowl, Panthers including punter Todd Sauerbraun who had received syringes and stanozolol.
On the TV show 60 minutes in 2005 Penn State health policy and administration professor Charles Yesalis said "Look at the Panthers case. When I saw Stanozolol, there can only be four explanations: One, he was never going to use it. Two, he's a moron. Three, he knew he was not going to be tested. Four, he was bullet-proof."
Sports leagues that don't allow independent, third party drug testing and don't follow international standards, in my opinion, just aren't serious about combating performance enhancing drug use. But they do know the easiest way to make the problem go away is to implement "tougher standards" to follow negative headlines.
Yea I understand what you mean but I didn't say toughest I said top. This meaning that it covers the one area (HGH) that they had been missing. Now that they test for HGH it is one of the top testing programs around. I agree that they aren't nearly as tough as WADA but now MLB does test for HGH and thats what matters.