In 1998 , as St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire was shut down in on Roger Maris ' 37 - yr - old nursing home run record , an Associated Press clause noted that on the top shelf of McGwire ’s footlocker , he keep a little brown bottle with a magnanimous , hard - to - pronounce name on the label . It contained Androstenedione – a " steroid forerunner " substance that the body converts into the muscle - building endocrine testosterone – so that he could score the ball further and hard . McGwire did n’t see anything wrong with that . " Everybody that I know in the game of baseball uses the same stuff that I use , " he told the AP [ source : Associated Press , FDA ] .
Unfortunately , McGwire was right . A 2007 investigation conducted on behalf of Major League Baseball by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell get hold grounds that players were using muscle - building drug as far back as the late 1980s [ reference : Mitchell Report ] . By the early 2000s , the use of operation - enhancing drugs – including anabolic steroid , which directly induce muscular tissue growth – had swan such a shadow onbaseball ’s unity that the variation was investigated both by Congress and a federal grand jury , which holler 10 players to testify [ source : Bloom , MLB.com ] . One actor , vocation plate - outpouring loss leader Barry Bonds , was convict year later of impediment for lying to the grand panel about his drug use [ source : ESPN.com ] . Former Oakland Athletics star Jose Canseco noted in a tell - all Scripture , " The challenge is to find a top player who has n’t [ used steroid hormone ] " [ seed : Canseco ] . Indeed , in a poll parrot of 568 major league player , 79 pct said they believe that drugs represent at least some role in late record - break performance [ source : Jenkins ] . In 2003 , fans were shocked when Baltimore Orioles ewer Steve Bechler collapsed on the field and died after carry ephedra , a stimulating [ source : Jenkins ] .
That ’s why , in 2004 , after many years of self-abnegation and animal foot - dragging , the major league began random testing of players for sure ban carrying into action - enhancing substances , with penalties for those catch trying to get an unjust chemical substance bound [ source : Bloom ] . It ’s a system that some Bob Hope will lead to a drug - innocent sport . But others warn that more recent debacle – such as a June 2012 labor arbiter ’s decision that overturned the 50 - biz suspension of Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun because of fumble drug testing – demonstrate that baseball game ’s anti - drug programme continue profoundly flawed [ source : ESPN.com ] .
Baseball: Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program
As grow revelations ofperformance - enhancing drug usebattered baseball ’s public persona in the early 2000s , MLB commissioner Bud Selig had piffling power to do much about the problem . Though athlete ' use of sex hormone was already banned by federal practice of law , MLB ’s Labor Department agreement only allowed drug examination when functionary had strong grounds that a participant was dirty . But finally , in August 2002 , Selig and the players ' spousal relationship worked out a mountain to create the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program . In the following 2003 time of year , players arriving at spring training were for the first fourth dimension subjugate to " survey " testing to check the extent of outlaw drug use . Violators were n’t punished , but the results were disturbing : Five to seven pct of 1,438 tests were positive . Armed with punishing evidence that detection and enforcement was necessary , baseballofficials set in motion mandatory random examination for the 2004 season , with potential penalties attach [ reference : MLB.com ] .
With a few modifications , such as stiffer penalty , that canonical system has been in place ever since . Every player is examine during spring grooming , and once the season begin , extra unheralded tests are conducted of randomly select players . Both urine andbloodsamples are take , since various drug show up in different place . participant also can be selected for testing if teams or MLB learns of grounds they may be using banned substances [ root : MLBplayers.mlb.com ] .
Unlike players catch using recreational drugs likecocaineor Ecstasy , who are diverted into a secret treatment platform and allowed to keep drawing their salaries , athlete caught using most functioning - enhance drug are hit immediately with tough penalty . A first crime earns them a 50 - game suspension without remuneration , and a 2nd bite of the apple puts them in civilian dress for 100 games . A three - time failure get a " lasting " suspension , which in baseball means he can apply to the commissioner for reinstatement after two seasons . Use of illegal stimulant like ephedra get lesser penalties – a word of advice and follow - up testing for a first offence , a 25 - biz punishment for a second misdemeanour , 80 games for a third fail trial run , and at last , indefinite respite for a fourth offense [ reservoir : MLBplayers.mlb.com ] .
Baseball: Health Policy Advisory Committee
From the start , baseballhas had a elusive sentence establishing and run a drug testing syllabus . Like most other big - time professional sports , there ’s a delicate residuum of tycoon between the players ' sum and the MLB commissioner , who really exemplify the interests of the team owners . ab initio , at least some of the players thought that allowing drug examination would put them under the MLB ’s thumb , and some even made noises about folding their arms and refusing to comply [ source : MLB.com ] . fortuitously for the sport , that did n’t fall out . But the tenseness did lead to an awkward , ungainly via media , in which control of the syllabus was given to a group called the Health Policy Advisory Committee , composed of both player representatives and baseball game management .
But Congress and other critic imagine that apparatus was too rickety and pushed for drug examination agency to be reverse over to an external group such as the World Anti - Doping Agency , the organization that impose antidrug policies in track and field and otherOlympic sport . However , neither the MLB nor the players were willing to go quite that far . alternatively , in 2008 , they agreed to dissolve the HPAC and transfer its authorisation to the Independent Program Administrator ( IPA ) , an functionary that they together with nominate for a three - twelvemonth terminal figure , and who can only be removed by an external umpire [ reference : Associated Press ] . In June 2012 , Jeffrey M. Anderson , M.D. , the longtime director of sports medicine and foreland team doc at the University of Connecticut , was appointed at IPA . At that clip , Anderson also served as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association ’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports [ source : Meisel ] .
Baseball: Prohibited Substances
Baseball players are prohibited from taking any sorting of muscleman - build orperformance - enhancing drugconsidered a command substance under federal law . That includes at least 70 different chemicals , most with complicated names that would be unrecognisable to anyone but a pharmacist . They range from steroids and precursors , such as the androstenedione that Mark McGwire remove , to synthetic version of substances that naturally occur in the human consistence , such as human maturation hormone ( HGH ) and insulin - corresponding growth factor ( IGF-1 ) [ root : MLBplayers.mlb.com ] .
Additionally , players are banned from using 56 different stimulants – most of which , again , are chemical substance you ’ve probably never get wind of . One recognizable name that does start out is ephedrine , the chemical substance in the once - democratic supplement ephedra . The latter cause the decease of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler in 2004 , and was banned from sale by theU.S. Food and Drug Administrationthe pursue year [ root : MLBplayers.mlb.com , FDA.gov ] .
In addition tomuscle - buildingsteroids and illegal stimulants , players also are required to stay aside from " drugs of abuse , " which in general are the same 1 considered controlled substances under federal drug laws , including the following [ source : MLBplayers.mlb.com ] :
Baseball: Drug Testing Procedures
Under a 2005 arrangement between MLB and the player ' uniting , every player is now try out twice during each baseball time of year , and in addition there are an unlimited number of random tests . The actual testing regimen – scheduling the tests , supervision of the sample collecting , to transportation of sample to a lab certified by the World Anti - Doping Association , superintendence of the research laboratory work , and reporting of positives to the MLB and players ' union – is handled by Independent Program Administrator [ source : MLBplayers.mlb.com ] .
The MLB also bansamphetaminesand amphetamine - like stimulation , but does n’t go after them with quite the same rigor as steroids , perhaps because the latter have done more damage to the summercater ’s reputation . participant are n’t subjected to mandatory annual examination , but the IPA still has sweeping power to examine anybody , anytime , without needing prior evidence of a possible violation [ source : MLBplayers.mlb.com ] .
While scarce anyone argues with the justification for drug examination anymore , there ’s mickle of critique of howbaseballactually does the testing . Rather than release the process over to a completely separate organization , as the International Olympic Committee does , MLB send its own staff to the ballpark to treat and transport urine and bloodline sample . A katzenjammer involving Milwaukee Brewers participant Ryan Braun , the reigning National League MVP , highlight these problem . After a staffer pile up Braun ’s urine sample distribution in October 2011 , he reportedly lease it home with him and stored it in his icebox before shipping it to a science lab . After the test come back positive , Braun was able to get his automatic 50 - twenty-four hours suspension overturned by an umpire in February 2012 , on the cornerstone that the long delay had compromised the final result . It was the first time that baseball game ’s drug examination system had been challenged successfully , and it may have opened the door for other players to contest the physical process as well [ source : Belson and Schmidt ] .
Baseball: Discipline for Drug Usage
Since performance - enhancing drug testing began in heartfelt in 2004 , the penalties for go against the rules have been stiffened . A flunked steroid mental test triggers an robotlike 50 - biz intermission without pay . A 2nd positive test results in a 100 - plot ban , and strike three final result in a life ban , with the role player get the rightfulness to seek reinstatement after two years , and to seek arbitrament if he ’s turned down . If a player is really caught by natural law enforcement official and convicted of having illegal steroids in his possession , the punishment is even tougher – a 60 - to-80 - secret plan temporary removal for the first offense , with up to a one - yr forbiddance for the 2nd work stoppage , with the third bang triggering the same lifetime penalty as a miscarry test . A conviction for distribution – i.e. give or sell steroids to other players – will bring in a histrion an reflexive 80 - to-100 - game ban for the first offense , and a lifespan Bachelor of Arts in Nursing the second time around . That ’s in addition to whatever prison term a participant might take in from the courts [ root : MLBplayers.mlb.com ] .
The penalties for usingamphetaminesand other banned stimulants are well less hard . A player who prove positive for speeding gets off with just a warning and mandatory come after - up examination , and a 2nd positive realize him just a 25 - game suspension . A third offense takes him out of uniform for 80 games , and it takes a fourth law-breaking before the Commissioner can bring down harsher penalty , up to and including a life ban . The possession penalties are likewise light than steroids , though the ones for stimulant distribution are comparable [ source : MLBplayers.mlb.com ] .
I ’ve never been that huge of a baseball game fan , I admit , so I likely was n’t as aghast as some actual devotees of the game when the first revelations of players using steroids and other performance - enhance drug begin to egress a few ten ago . I do have some horse sense , however , of how much harm these drugs can do – not just to the integrity of the sport , but to the athletes themselves . Back when I started my journalism calling in the other 1980s , I was doing an interview with someone at the Pittsburgh Steelers ' training facility when queasy linesman Steve Courson pass off to take the air into the elbow room . He looked shorter than his number altitude of just more than 6 human foot , but his body was so densely muscled that he looked like a comical book superhero . I could n’t aid but notice that for such a robust physical specimen , his external respiration seemed to be curiously labored . I thought maybe he had a tough coldness . age later on , though , it come forth that Courson had a serious heart and soul status that he believed was because of abusing bodybuilding drugs . To his great recognition , Courson – who died in 2005 in a tragical tree diagram - shorten accident – eventually not only voluntarily went public with his own steroid role , but became an eloquent spokesman about the dangers of performance - enhance drug . Perhaps baseball game want its own Steve Courson to aid clean up its act .
