Step up to plate on drug testing
06-22-06
The boos during every plate appearance by Barry Bonds during the weekend series with the Seattle Mariners were constant reminders: Major League Baseball will be a long time removing the tarnish that performance- enhancing drugs have left on the game.
Bonds has been linked to reports of past steroid use. It will be interesting to see how that plays out and whether the
Giants' slugger will be allowed to — or deserves to — continue his quest for baseball's all-time home run record.
But Bonds aside, Major League Baseball and the players association have a huge opportunity to take another major step toward polishing that tarnished image, even beyond this season's crackdown on steroid and amphetamine use by players.
The five-year collective bargaining agreement between the two sides expires Dec. 19. Any new pact will be incomplete unless it includes mandatory, random blood testing to get at the few drugs that go undetected with urine tests. That glaring loophole was revealed earlier this month with the case of (now) former Arizona Diamondback pitcher Jason Grimsley.
Grimsley requested, and was granted, his release from the club after federal agents raided his home during an investigation into performance-enhancing drugs. He was subsequently suspended for his next 50 games by Major League Baseball for violating its Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. But that's a rather meaningless penalty since for all intents and purposes his playing days are over — as they should be.
The agents searched Grimsley's Arizona home following his admission he had used human growth hormone, steroids and amphetamines. The authorities had tracked delivery of a season's worth of the growth hormone, dubbed HGH, to his home. It is a substance that can now only be effectively detected by blood tests and Grimsley claims its use is still widespread among players.
The players association has historically opposed blood testing as a violation of players' privacy — as it formerly opposed drug screening via urinalysis. Given the tremendous damage to the image of the game and players by abuses, that opposition is outdated and unjustified. The game is bigger than the players, and credibility must be restored.
Failure of Major League Baseball to pursue, and the players association to ratify, blood testing will be a major abdication of responsibility on both sides when a new bargaining agreement is negotiated. The potential for undetected HGH use will still be there.
Many sports fans sincerely believe that even if Bonds breaks Henry Aaron's all-time home-run record, he should do so with an asterisk attached because of the cloud that now hangs over him and his feats.
Until the players association goes along with blood tests, Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program* should carry a similar clarification:
* Program not complete. Does not include blood testing.
