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Steroid hunt all about Bonds
Steroid hunt all about Bonds, By: Richard Griffin
MLB fails to keep tests anonymous
December 28, 2006
The biggest news resulting from yesterday's announcement by U.S. federal investigators that they are in possession of 100 dirty urine samples linked by number code to 100 major league players is not the actual number of positive tests.
The biggest news lies in the abject failure of the commissioner's office and the players' own union to keep anonymous tests anonymous. That becomes an issue of trust for the future.
A short history of the always shaky steroid testing agreement between Major League Baseball and its players is necessary in order to understand the importance of those (relatively) long ago 2003 tests – and why they were confidential.
As recently as four years ago players could put anything in their bodies to enhance performance and baseball turned away.
Chicks dug the long ball.
On Aug. 30, 2002, at the 11th hour of horsehide Armageddon, with a month to go in the season, a players strike was averted, saving a repeat of the1994 disaster.
A throw-in clause to the hasty settlement that was totally disrespected at the time was the drug testing agreement, dismissed as toothless and useless by critics like the IOC's drug czar, Dick Pound of Montreal.
But for commissioner Bud Selig, dealing with MLBPA executive director Donald Fehr and the most powerful union in sports, it was a foot in the door, with the chance to improve.
The agreement merely called for survey testing at spring training '03.
If more than 5 per cent of tests came back positive for "schedule III anabolic, androgenic steroids" then testing would become mandatory and punishable for the '04 season.
But even then, since the first failure was not to be made public, the only penalty was counselling. And since there was only one test per year, no name could be made public until a second failure in '05. No teeth.
Thirteen days before the first sample bottle was filled in anger, on Feb. 17, young O's pitcher Steve Bechler collapsed and died on a training diamond in Florida.
The autopsy revealed that a contributing factor was the presence of "ephedra" in his system, a common ingredient in over-the-counter diet tablets.
With frightened players in all camps sweeping weight control supplements out of their lockers, a wave was building that maybe the best thing that could happen to the union was mandatory testing for steroids and other dangerous substances. If nothing else, the clean majority felt that it would level the playing field for them.
As such, there was a report out of White Sox camp that up to 16 of their 40 roster players were going to refuse to pee in the bottle, even though it would result in automatic positive tests for all 16.
Taken one way, it could be construed they were afraid, but the true reason for their reluctance was that 16 automatic positives would have likely pushed the anonymous study over the 5 per cent required to trigger mandatory testing in '04.
However, player rep Kelly Wunsch made a call to the union and the next day they were back on board as donors.
Which brings us back to the current news story and why the potential revelation of 100 four-year-old failures is big news.
It is not the number of positives that is of concern to players, because at the end of '03 baseball had confirmed between 5 and 7 per cent failed – almost exactly 100 of 1,400. The raw numbers are no surprise.
No, the big news is that despite the guarantee that the results would stay anonymous, offending players are just one court decision away from being exposed and embarrassed.
There is no punishment from baseball, just from neighbours and the public.
And the U.S. government isn't after the 100 dirty samplers. They want Barry Bonds' over-sized head on a plate.
If Bonds was made aware he failed his own '03 test, that means his grand jury testimony in '04 that he took steroids without knowing would be a crock.
Perjury, of course, could affect Bonds' immediate future on the field and his chase of Henry Aaron.
And in the end, doesn't this always seem to be about Barry?
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