This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.
Major League Baseball players agree to expand drug testing Major league Baseball and players' union agrees to include a new test for testosterone in the US drug testing program, a step that moves baseball well ahead of the National Football League
Major League Baseball and the players' union have agreed to expand their drug program to include random in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone, they said on Thursday. The advanced testing will start this season, in what will be the sternest doping program in major North American professional sports. "This agreement addresses critical drug issues and symbolizes Major League Baseball's continued vigilance against synthetic human growth hormone, testosterone and other performance-enhancing substances," MLB commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. The new steps moved baseball well ahead of the National Football League, which does not test for HGH or testosterone. "Players want a program that is tough, scientifically accurate, backed by the latest proven scientific methods, and fair," said Michael Weiner, MLB Players' Association executive director in a statement. "I believe these changes firmly support the players' desires while protecting their legal rights." The announcement came one day after the players' union criticized results of the balloting for the Baseball Hall of Fame, in which no one received enough votes for enshrinement in what appeared to be a referendum on widespread doping during what has become known as the game's 'Steroids Era'. All-time home run king Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young winning pitcher Roger Clemens, have resumes that would have ordinarily made them certain Hall of Famers. But both players have been linked to performance enhancing drugs and punished by voters, receiving about half the ballots votes required for election. Major League Baseball, striving to remove the taint of doping, was the first major sport in the United States to test for HGH in an agreement with the union in November 2011. MLB has been conducting random blood testing for the detection of HGH among minor league players since July 2010 and had previously been testing major leaguers during spring training and off-season. To detect testosterone use, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited Montreal laboratory will establish a program in which a player's baseline testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio and other data will be maintained in order to enhance its ability to detect use of the drug and other banned substances. Christiane Ayotte, the Director of the Montreal Laboratory, praised the steps baseball has taken. "The addition of random blood testing and a longitudinal profiling program makes baseball's program second to none in detecting and deterring the use of synthetic HGH and testosterone," she said in a statement. Doping in baseball has not disappeared. In the last year, Melky Cabrera of the San Francisco Giants, who was leading the league in batting average, and Oakland A's pitcher Bartolo Colon tested positive for testosterone and were suspended. "I am proud that our system allows us to adapt to the many evolving issues associated with the science and technology of drug testing," Selig said. "We will continue to do everything we can to maintain a leadership stature in anti-doping efforts in the years ahead."
