Scorecard

A Dopey Policy

Baseball's new drug testing program is the laughingstock of experts who see it for what it is -- a toothless public relations ploy

By Tom Verducci

Major League Baseball and the players' association made sure to pat themselves on the back for including a steroid-testing program in the labor agreement they announced on Aug. 30. Yeah. And Communist Russia once boasted of holding free elections. If there is anything in baseball easier to beat than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, it's the steroid-testing plan. "It's not a drug test. It's an IQ test," said Gary Wadler, a New York University School of Medicine professor and a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency research committee. "You would have to flunk an IQ test to flunk it."

The testing program is the laughingstock of drug experts. The American Swimming Coaches Association is so outraged at the policy that it is seeking to have players' union head Donald Fehr removed from the United States Olympic Committee, calling his position on the board of directors "anathema to the USOC antidoping efforts" and saying that he "continues to give the USA an international black eye." Fehr declined to comment.

Baseball's plan amounts to nothing more than a public relations attempt to quell fan distrust after an SI investigation into rampant use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. Said Wadler, "They're trying to escape the bullet by coming out with a sound bite."

One veteran player who was close to the negotiations admitted that the owners "came to us and basically said, 'Come up with something to make this [image problem] go away.'

"Let's face it," the player went on, "they like all the home runs. This policy is a small step forward, but it's not going to change a whole lot."

Baseball will test only for Schedule III steroids, which are illegal without a prescription. Players can continue to freely take muscle enhancers such as human growth hormone, which is clinically used to treat dwarfism, and androstenedione, an over-the-counter supplement that has the properties of a steroid because the body converts it into testosterone. Both of those are banned by the IOC and the NFL.

Unlike those organizations, baseball will not conduct off-season testing, giving players the green light to juice up for four months before competition. Testing next year will be conducted for survey purposes only. Half the players will be tested in spring training and half in the regular season. Most of the steroids used by players leave the body a couple of weeks after use. "You get off the stuff right before spring training, and then your only risk is which batch of players you're in," the veteran player said. "Then, once you take your test, you're home free [to use again]." The NFL tests seven or eight players per team every week of its season.

"Baseball players will learn to pick and choose when to use, when to start and stop," said Wadler. "It's really not that hard."

If more than 5% of next year's tests return positive, all players will then be subject to random testing for each of the next two years. If fewer than 5% of the tests are positive, only survey testing will remain in place. Because the union represents 40-man rosters, that means baseball allows up to 60 players to use steroids before it even considers it has a problem. That's the equivalent of two major league teams.

Mets catcher Vance Wilson, the team's assistant player representative, said even one unannounced test "is going to deter people from using -- definitely." More likely, it will simply force them to work their steroid cycles around the test. And next spring, when the usual passel of players reports to camp having added 20 pounds of bulk over the winter, you'll have every right to raise an eyebrow when they credit their weight room dedication for the increased strength.

Issue date: September 16, 2002

For more Scorecard see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, September 11. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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