Baseball Steroid Testing
 

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More than 5 percent of players test positive for steroids

By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer
November 13, 2003
NEW YORK (AP) -- More than 5 percent of major league players tested positive for steroids this year, triggering automatic testing starting next season.

Under the labor contract players and owners agreed to last year, all players were tested this year as part of a survey, with the samples not identified by player. The agreement called for mandatory testing to begin the year after any season in which more than 5 percent tested positive.

The commissioner's office announced Thursday that the threshold has been exceeded, but the exact percentage was not released.

Starting next March, tests will be given and samples will be identified by player.


Interesting...mandatory testing.

It's about damned time.

I predict Sosa and Bonds will have significantly reduced numbers next season.

Without question. Wonder if Bonds will still claim he's better than Ruth once his juice is taken away? Nah, he and his apologists will just claim that age has finally caught up to him.

Yep. I think Hank Aaron can rest easy now.

OK, lets do the prediction thing. . . how much reduction?

Does Barry hit 25 HR next year? 20? 30?

Same with Sosa, where do you think he'll end up? 30? 35? 40? 20?

I don't know where I'd sit on this even if I thought Sosa and Bonds were doing steroids. I think it's a tough one.

Do we know if THG is going to be tested for?

Assuming they are using and assuming neither suffers a major injury (which is a big assumption for a 40 year old and a 35 year old) I'd expect both to hit 40 home runs next year regardless.

It will make for a very interesting season.

TroyF

I agree with TroyF. Until we know what exactly they are testing for, it's hard to know if it will have any impact.

I find it funny how anyone could be against the testing of illegal substances in sports. This should be tested for, automatically. I can't beleive they had to bargin with the players on this issue.

But I hate baseball so I couldn't care less. :)

I agree with you sabotai. Drugs have no place in sports. Considering how much the game is market at young people, the leagues should do their best to make sure the people on the field are the kind of people you want to be marketing.

Unfortunately, professional athletes have fairly strong unions and were able to make it a bargainable issue.

THG has been put on the list of banned substances for next season.

Dola ...

OK, so 1,438 players were tested. 5-7 percent came back positive. So basically ... 71 to 101 players or so test positive. At least that is how I understand it.

That is roughly 2-4 players per team. Anyone venture to guess the 2-4 players on each team who are using?

In many cases I would guess that the positive tests came from non-name brand players....a lot of guys want to be stars, but barely have the non-juiced tools to be average.

Where did you hear that 5-7 percent tested positive? I've only read that more than 5 percent tested positive. Also a radio show said it was closer to 20 percent that tested positive. However I don't know the quality of the radio show and if they have solid proof.

nilodor: The ESPN article.

It's about damn time that they are going to start testing

There aren't 1438 players in MLB, so you can't assume 2-4 players per team based on this data. Obviously, there were players tested twice (perhaps even most players were tested twice, since there are only 750 available roster spots at any time before September). So cut that number in half, and you're probably a lot closer to the real number.

I believe for testing purpose all players appearing on the 40-man roster at some point were tested, which is why the tested number is so high.

What I'm curious about is how many players refused to take the test. The White Sox tried to lead a charge to refuse to test, since refusal would be counted as failing and thereby ensure the 5 percent threshold would be hit.

That being said, the fact that many tested positive to me indicates steroid use may be rampant. Not everyone using steroids will test positive, especially if they are "cycling." And everybody knew about the tests in advance, so there really wasn't any excuse for anybody to get caught.

Best news I've heard in a week. The only way for the sport to start gaining back some of its credibility is mandatory drug testing with actual consequences, it is still a major, major disappointment that it took something like this to start the mandatory testing, but baseball will be dragged back to respectability, kicking and screaming, whether it wants to or not.

The thing that really galled me about this was the fact that it was part of the CBA and used as a major chip at the bargaining table. This should be an afterthought at most. Just another case of the players union not caring about their players, just about getting the most cash possible.

SI