Thread: New Contract Will Enable Baseball to Test for H.G.H.

New Contract Will Enable Baseball to Test for H.G.H.
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: November 19, 2011

Major League Baseball’s owners and players are on the verge of completing a new labor deal that for the first time will include blood testing for human growth hormone, according to two people in baseball briefed on the matter. The testing will be a significant step for baseball, allowing it to move ahead of other professional sports leagues, including the N.F.L., in confronting the troublesome issue of a drug that has long evaded detection.

Bud Selig at a news conference on Thursday. Selig will now be able to cite the H.G.H. testing clause as proof of how seriously baseball now treats the issue of drug use.

The bargaining agreement, which is expected to be announced early this week, calls for blood testing to begin in February, when players report to spring training. Players who test positive will face a 50-game suspension, which will be the same as the first-time penalty for a positive steroid test, according to the two people.

Although minor elements of the overall agreement still need to be completed, the two people said that a full understanding on H.G.H. testing had been reached and that no further negotiations on that issue were needed.

As such, baseball will be the first of the major North American professional sports to do any type of blood testing for drugs at a league’s highest level. In 2010, baseball introduced H.G.H. blood testing for minor league players because the step could be taken without the consent of the major league players union.

Commissioner Bud Selig, who is sensitive about his legacy and the longstanding criticism that he was too slow to react to the use of performance-enhancing drugs in his sport, will now be able to cite the H.G.H. testing in stressing how seriously baseball treats the issue of drug use. And without mentioning the N.F.L. by name, he will be able to take satisfaction in accomplishing what football has been unable to do.

Last summer, the N.F.L. and its union reached an agreement on a new labor contract that included blood testing for human growth hormone, leaving the details of the testing to be worked out after the deal was ratified. But the players have since refused to sign off on the testing, citing various reservations.

Members of Congress have become involved in the stalemate, but the N.F.L. players union continues to raise questions about the testing, in particular expressing concerns that the natural level of H.G.H. in football players might be higher than that of the general population and that too many players would unfairly test positive as a result.

The two people with knowledge of baseball’s labor agreement said they were confident that this pattern of last-minute objections would not arise in their sport.

H.G.H. is believed to boost lean muscle mass, aid in recovery and improve stamina, but it is illegal to possess in the United States without a prescription. Although there is no urine test for H.G.H., Olympic athletes have been blood-tested for the substance for nearly a decade. Within baseball, however, there was skepticism about the test, with some critics pointing to the fact that it was not producing any positives. Meanwhile, evidence emerged that the substance was indeed being used in the sport.

In 2007, an investigation into a ring of pharmacies and doctors in Florida led to disclosures that tied numerous players to H.G.H. And at the end of 2007, George J. Mitchell, at the behest of Selig, produced a report on drug use in baseball that linked a number of players — including Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens — to the substance.

Sentiment in baseball began to change in 2010, when a professional rugby player in England was suspended for testing positive for H.G.H. It was proof that at least some were seeking.

Selig embraced the development and several months later started the blood tests at the minor league level. This year, first baseman Mike Jacobs, who had played in the major leagues for a number of seasons, became the first minor league player to test positive for the substance.

Although H.G.H. testing may be the most notable element of the new bargaining agreement, there were other issues the two sides had to wrestle with as they moved toward a deal that will last for five seasons and will guarantee two decades of peace in a sport that endured numerous work stoppages before that.

In particular, baseball wanted a tougher financial slotting system for draft picks to better control what teams now spend on players coming out of high school and college. In the end, the sides agreed on a luxury tax of sorts that would penalize teams that go over an overall threshold for money spent signing picks. In addition, the system of free-agent compensation, in which teams surrender first-round picks in exchange for signing a Type A player, is being eased and there will be changes to the system that governs the signing of players from outside the country.

But perhaps most significant for Selig and everyone else in the sport is that an overall agreement is within reach without public rancor in a year in which the N.F.L. went through a protracted lockout and the N.B.A. is in a labor standoff that could cost it the 2011-12 season. And that the agreement will have a drug-testing clause that will put baseball ahead of other sports.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/sp...-hgh.html?_r=2

I wonder if they will be testing with the isoform test or biomaker test? or both. seems like a lot of money.