Each major professional US sport has a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiated between the owners and the players (union), part of which is the drug testing policy.
None of the 4 major sports has a policy that even remotely resembles that implemented by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) for the so-called "Olympic" sports previously known as ("amateur" sports), with the exception of minor league baseball.
However to this point the MLB (Major League Baseball) policy has been pitiful, and of course it is "home" to the biggest miscreants - Bonds, Sosa, McGuire, Clements etc., etc. - needless to say the US does not select its Olympic team from these players!
Now, the two side, clearly reacting to the "Biogenesis" case last summer have ratified a stiffening of the programme: i) first failed test - banned for 80 games (not quite 2/3 of a regular season of 162 games) - present ban is 50 games; ii) second failed test - banned for 162 games and lose entire pay (previously 100 games); iii) lifetime ban for third failed test remains as preciously. In addition, a failed test (either 1st. of 2nd.) will make the player ineligible for post-season play - this will prevent a-holes like Alex Rodriquez returning for the play-offs after a 162 games ban and collecting all his pay.
It's progress - Hallelujah!!
None of the 4 major sports has a policy that even remotely resembles that implemented by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) for the so-called "Olympic" sports previously known as ("amateur" sports), with the exception of minor league baseball.
However to this point the MLB (Major League Baseball) policy has been pitiful, and of course it is "home" to the biggest miscreants - Bonds, Sosa, McGuire, Clements etc., etc. - needless to say the US does not select its Olympic team from these players!
Now, the two side, clearly reacting to the "Biogenesis" case last summer have ratified a stiffening of the programme: i) first failed test - banned for 80 games (not quite 2/3 of a regular season of 162 games) - present ban is 50 games; ii) second failed test - banned for 162 games and lose entire pay (previously 100 games); iii) lifetime ban for third failed test remains as preciously. In addition, a failed test (either 1st. of 2nd.) will make the player ineligible for post-season play - this will prevent a-holes like Alex Rodriquez returning for the play-offs after a 162 games ban and collecting all his pay.
Baseball not only stiffened its drug penalties, but for the first time will use the expensive Carbon Isotope Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), with at least one specimen from every player. The test was previously used only on a random basis, usually as a result of an elevated reading of the player's longitudinal profiling program. The IRMS test is designed to detect anyone who uses performance-enhancing drugs within a two-week period, instead of only being detected within a 24-hour period. MLB players will also be required to submit to two urine samples during the season, an increase from 1,400 to 3,200 overall. There also will be 400 random blood collections used to detect human growth hormone in addition to the 1,200 mandatory tests during spring training.
The Major League Baseball Players Association has been given most of the credit for this strengthening of drug testing, with the ineffectual Commissioner Bud Selig calling it "the most comprehensive in American sports history", little realising this to be a comment on the poor state of drug testing in the US, rather than the grand comment he thought it to be!It's progress - Hallelujah!!
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