Major League Baseball will pump up its drug testing program in 2013, implementing in-season blood tests to detect human growth hormone, and creating a longitudinal profile program, in which a player’s Testosterone/Epitestosterone (T/E) ratio and other medical data will be maintained in a World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory, the Players Association and MLB announced Thursday.
The US Anti-Doping Agency issued a statement applauding MLB’s enhanced program, calling it “a strong statement by the players and the league not only confirming the scientific validity of the HGH blood test and the benefit of longitudinal testing, but also the importance of clean athletes’ rights and the integrity of the game.”
The announcement comes a day after the baseball writers’ Hall of Fame shutout of several stars tainted by the steroid era and less than two months after the Daily News reported that the executive director of the players’ union, Michael Weiner, expected big changes to be made in the drug-testing program, already one of the most stringent in professional sports. Weiner said in late November that baseball and the union would “make some meaningful strides in both of the areas of testosterone and HGH detection before the 2013 season starts.”
Additionally in 2013, players’ urine samples will be automatically subjected to sophisticated Carbon Isotope Ratio (CIR) testing if a specimen does “vary materially from a player’s baseline values.”
As the Daily News has reported in the past, CIR testing was employed if a sample was elevated beyond the normal 4-1 T/E ratio or if the sample was otherwise suspicious.
“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,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said in a press release. Selig is in Arizona for the baseball owners’ meetings.
“I am proud that our system allows us to adapt to the many evolving issues associated with the science and technology of drug testing. We will continue to do everything we can to maintain a leadership stature in anti-doping efforts in the years ahead.”
Last season, several bold-faced names were linked to synthetic testosterone use — including former Yankees Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon both serving 50-game suspensions after testing positive for the drug.
The News has reported extensively that a common form of cheating today involves players using fast-acting testosterone creams and gels that can slip under the T/E ratio test that baseball has relied upon. The CIR test (also called IRMS) reveals exogenous testosterone when the T/E test does not always do so.
“I’ve been saying that synthetic testosterone is the biggest loophole in drug testing for several years now,” BALCO founder Victor Conte told the Daily News last year after Cabrera tested positive. “When will the testers begin to realize that there is a rampant use of testosterone in all sports?”
Conte’s argument is that sports leagues that use the 4-1 T/E ratio for a positive test benefit athletes, who find a way to stay below the trigger point; the CIR or IRMS test, however, immediately identifies the existence of exogenous testosterone in a sample.
CIR testing will not only be implemented whenever there is a change in a player’s profile, Weiner said, but it may also be used if Christiane Ayotte, the head of the Montreal lab that oversees the drug program, feels it is appropriate.
“Christiane is free to employ the more sophisticated testing any time she believes it is useful,” Weiner told The News.
The WADA-accredited lab is the Laboratoire de Controle du Dopage in Montreal, and both Cabrera’s sample and Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun’s sample were sent there for testing. Braun won his appeal after testing positive for testosterone in 2011 because of irregularities in the handling of his sample. Thursday’s press release said that the players’ medical data and profiles will be kept “with strict protections for confidentiality” at the Montreal lab.
“Although the Montreal Laboratory has made extensive use of IRMS in the past, 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,” Ayotte said in a statement. “A drug testing program that follows over a thousand steroid profiles and tests over a thousand blood specimens each year compares favorably with any WADA program.”
Blood testing was in place last year for baseball, but was conducted only during spring training and the offseason. HGH was banned by baseball in 2005. The NFL, in contrast, still does not test players for HGH, even though the issue was agreed upon in principle by the union and league when a new collective bargaining agreement was signed in the summer of 2011.
“The Players are determined to do all they can to continually improve the sport’s Joint Drug Agreement,” Weiner said in a statement Thursday. “Players want a program that is tough, scientifically accurate, backed by the latest proven scientific methods, and fair; I believe these changes firmly support the Players’ desires while protecting their legal rights.”
