Report: Drug use still common practice in baseball

[TimmyB]

Steroids? Amphetamine use troubles ex-big leaguer

Baseball players are still using muscle-building drugs and amphetamines despite the sport's new steroid-testing plan, The New York Times reported in Tuesday's editions.

Players have switched from using steroids to drugs like human growth hormone, The Times reported, citing interviews with 40 current or former players, baseball executives and medical officials.

Some players told the newspaper that the union is jeopardizing the health of its members by not allowing mandatory testing of certain drugs.

Tomorrow in the NY Times: Sun rises in east, sets in west.

SI.com picked up this story, too. What's the deal? This is not new news.

I did, however, get a kick out of Tom Glavine calling Tony Gwynn (or, better said, Gwynn's comments) "irresponsible."

Former San Diego Padres All-Star Tony Gwynn said that more attention needs to be focused on amphetamines. He estimates that 50 percent of position players use "greenies" routinely.

That's right, Tony. Do something responsible... like... say... pop amphetamines...

[Craig S.]

Glavine's comment was annoying, but not surprising given his deep commitment to the players' union. While Gwynn was likely dead-on with what he said, Glavine is pretty much trained to jump on anything like that. (Side note: I'd hate to be an anti-union guy in that Mets' clubhouse!).

I agree that this isn't really big news, but stories like this tend to be cyclical. Once someone picks up the story, others feel obligated to cover it. It'll fade away, then rear its head again down the road.

[sweaver]

It's not news to us, who follow the sport, but it may be to others. Unfortunately, this is something MLB and the MLBPA must deal with, as today's espn.com poll had "drugs" as the number one answer of what was wrong with baseball (handily beating out my choice, "Bud Selig.")

[KCBOOMER]

Let's face it. The Union doesn't want to do anything about this problem and will stymie any effort by the owners to clean up this problem.

Shouldn't it be the Union's job to provide for the health of its members?

[TimmyB]

Originally posted by KCBOOMER
Let's face it. The Union doesn't want to do anything about this problem and will stymie any effort by the owners to clean up this problem.

Shouldn't it be the Union's job to provide for the health of its members?

No way! The union's number one job is to insure that players make the most money possible. (Not that there's anything wrong with that by itself.)

Pumped up players put up pumped up numbers, which translate into pumped up $$$.

I'm sure health concerns are part of the unions menu of issues, but it will take a backseat to big stats every time.

[satchel]

Originally posted by TimmyB

I'm sure health concerns are part of the unions menu of issues, but it will take a backseat to big stats every time.

To put that another way, the union represents the interests of the players, but only to the extent that the players want those interests represented. This means not being paternalistic if that isn't what the players want. So if players want to use drugs, the union is going to do everything it can to make sure the players can, even if that's against the players' interests in an absolute sense. If the union tries to do things that the players don't want, the union leadership will find itself replaced. This is no different from any other representative organization.

[TimmyB]

Originally posted by satchel
To put that another way, the union represents the interests of the players, but only to the extent that the players want those interests represented. This means not being paternalistic if that isn't what the players want. So if players want to use drugs, the union is going to do everything it can to make sure the players can, even if that's against the players' interests in an absolute sense. If the union tries to do things that the players don't want, the union leadership will find itself replaced. This is no different from any other representative organization.

What Satchel said.

[LisaG]

satchel is dead on. (pun intended) the drug use will stop only when the anti-drug players outnumber the pro-drug players.
or if there are enough anti-drug/pro-test-ing superstars who want an end to the drug use.