Baseball’s Drug Testing Lacks Element of Surprise

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times, Page One

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: October 31, 2007

Major League Baseball, bracing for the results of an internal investigation into steroid use, has continued to employ a drug-testing procedure that may allow players time to mask their use of performance-enhancing drugs. Drug testers contracted by the league routinely alert team officials a day or more before their arrival at ballparks for what is supposed to be random, unannounced testing of players. By eliminating the surprise factor, the practice undermines the integrity of the testing program, antidoping experts said.

The night before testers arrive at major league stadiums to take urine samples from players, officials for the home team receive a call from the testing company requesting stadium and parking passes for the drug testers. This procedure is not outlined in the league’s 48-page testing policy, which baseball promotes as one of the toughest in sports. Teams are not told which players will be tested — or how many — but the number is said to be roughly five per visit.

According to Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations and human resources and the official who oversees the sport’s drug-testing programs, team officials are not supposed to tell players that tests will be conducted. He said a person with each club — often the general manager or the assistant general manager — is responsible for arranging for tester access and for space to be set aside in the locker rooms for tests. “Under the program, our players do not get advance notice about tests,” said Michael Weiner, general counsel for Major League Baseball’s Players Association. But officials from three teams confirmed that their clubs receive advance notice of testing, but spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss testing publicly. One official said his team finds out about testing nearly two days ahead of a visit. Another said trainers are routinely informed the morning of testing and begin setting up for the testers in the clubhouse....

Testing experts said players using a cream-based steroid or a patch could benefit from advance knowledge of testing because those substances can be cleared more readily from the body. Don Catlin, who founded the Olympic Analytical Laboratory at U.C.L.A. 25 years ago, said athletes taking performance-enhancing drugs who know they are going to be tested often take lower doses of several steroids that will quickly pass through their system. He said that short-acting testosterone, which is absorbed by wearing a patch, could be cleared in a matter of hours.... Advance notice of only a few hours could provide the opportunity for players to dilute their urine, use a masking agent or use a device that allows them to fill their bladders with drug-free urine....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/sports/baseball/31testing.html?ref=todayspaper