ESPN reports that the league office is putting together a case to suspend 20 major league baseball players for illegal use of performance enhancing drugs. The suspensions will not be for failed drug tests, but secondary evidence obtained from a closed "anti-aging" and wellness clinic in Florida called Biogenesis. The operator of the clinic has denied that he did anything wrong. There is a pending criminal investigation of the clinic and its operations but no one has been indicted to date.
In the past, Congress pressured MLB to clean up its sport during the home run happy steroid era. Teams took a blind eye to their players using steroids or HGH or other designer drugs created by chem labs like BALCO. The sport grew as offensive production grew. But one of the fall outs of the steroid era was that those same illegal drugs began to work their way into college and high school locker rooms. A serious public health issue resulted in government investigation and criminal prosecutions.
Today's athletics are all chasing the massive big money contracts of professional sports. Human nature is to find whatever edge there is out there to get to the top of your game. Teams expect their big money contract players to perform at the highest levels so they can get a return on their investment (wins and championships). Even when MLB got the players to agree to a testing program, it was watered down and weak. Until the requirement of random blood tests (to screen for hard to find human growth hormones and synthetic PEDs), the program was more for show and trapped only the real stupid player.
But now MLB is using the supplier (Biogenesis) to gather documentary evidence that major league players asked for and received banned substances which avoided MLB testing. Athletes and their legal counsel will challenge MLB's under the table evidence gathering as a violation of player's state and federal (HIPPA) medical privacy rights. They will also argue that such hearsay evidence is outside the scope of the CBA and the drug testing program so it cannot be used as means of suspending a player.
The problem of athletes using illegal drugs still persists at all levels. It was reported this week that potential number one draft pick Jonathan Gray allegedly tested positive for a non-perscribed Adderall, which is a ADD stimulant, that many athletes now use like players in the 1960s used uppers. There are a million (dollar) reasons why PED use could enhance
the draft position of a player since the new CBA has a strict bonus cap
program slotted to draft position. Even if true, many scouts believe that report would not affect Gray's draft status or position.
However, any time a player is connected to PED use, it should raise a red flag to ownership. Is it worth the risk to sign or draft a player with a PED past? Are you paying a contract based upon drug inflated performance numbers? If a player has used an illegal substance in the past, will he be likely to use it in the future (which could cost the team millions of dollars and the loss of the players services for 50 or 100 games)?
Then it gets down to the integrity of the sport itself. Baseball prides itself on its long history. It is the one sport whose basic rules have not changed over time. Baseball records are cherished comparisons between generations of fans. But as the steroid era sluggers get on the Hall of Fame ballot, there appears to be the some backlash from the voters. However, at that point, most players may not even care - - - they made tens of millions of dollars during their career so they do not need the validation of a HOF plaque to supplement their retirement income.
The cat and mouse, hide and seek nature of the drug use and drug testing in professional sports will be a never ending scandal because of the big money surrounding the athletes. The game rewards performance and cheating rewards performance.
