Minor League Baseball |
Major League Baseball |
Banned: Steroids, steroid precursors, designer steroids, masking agents and diuretics plus pro-hormone nutritional supplements, ephedrine, human growth hormone and erythropoietin (EPO). Policy also prohibits drugs of abuse, such as amphetamines, cocaine, LSD, marijuana, opiates (e.g. heroin), phencyclidine (PCP), MDMA (ecstasy) and GHB.
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Banned: Steroids, steroid precursors, designer steroids, masking agents and diuretics. None of the other drugs and supplements, including ephedrine, are expressly banned in the agreement effective until 2008.
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The list of substances, masking agents, nutritional supplements, and drugs of abuse in the minor leagues are comprehensive. The way that the television heads are talking, you’d think that the MLB policy was equally inclusive. Not so, and not a fact lost on the players.
"[Major League Baseball] didn't ban 'greenies,' " said a baffled Pawtucket Red Sox pitcher Tim Kester. "That's the thing I'm trying to understand because they obviously haven't classified it as a performance enhancing substance. But everyone knows it is performance enhancing and it's all over the place.
"My best friend is a DEA agent and I told him he should do something about it. He said 'We can't decide whose job it is to decide if that's a performance enhancing drug or not. Some people would say cocaine is performance enhancing.' "
Testing: Two Different Worlds
The difference between the testing policies of MLB and that of minor league baseball are vast and striking:
Minor League Baseball |
Major League Baseball |
Required: Testing for "reasonable cause" (e.g. if a member of the Minor League Healthy Policy Advisory Committee receives information that gives him/her reasonable cause to believe that a player has in the previous year used or possessed a prohibited substance).
Minor league baseball also subjects all players up to four unannounced tests per year for drugs of abuse and performance enhancing substances. If a player tests positive for either, he may be subject to additional testing.
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Allowed: One unannounced mandatory test of each player during the season, plus random testing of selected players (with no maximum number) during the season and the off season.
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Slap Down or Slap on the Wrist?
Major league players also get off lightly compared with their minor league counterparts when it comes to discipline.
Minor League Baseball |
Major League Baseball |
Slap Down: A first positive test allows for entry into a treatment program. But a second and third positive test result in an unpaid suspension of 30 and 60 games, respectively. A fourth positive test warrants a one-year suspension. A fifth offense results in permanent suspension from baseball.
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Slap: For a first, second, third and fourth positive test major league players can be suspended without pay for 10, 30 and 60 days and then one year, respectively. They can be “threatened” with suspension or a monetary fine. Language taken from the “Don’t Try This” section of a book on permissive parenting.
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It is important to note that minor league baseball suspensions involve games and instead of days. A 10 day suspension, with the right protests and timing, may only involve a few actual games where the player is unavailable to the club.
A glaring deficiency in the MLB program is the complete lack of required treatment to see if the player can be diverted from destructive or illegal acts. Most professional sports with a substance abuse or illegal substance policy allow for a required entry into a treatment program. The minor league policy stays within the norm. The major league policy doesn’t.
Even though the minor league policy provides for multiple infractions, the treatment option is left as the only recourse. A player dropped for thirty games is going to have someone fill in. For a low or no bonus player, a thirty game suspension may effectively derail or terminate their career. It is unlikely that any ownership group would put up with five positive tests for a low-level player.
"If you can't get it straightened out after this many tests then I think there's probably something wrong with you," understated Kester. "I'm surprised they give you that many chances. Unless you're a top, top prospect an organization is not going to put up with that anyway.
"Maybe two strikes and you're going to get released. It depends on the player and how good he is. Obviously, some players are going to get every chance in the world and some others aren't."
While it’s never been a problem that has arisen, the minor league rules even have sanctions for players who could potentially deal drugs. Minor leaguers who are convicted of or plead guilty to the sale of prohibited substances are fined $10,000 and are banned for life if this situation arises a second time. The subject is not addressed in the MLB rules.
Continued...
