NEW BASEBALL DRUG TESTING - ANY REAL CHANGE?

'THANK  YOU  LORD  for Giving us Commissioner Bud Selig'


BREAKING DOWN  ' NEW'  2013 BASEBALL DRUG TESTING CHANGES


Concerned as some of us baseball purists are about the increasing negative affect PEDs have had on the grand old game, we thought we'd take a look at the current , supposedly updated,  drug testing and what all it entails. Will it really make a significant difference in reducing the number of cheaters in the game? From Wikipedia 4-10-13:


  "2006 Testing Policy has tests  administered via scientifically-validated urine test.

 Each Player shall be tested upon reporting to spring training. All Players will be selected for an additional unannounced urine specimen collection on a randomly selected date.   

In-Season testing

On January 10, 2013, MLB and the players union reached an agreement to add random, in-season human growth hormone and to a new test to reveal the use of testosterone. (We are told this is a test that will detect for synthetic testosterone, formerly undetectable by testing measures)  Testing will begin the 2013 season.( "Baseball to Expand Drug-Testing Program". New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2013.)"

From Bob Baum of Associated Press (1-10-13),

"Baseball players were subject to blood testing for HGH during spring training last year, and Thursday’s(2013) agreement between management and the MLB Players Association expands that throughout the season. Those are in addition to urine tests for other performance-enhancing drugs."

Now, our real problem is with the next line from Baum's article of 1-10-13,

"Rob Manfred, executive vice president for economics and league affairs, said each player will be tested at least once." )     Hardly 'throughout' the season!

That was our big question , which seemed well hidden , even not listed as far as we could see - WHEN and HOW OFTEN are these tests given? We've heard in the past that the players are actually given notice days ahead of the test. Even without this a player need only wait for the test and , once given, can go back on the PEDs, with the knowledge that he would be very unlikely to get another test for a long period, perhaps the rest of the season.  'At least once' likely means once, maybe twice max - and probably tests would be spread months apart. 

So, a guy like Marco Scutaro of the San Francisco Giants, who starts the season batting in the low  100's after finishing up last year in the high  300's, waits for the test, which might have been given, say,  last week.  And, lo and behold, folowing the test, suddenly the hitting is back, and Scutaro has five hits in two games and is already back up to .200 and climbing after only having  a couple hits the previous six games!   He can probably not worry about another test for another month or two at least, continuing on the stuff and supposedly 'fooling' us and helping lead the Giants to yet another tainted World Series. (Pretty interesting how a team like the Giants won two World Series in three years with, basically, two completely different teams ...but a lot of connections!)
(See more background details @ http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio1.blogspot.com