When I was a teenager and in my early 20s, pretty much concurrent to when dinosaurs roamed the earth, drug testing was only discussed in the context of the Olympic Games. Which was not something I either thought much about or heard much about because I wasn’t going to qualify for the equestrian team and neither were my friends.
The big-deal recreational drug around college campuses was marijuana and although I had heard of heroin I never heard of anyone using it except in fiction like “The Man With The Golden Arm.” No one mentioned cocaine except when trying to decipher the original Coca-Cola recipe and crack was something that might be the second part of a word referring to what a wise guy said.
But the world turns and the sports world along with it. Olympic drug testing has reached such a level of sophistication (from what I read) that I wonder if guys in tuxes rather than lab coats handle the chemistry of it. And, of course, sometime after we thought that the only people who took steroids were pro football linemen, pro wrestlers, weight lifters and shot putters, we discovered that an entire generation of Major League Baseball power hitters (and some pitchers, too), had been scamming us.
Then word began seeping out about the next advancement in undectable performance enhancing drugs, human growth hormone, the primary beneficiaries being track stars and bicycle racers. For the longest time I recall reading that no sports organizations had the wherewithal to test for human growth hormone. Again, since I am not taking any college science classes and subscribe to Sports Illustrated, not the New England Journal of Medicine, I find myself behind the times.
After being hoodwinked by steriods users for years, with no power to test even the most suspicious of characters, baseball has decided that rather than being the last to know it wants to be the first to prevent. So under the forthcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is currently being finalized, it seems that the majors and the players have agreed that testing for human growth hormone is a good thing and it will be implemented through blood work come February.
Clearly, some people will always try to cheat and some people will take advantage of seeking an edge if there is no rule prohibiting using a drug. There has been no human growth hormone scandal in baseball and no indication that widespread use has aided players in breaking long-cherished records. So this time the testing seemingly comes before the crisis.
This is not the type of off-season baseball news we were weaned on. It used to be that the Hot Stove League consisted solely of rumors of deals and actual trades. Now it is dominated by free agency (another version of player movement) and housekeeping details that require labor negotiations and preventative drug maintenaince.
The implentation of human growth hormone testing is an offshot of the infamous Mitchell Report of a few years ago that was mostly about getting to the bottom of the steroids issue. That committee heard enough about possible human growth hormone use–ostensibly to aid recovery from injuries and workout fatigue–that it grew alarmed. In the past, the Players Association has fought vigorously against the introduction of any programs like this, but during this autumn-of-love contract negotiation it seems owners and players are on the same page.
That is so unusual it is hotter stuff than the usual Hot Stove League developments. Imagine, both sides agreeing on a program for the good of the game without a strike or a lockout.