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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major League Baseball has announced plans to begin testing for steroids next season after more than five percent of players produced positive tests in a 2003 testing survey.
The number of positives, between five and seven percent, exceeds the threshold agreed to in the collective bargaining agreement triggering automatic testing starting next season.
"I am pleased that the drug-testing program negotiated last year as part of the bargaining agreement with the Players Association heightened awareness to the dangers of improper drug use," MLB commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement released on Thursday. "Hopefully, this will allow us to completely eradicate the use of performance enhancement substances in baseball."
Through the 2003 season and spring training MLB said it conducted 1,438 random tests that produced between five and seven percent positive results.
All players on the 40-man rosters were randomly chosen for testing at unannounced times and an additional 240 players were selected and tested a second time.
While MLB sees the percentage as low, the immediate reaction elsewhere was that results indicated a rampant use of performance enhancing drugs.
"A positive rate of five percent is hardly a sign of rampant use of anything," MLB executive vice-president Rob Manfred said during a tele-conference.
"Still it indicates there is still a problem, we would like to see it at zero.
"But saying drug use is rampant overstates the magnitude of the problem."
LIGHT PENALTIES
Testing will be for steroids only and include, tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) a banned steroid tweaked by chemists to make it previously undetectable that is at the heart of an escalating doing scandal that has rocked the sports world.
Suspensions and fines are already laid out in the collective bargaining agreement but appear light in comparison to the bans faced by athletes competing in athletics, cycling, swimming and several other Olympic sports.
First-time offenders will be placed in treatment and education programs and subject to additional testing.
A second positive test will result in a maximum 15 day suspension and a $10,000 fine while anyone testing positive five times will face a possible one-year ban and $100,000.
All the suspensions would be without pay.
In contrast, Olympic swimmers and runners face possible four-year bans from competition for positive tests.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major League Baseball has announced plans to begin testing for steroids next season after more than five percent of players produced positive tests in a 2003 testing survey.
The number of positives, between five and seven percent, exceeds the threshold agreed to in the collective bargaining agreement triggering automatic testing starting next season.
"I am pleased that the drug-testing program negotiated last year as part of the bargaining agreement with the Players Association heightened awareness to the dangers of improper drug use," MLB commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement released on Thursday. "Hopefully, this will allow us to completely eradicate the use of performance enhancement substances in baseball."
Through the 2003 season and spring training MLB said it conducted 1,438 random tests that produced between five and seven percent positive results.
All players on the 40-man rosters were randomly chosen for testing at unannounced times and an additional 240 players were selected and tested a second time.
While MLB sees the percentage as low, the immediate reaction elsewhere was that results indicated a rampant use of performance enhancing drugs.
"A positive rate of five percent is hardly a sign of rampant use of anything," MLB executive vice-president Rob Manfred said during a tele-conference.
"Still it indicates there is still a problem, we would like to see it at zero.
"But saying drug use is rampant overstates the magnitude of the problem."
LIGHT PENALTIES
Testing will be for steroids only and include, tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) a banned steroid tweaked by chemists to make it previously undetectable that is at the heart of an escalating doing scandal that has rocked the sports world.
Suspensions and fines are already laid out in the collective bargaining agreement but appear light in comparison to the bans faced by athletes competing in athletics, cycling, swimming and several other Olympic sports.
First-time offenders will be placed in treatment and education programs and subject to additional testing.
A second positive test will result in a maximum 15 day suspension and a $10,000 fine while anyone testing positive five times will face a possible one-year ban and $100,000.
All the suspensions would be without pay.
In contrast, Olympic swimmers and runners face possible four-year bans from competition for positive tests.
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