lodgebo
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Registered: May 2003
Local time: 06:54 AM
Location: Scotland
Posts: 4383
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Players, owners get tough on steroid abuse
Ronald Blum / Associated Press
Posted: 52 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AP) - Saying it wanted to restore confidence in the game, baseball rolled out a tougher steroid-testing program Thursday that includes penalties for first-time offenders and random, year-round checks.
"I've been saying for some time my goal for this industry is zero tolerance toward steroids," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said.
A first positive test would result in a suspension of up to 10 days, a second positive test a 30-day ban, a third positive a 60-day penalty, and a fourth positive test a one-year ban.
Under the previous agreement, a first positive test resulted only in treatment, and a second positive test was subject to a 15-day suspension. Only with a fifth positive test was a player subject to a one-year ban under the old plan.
Since the old agreement was reached in 2002, the sport has come under increased scrutiny about steroids. Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield testified before a federal grand jury investigating a California lab, and President Bush brought up the steroids issue in a State of the Union address.
"We're acting today to help restore the confidence of our fans," Selig said.
In addition to the one mandatory test of each player each season, players will randomly be selected for additional tests, with no maximum number of checks. In addition, players will randomly be selected for testing during the offseason.
This new agreement runs until Decemeber 2008.
"I will be surprised if over time this doesn't take care of the problem virtually completely," union head Donald Fehr said.
Human Growth Hormone was added to the list of banned substances; amphetamines were not.
"We had a problem and we dealt with the problem," Selig said. "I regarded this as not only a health issue, but certainly you could say it was an integrity issue in this sport." |
I dont know anything about baseball so forgive me if I have misread the artcile above. I am shocked that baseball players do not get year round checks for steroids or any other drugs and if you ask me the punishment is nothing, if you want to get tough they should look at the punishemnt that other sports impose for example soccer if you are caught taking drugs then thats it either a lifetime or ten year ban ( effectivly career gone) and no club would touch you. there is a player Rio Ferdinand who missed a steroid test by accident and got an 8 month ban even though when he came back and took the test he was clean. You may think it's harsh but how many players since then have forgotten to take tests? none and if you look at the number of soccer players testing positive it is very low indeed.
Guess what I am saying is get tough and these players will get the message.
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01-14-2005 03:30 PM
