In 2003, after the death of a PA member, Orioles hurler Steve Bechler, where the herbal supplement ephedra was touted as the alleged cause of death, MLB acted swiftly. The Commissioner added the herbal supplement to the banned substances list for minor league baseball. To add it to the major league
list required the blessing of the MLBPA, which only agreed after a firestorm in the media forced the issue. Even with their begrudged agreement to ban ephedra, it doesn’t formally appear in the list of banned substances (see page 3).
Whose Union?
Who does Donald Fehr at the MLBPA really represent? It would seem that his largest constituency amongst the players is with many of the high-dollar athletes some of whom, whispers suggest, may be steroid users. Several baseball insiders have stated that most players would be in favor of stricter guidelines for steroids, herbal supplements like ephedra, and illegal drugs.
"I think if it had been left to the players, the large majority might have jumped in and had a role in establishing guidelines," said Rickey.
Negative Results Are Positive for Baseball
The minor league guidelines established have produced results.
"The minor league testing program has seen a drop from 11 percent of tests being positive in 2001 to 1.7 percent last season,” commissioner Bud Selig told Associated Press sports writer Bob Baum in a story that ran in the March 6, 2005 edition of the Columbus Dispatch.
"I find it interesting because it gives us some perspective that we had not seen previously," said International League president Randy Mobley, commenting on the drop in positive tests. "Obviously it's good to see it's gone from a sizable number down to a smaller number."
On the Radar for Decades
When it comes to minor league baseball's drug prevention and treatment program, Pacific Coast League president Branch Rickey was ahead of the curve 20-odd years ago when he was the farm director for the Pirates and Orioles.
During Rickey's minor league tenure, Pittsburgh and Baltimore "pioneered" drug testing with the objective being not to catch violators but to try and salvage a career before it went off track, as Rickey tells MLN.
"We began seeing young athletes coming into our sport who had other issues than just how to learn to sacrifice bunt or (make) a hook slide. We were fully impressed with the fact our clubs had a huge investment in human resources."
