This story quietly slipped by the mainstream media, who is fixated on Barry Bonds career home run record chase and All-Star appearance. Commissioner Bud Selig talked about an HGH test for MLB (Toronto Star).
Commissioner Bud Selig feels that baseball is doing all it can to catch up with cheaters that use the undetectable Human Growth Hormone as a substitute for steroids.
"Do I have frustrations about Human Growth Hormone? Yes," Selig said. "Do (our doctors) have frustrations? Yes. Dr. (Don) Catlin's working on tests. There is no test. They went into that with me in great detail. They had heard and read a lot of things which are not true. The Olympics did have tests (for HGH). The results of those tests have not been shown to anybody. They're still sitting with the samples. So, there is no test."
Baseball has often been criticized for patting itself on the back about its drug-testing program while cheating goes on under its nose.
This information is important. News organizations fry Selig on a daily basis. However, he appears to be trying to so something about the issue. According to the interview Selig remains aware of the doping potential of HGH and other PEDs that escape testing procedures.
"On June 18, I had a meeting of 16 team doctors and five or six trainers," Selig revealed. "We have these at least once a year. They met for a while. Then I met with them. I asked every question I can.
"They feel the amphetamine (testing) has been interesting and very productive. On the steroid situation, we keep adding substances all the time. They were remarkably confident that we have really improved a lot and were quite insulted by people who they think are either not well informed or not informed at all, who thought otherwise. Between the doctors and trainers and all of our people and everybody else, I'll take their opinion."
Baseball is continuing to fund Catlin on the development of HGH testing and will continue to do so until a solution is found.
"If he could develop it tomorrow, I'd be the happiest guy on earth. We'll extend and do everything we have to do to find a test."
Comments