I wonder how much weight Sammy and Barry are going to lose before spring training?
NEW YORK — More than 5 percent of steroid tests on major league baseball players this year came back positive, triggering automatic testing starting next season.
Suspicions of steroid use had run high recently as bulked-up sluggers set all sorts of home run records. Stars such as Barry Bonds (search) and Sammy Sosa (search) denied taking the drugs.
But on Thursday, the results proved what many in baseball had long assumed: Some players were taking more than vitamins.
"Hopefully, this will, over time, allow us to completely eradicate the use of performance enhancement substances in baseball," commissioner Bud Selig (search) said Thursday after the results were released.
Under baseball's labor contract reached last year, all players were tested this year as part of a survey, with the samples not identified by player. The agreement called for mandatory testing to begin the year after any season in which more than 5 percent of the tests were positive.
The commissioner's office said the threshold has been exceeded, but the exact percentage was not released. The league said of 1,438 anonymous tests this season, between 5 percent and 7 percent were positive.
There are about 1,200 players in the league, and some were tested more than once.
"A positive rate of 5 percent is hardly the sign that you have rampant use of anything," said Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations. "From our perspective, it's still a problem. We'd like to be at zero."
Starting next year, a first positive test for steroid use would result in treatment and a second in a 15-day suspension or fine of up to $10,000.
The length of penalties would increase to a 25-day suspension or fine of up to $25,000 for a third positive test, a 50-day suspension or fine of up to $50,000 for a fourth and a one-year suspension or fine of up to $100,000 for a fifth. The suspensions would be without pay.
Testing with penalties will continue until positive tests drop below 2.5 percent in consecutive years.
New York Mets reliever Mike Stanton (search) did not think steroid use had been as widespread as the results indicated.
"It does surprise me a little bit," he said. "But the tests don't lie."
Said Minnesota Twins outfielder Dustan Mohr: "I'm kind of surprised it's not higher."
"I think it's less than what people might think, but when you see a guy who puts on 20 pounds of solid muscle, it kind of raises your eyebrows," he said.
Some players had called for even more stringent testing.
"I guess if people want it bad enough they find their way around the system," Oakland Athletics pitcher Ted Lilly said after the announcement. "There's still other supplements and aids out there that aren't exactly steroids. If there's anything out there that can help, I'd imagine players would find it."
The NFL, NBA and NCAA (search) test for banned steroids and other prohibited substances, but hockey does not. For substances other than steroids, baseball tests a player only if doctors agree there is cause.
NEW YORK — More than 5 percent of steroid tests on major league baseball players this year came back positive, triggering automatic testing starting next season.
Suspicions of steroid use had run high recently as bulked-up sluggers set all sorts of home run records. Stars such as Barry Bonds (search) and Sammy Sosa (search) denied taking the drugs.
But on Thursday, the results proved what many in baseball had long assumed: Some players were taking more than vitamins.
"Hopefully, this will, over time, allow us to completely eradicate the use of performance enhancement substances in baseball," commissioner Bud Selig (search) said Thursday after the results were released.
Under baseball's labor contract reached last year, all players were tested this year as part of a survey, with the samples not identified by player. The agreement called for mandatory testing to begin the year after any season in which more than 5 percent of the tests were positive.
The commissioner's office said the threshold has been exceeded, but the exact percentage was not released. The league said of 1,438 anonymous tests this season, between 5 percent and 7 percent were positive.
There are about 1,200 players in the league, and some were tested more than once.
"A positive rate of 5 percent is hardly the sign that you have rampant use of anything," said Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations. "From our perspective, it's still a problem. We'd like to be at zero."
Starting next year, a first positive test for steroid use would result in treatment and a second in a 15-day suspension or fine of up to $10,000.
The length of penalties would increase to a 25-day suspension or fine of up to $25,000 for a third positive test, a 50-day suspension or fine of up to $50,000 for a fourth and a one-year suspension or fine of up to $100,000 for a fifth. The suspensions would be without pay.
Testing with penalties will continue until positive tests drop below 2.5 percent in consecutive years.
New York Mets reliever Mike Stanton (search) did not think steroid use had been as widespread as the results indicated.
"It does surprise me a little bit," he said. "But the tests don't lie."
Said Minnesota Twins outfielder Dustan Mohr: "I'm kind of surprised it's not higher."
"I think it's less than what people might think, but when you see a guy who puts on 20 pounds of solid muscle, it kind of raises your eyebrows," he said.
Some players had called for even more stringent testing.
"I guess if people want it bad enough they find their way around the system," Oakland Athletics pitcher Ted Lilly said after the announcement. "There's still other supplements and aids out there that aren't exactly steroids. If there's anything out there that can help, I'd imagine players would find it."
The NFL, NBA and NCAA (search) test for banned steroids and other prohibited substances, but hockey does not. For substances other than steroids, baseball tests a player only if doctors agree there is cause.
