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Guest Catcher8C

Another steroids thread...

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Guest Catcher8C

Considering the fact that two high profile players have been suspended for using steroids in the last week and after reading the Giambi thread, something came to mind.

 

 

Why doesn't Major League Baseball release the names of the players who's tests come up clean? Wouldn't that be the best way to encourage kids to stay off the juice? Let's say Miguel Cabrera or Derek Lee were tested randomly and came up clean. Wouldn't it be a great message to kids and a great way to discourage steroid use by the rest of the league if a press release could say "these guys are clean and they are still the best hitters in the league?"

 

 

If you do that, you've got kids who will say "why do i need this" when MLB players can do it the right way. In turn, maybe Josh Beckett (ok don't freak out it's just an example) looks over at Cabrera and sees him signing more baseballs, posing for more shots with kids, and having great positive P.R. because of the fact that he is a positive role model as an athlete and decides that he wants that sort of vibe to be connected to his career, too.

 

So I guess my main question is...why don't we hear about the players who come up clean?

 

If anyone has a list or an answer, thanks.

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Too many cynical people would just say Lee took something that's not detected in the testing, or MLB is just saying he passed to remove the bad pubilicity from the Palmeiro incident.

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Pick up a baseball register and look at all the names. If they haven't been suspended, they're clean. Not that difficult.

 

And this is the last steroids thread I'm allowing. Anything after this gets closed.

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Pick up a baseball register and look at all the names.  If they haven't been suspended, they're clean.  Not that difficult.

 

 

 

Not exactly, isn't testing random? If so then I agree with the OP, they should just do a little press release to ESPN.com or whatever stating that so-and-so passed their random drug test. Making sure that the word random appears at least once, if not more, just to point out that they were not singled out for a test, but that their name was drawn from a hat (or whatever other highly technological method they use).

 

 

If it's not random then disregard.

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Athletes are expected to pass their drug tests. It's not news when something happens that's expected to.

 

It'd be like reporting in the paper everyday "Sun rises in East!". It's not news since it's expected to happen. However, if one morning, the sun rose in the West, it'd be news and I'd expect it to be covered.

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That's not really the point though. The point is that since so much negativity is being reported about the steroid issue that it would be nice to report that so and so good ballplayer is NOT cheating thank you very much. Especially so if it is one of the better known players, superstars if you will.

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Not exactly, isn't testing random?  If so then I agree with the OP, they should just do a little press release to ESPN.com or whatever stating that so-and-so passed their random drug test. Making sure that the word random appears at least once, if not more, just to point out that they were not singled out for a test, but that their name was drawn from a hat (or whatever other highly technological method they use).

 

 

If it's not random then disregard.

 

Testing is random in the sense that there isn't a set schedule of when you will be tested, but every player will be tested at least once this season maybe twice, not sure of the number.

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That's not really the point though. The point is that since so much negativity is being reported about the steroid issue that it would be nice to report that so and so good ballplayer is NOT cheating thank you very much.  Especially so if it is one of the better known players, superstars if you will.

 

As is the case in pro sports more often than not: No news is good news. I'd prefer to keep it that way. If an athlete goes out of his way to do something good, I expect that to be reported. However if an athlete passes a test that he's expected to pass, that's not news. No matter how negative the media is, it's not news that Derrek Lee knows better than to go on the juice. It's not news that Albert Pujols knows better than to start tinkering with drugs.

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Steroids are negatively effecting the sport, yes. However, it's not news and shouldn't be reported because someone may have passed a drug test.

 

What if they report that Derrek Lee is clean and they push him to the moon as "The new face of MLB...he's not cheating" and so on and so on. What if D-Lee tests positive for steroids next month? What does that say about MLB?

 

Drugs negatively effect sports, but you don't see NBA reports of "Damon Stoudamire tests negative for marijuana!" because it's not news. News is when something happens that isn't supposed to happen. If Raffy didn't test positive for whatever he took, he wouldn't be in the news as much. Pujols doesn't test positive for the juice, so he's reported on as a good player, arguably the best in the game. There's no need to release whether or not Albert passed his test. Since we haven't heard the name linked to the juice, we just assume that he's not on them.

 

Basically, you think that MLB will be better if they released everyone's test results after they took them. There's a huge privacy issue there. Believe it or not, there's a privacy clause in the testing contract that only allows players to discuss the tests if they want to. MLB isn't allowed to do anything but test players and suspend them for failing. Releasing the test results, no matter how good it makes MLB look, is stupid.

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If there is a privacy clause then I will take back my thoughts on the matter, I was unaware such a thing existed. I still think some positives on the matter would be a good thing, but obviously if said clause exists (not that I'm doubting you) then that stuff can't be released.

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