Doping Rules Toughened By MLB And MLBPA
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have decided it is time for Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association by announcing longer suspensions for violators and other reforms.
According to the announcement, a first violation for performance enhancing substances will result in an unpaid suspension of 80 games increased from 50 games. A second violation will now carry an unpaid suspension of 162 games, which would be increased from 100 games while a third violation will still result in a permanent ban from Major League Baseball.
It was also announced that baseball players suspended for doping will also be barred from participating in the post-season of that year, irrespective of when their suspension ends. Moreover, these players will not be eligible for automatic shares of the players’ bonus pool provided to players on clubs that make the playoffs. Players who face suspensions for doping will now be subjected to six additional urine tests and three additional blood tests, all unannounced during every subsequent year of their careers.
The number of in-season random urine collections beginning the 2014 season for all players will more than double from 1,400 to 3,200. Meanwhile, blood collections for detecting the use of Human growth hormone will increase to 400 random collections per year. The Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association provided the Arbitration Panel with the ability to reduce the discipline of a player, subject to certain limitations, for the use of certain types of performance enhancing drugs if the player is able to prove at a hearing that the use was not intended to improve performance.
In a statement, MLB commissioner Bud Selig said Major League Baseball is proud to announce some of the most significant improvements that we have made to our program in recent years. Selig added he is committed to constantly finding ways to improve the program in order to eradicate performance-enhancing drugs from the game and for MLB to serve as a model for other drug programs. Selig said baseball continues to try to escape the cloud of more than a decade of doping scandals despite having the toughest anti-doping policies in all of US pro sports.
Players’ union executive director Tony Clark said experience proves that increased penalties alone are not sufficient and added that’s why the players pushed for a dramatic increase in the frequency and sophistication of our tests, as well as comprehensive changes in a number of other areas of the program that will serve as a deterrent.
Last year, MLB imposed lengthy suspensions and fines on some of the most eminent baseball stars, including Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun for their involvement in Biogenesis clinic scandal. Rodriguez, the American professional baseball third baseman and shortstop for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, was suspended for 162 games, keeping him off the field for the entire 2014 season. This was after Alex Rodriguez, considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time, was originally suspended for 211 games by MLB.
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