For the first time, NBA players have agreed to offseason testing for performance enhancing drugs as part of the new labor deal that is being balloted.

The NBA previously did not test players during its July-September offseason.

From Guardian.co.uk:

The memo was less clear about testing for human growth hormone, saying only that a committee would study the “possibility of an HGH testing program.” NBA spokesman Mike Bass, however, insisted that both sides agreed to HGH blood testing, subject to the process being validated by a “neutral committee of experts.” It wasn’t immediately clear who would be on that panel.

Major League Baseball and its players recently agreed to start HGH testing in spring training. The National Football League‘s new labor contract also included a provision for HGH testing as soon as this season but only once the players’ union approves the process. That hasn’t happened, in part because the union says it needs more information about the test.

Beginning in the 2012-13 season, players can be tested up to two times during the offseason for steroids and performance enhancing drugs according to the memo.

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The former baseball slugger, Barry Bonds, has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to two years probation, with no prison time.

Bonds received the sentence in a San Francisco federal court for his conviction on a single criminal count related to an investigation over steroids use in sports.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Bonds was also sentenced to 30 days of home confinement, 250 hours of community service, and must pay a $4,000 fine.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston handed down the sentence in a San Francisco federal court, and she immediately stayed it pending appeal. Prosecutors had sought a 15-month prison sentence, while Bonds asked for probation.

Bonds, 47, was convicted in April of obstructing a grand jury’s doping investigation with an evasive answer during a court appearance in December 2003. The Northern California jury was deadlocked on three other counts of lying to a grand jury.

Other baseball stars tainted by the doping scandal include sluggers like Jason Giambi and Mark McGwire and pitcher Roger Clemens.

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Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista is being talked these days as a possible candidate to have used a little extra pick-me-up.

Bautista recently said the tests under the name of random drug testing policy conducted by the Major League Baseball are not so random.

From Sportsgrid.com:

Speaking at a recent banquet event in the Dominican Republic, however, Bautista told the attendees that there’s no reason for anyone to be suspicious of his Hulk-like outbreak over the past two seasons. Since, after all, he has been “randomly” tested 16 times for performance enhancing drugs. Yes, that’s 16 times in the course of two years.

Considering that over the previous two seasons he had only been tested three total times, to go along with his 28 home runs in 700-plus at-bats, it certainly seems like said tests may not be so “random.” But then again, that’s the current nature of the game. Everyone is guilty until proven innocent… 20-some-odd times over, and over again. It probably would take another 50 or so negative tests in order for the critics to be quieted down.

The 2-time MLB Home Run Champion and newest member of the 50 HR Club has been tested sixteen times in two years.

Tags: Blue Jays slugger, Jose Bautista, Major League Baseball, Performance enhancing drugs

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According to a sentencing memo filed in court, federal prosecutors want baseball legend Barry Bonds to serve 15 months in prison for his obstruction of justice conviction.

Defense lawyers argued in their filing that the judge should accept recommendation of the probation office that the ex-baseball player be sentenced to two years probation, fined $4,000, and ordered to perform 250 hours of community service.

From Edition.cnn.com:

Bonds, 47, is set to be sentenced on December 16 in a San Francisco federal courtroom, less than two miles from the ballpark where he broke Hank Aaron‘s major league home run in August 2007.

Jurors who found Bonds guilty in April said he was “evasive” in his testimony to the federal grand jury investigating illegal steroids use by pro athletes.

“Because Bonds’s efforts were a corrupt, intentional effort to interfere with that mission, a sentence of 15 months imprisonment is appropriate,” the prosecution said in its memo to U.S. District Judge Susan Illston.

Tags: Barry Bonds, baseball, Hank Aaron, steroids

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The latest feat of Major League Baseball of extended “labor peace” with the Major League Players Association was reached on November 22, 2011.

MLB has apparently won out in its attempt to curb illicit use of human growth hormone (HGH) by its players, as per terms of the latest basic agreement between the parties.

From Sports-central.org:

The lockouts by both the NFL and NBA this year perhaps did not go by unnoticed by MLB brass in its seemingly under-the-radar collective bargaining talks with the MLBPA this past fall. MLB attempted to show up the other leagues’ rather unkempt labor relations.

And MLB Commissioner Bud Selig made it quite clear by way of his public display of self-aggrandizement during the week following a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was reached, that his is the first North American professional sports league to agree to such a test for HGH. And perhaps it was indeed Selig’s latest and greatest coup yet, in such a pronouncement, however yet to be realized.

The agreement will run five years in duration and expire on December 1, 2016. Article 39, Sec. 7 (b) of the NFL’s CBA states: “The parties confirm that the Program on Anabolic Steroids and related Substances will include both annual blood testing and random blood testing for human growth hormone, with discipline for positive tests at the same level as for steroids.”

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Days after a judge upheld conviction of the slugger on an obstruction of justice count, federal prosecutors have dropped all the remaining charges against Barry Bonds.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston was informed by via filed papers from the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco that it was dismissing the three charges of making false statements still pending against Major League Baseball‘s all-time home runs leader.

From Espn.go.com:

The deadline for prosecutors to start the process for a retrial on those charges was about 30 days away. Now, Bonds won’t face a new trial on accusations that he lied to a grand jury back in 2003 when he testified that he never knowingly received steroids or human growth hormone from trainer Greg Anderson, and that no one other than his doctors ever injected him with anything.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Parrella declined comment.

Allen Ruby, the lawyer of Bonds, refused to discuss whether Bonds intended to appeal the obstruction conviction.

Tags: Barry Bonds, human growth hormone, Major League Baseball, steroids

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The new collective bargaining agreement of the Major League Baseball will include blood testing for human growth hormone.

A report in the New York Times said testing would begin in February during spring training.

The penalty for a positive HGH test will be the same as a positive steroid test — a 50-game suspension, according to the sources.

From Espn.go.com:

Baseball’s new labor contract also will include a rise in the minimum salary to $480,000 and luxury taxes on both amateur draft signings and international free agents coming to the major leagues.

There also will be a slight increase in the total of players eligible for salary arbitration after the 2012 season, when there also will be a new method to determine compensation for clubs losing top major league free agents. There also will be modifications to the luxury tax on high-payroll teams, but the threshold will remain at $178 million next year.

Sources told ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark that labor negotiators of the MLB have reached a “handshake agreement” on all major issues.

Tags: HGH, human growth hormone, Major League Baseball

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In the past year, the number of drug tests conducted by Major League Baseball rose 3 percent when Colorado Rockies catcher Eliezer Alfonzo was the only big leaguer suspended for use of a performance enhancing substance.

According to the annual report issued Thursday by Dr. Bryan Smith, the independent administrator for baseball‘s drug program, Alfonzo was banned for 100 games and there was just one positive for PEDs among 3,868 tests that resulted in discipline.

From Espn.go.com:

Under its new labor deal reached last week, baseball players will undergo blood testing for human growth hormone during spring training, starting in February. There is no agreement yet for regular-season blood testing.

Alfonzo’s was a second offense because he also tested positive in 2008 and served a 50-game suspension. The previous year, there were two positives for PEDs among 3,747 tests: Cincinnati pitcher Edinson Volquez and Florida catcher Ronny Paulino.

While Manny Ramirez tested positive this year, he retired rather than serve a 100-game suspension. Smith’s report lists only the substances for positive tests that result in discipline.

Roughly 20 to 25 percent of the approximately 4,000 tests in 2010 in the NFL were during the off-season.

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The Major League Baseball may have come to an agreement with its players to test their blood for human growth hormone but the game will be expected to come to grips with its present testing before it touts itself as the leader in new drug testing, said BALCO founder Victor Conte.

Conte further remarked that MLB should be using a more sophisticated form of detecting testosterone or its HGH testing would not really make a difference as players often make use of small amounts of testosterone in conjunction with HGH.

From Articles.nydailynews.com:

“HGH is not effective unless it is used in conjunction with testosterone or other anabolic steroids,” Conte says. “It’s important to understand that HGH is not an anabolic agent. It is an anti-catabolic agent. It basically helps to reduce muscle degradation and enables a player to maintain the gains they’ve made using steroids for a longer period of time. By itself, HGH has been shown to have no significant performance-enhancing effects.”

Conte, who is now an advocate for stronger testing, has been saying for years that the 4-to-1 testosterone to epitestosterone ratio used by baseball and other leagues to detect testosterone use is ineffective.

“Testosterone gels, creams and patches will clear an MLB player’s system within a matter of hours and be below the 4 to 1 T/E ratio allowable in urine,” he says. “A player could possibly use a fast-acting form of testosterone at night after a game to help with recovery and their T/E ratio would be within the normal range by the time they would get to the ballpark the next evening.

“If MLB were to implement CIR testing, I believe they would possibly catch a significant number of players using testosterone,” Conte says.

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Alvaro Aristy (Jorge Leandro Guzman) signed with the Padres three years ago for a sum of $1 million but neither age, talent, or name have proven to be legitimate.

Dan Mullin, the vice president of Major League Baseball‘s department of investigations, remarked the MLB got a tip about Aristy’s identity in January 2010.

From Baseballamerica.com:

Randy Smith, Padres vice president of player development and international scouting, said the team was surprised to learn of Guzman’s fraud before spring training in 2010. “We had no reason to be suspicious,” Smith said. “From our information and him being cleared the first time, we were comfortable with MLB‘s investigation.”

MLB launched its department of investigations in 2008 in response to recommendations from the Mitchell Report, but Mullin’s team didn’t take over age and identity investigations of Latin American players until July 2009. Prior to that, teams contracted out background checks of Latin American players—including Guzman’s—to independent investigators, a system that team officials often complained was ineffective and at times outright corrupt.

This is the second time that player has been in the news for the wrong seasons. In July 2009, he was suspended for 50 games after he tested positive for a metabolite of Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid commonly sold as Deca Durabolin.

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