Anabolic Steroids Blog - iSteroids . com » MLB to publish steroid test results but not those of amphetamines

MLB-steroids Major League Baseball has taken some steps forward earlier this week and then backpedaled a few days later.

MLB announced early part of this week that they would be releasing the names of athletes who tested positive for amphetamines for the first time to the public on its report on its drug-testing program. But a few days later, the organization said it would not.

According to league’s VP Rob Manfred during his telephone interview with the New York Times the commissioner’s office and the players union would withhold the details of positive amphetamine tests since “under our program, first-time positive tests for amphetamines are treated as confidential, and because of that, those numbers will be kept private.”

“The report will detail the number of tests conducted this year, the number of positives for steroids, the names of the substances players tested positive for and the number of therapeutic-use exemptions but will not include the total number of amphetamine positives,” Manfred said.

MLB officials say it’s a case of internal misunderstanding; there are some people, however, who have this suspicion that elite sluggers could have tested for the banned compound, thus the cop-out.

They asked why release the names of those who tested for anabolic steroids and not for amphetamines? They’re both prohibited compounds, so why the bias for cases involving amphetamines now?

From the New York Times:

Baseball has tested for amphetamines since 2006. A player is not publicly identified or suspended the first time he tests positive, so few failed tests have been reported. Only two players — Neifi Pérez and Mike Cameron — have been suspended for testing positive, and two others — Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds — have been linked to first-time positive tests in published reports.

In January, baseball’s drug-testing administrator, Dr. Bryan W. Smith, is scheduled to release a report on the status of the program, including some testing data.

The decision to release some information came in response to a recommendation from George J. Mitchell, who had conducted an internal investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. In his report, which was released last December, Mitchell said the testing program needed more transparency, including the aggregate data on testing results. In April, the commissioner’s office and the players union amended the drug-testing program in response to Mitchell’s recommendation and, as part of the new policy, said the program’s administrator would include aggregate drug-testing data in his report.

However, both sides agreed not to reveal the number of first-time positive amphetamine tests

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