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Major League Baseball Quietly Bans Andro
Mark McGwire stopped taking andro after the 1998 season, saying he did not want kids following his lead.
Six years after Mark McGwire made andro famous during his 70-home run season, the steroidlike supplement has been banned by Major League Baseball and its players.
The ban, which began this season, was never announced by the commissioner's office or the players' association. Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, referred to it Friday during a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors.
"I think it's a good thing," Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina said later in the day in New York. "It's still one of many things to be done."
The Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of androstenedione as of April 12. Baseball's decision, confirmed by management lawyer Frank Coonelly and union lawyer Michael Weiner, took effect the same day and means players who test positive for andro face penalties, including suspensions after two positive tests.
Coonelly and Weiner said that based on the FDA decision and a study conducted by Harvard in 1999 that was financed by baseball, the union and management concluded andro acted like an androgenic anabolic steroid and should be added to the sport's list of banned substances.
Andro is used by the body to make testosterone. Congress is considering legislation that would designate andro and more than two dozen other steroidlike supplements as controlled substances -- making them available by prescription only under certain conditions.
In survey tests for steroids last year, 5-to-7 percent of samples were positive, triggering testing with penalties this year. A first positive test would result in treatment and a second in a 15-day suspension or fine of up to $10,000. The length of suspensions would increase to 25 days for a third positive test, 50 days for a fourth and one year for a fifth. These suspensions also would be without pay.
Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield, among the players who testified before a federal grand jury in California investigating illegal steroid distribution, was not aware of the decision.
"I think it's a good move, but I thought it was already done," said the New York Mets' Todd Zeile. "I thought they had done it the year after Mark McGwire in 1998."
McGwire stopped taking andro the following year, saying he did not want kids to follow his lead.
"When they were making the big stink about McGwire, I didn't see what the big deal was," Baltimore player representative Jay Gibbons said. "You have to ban it now. Obviously, there's some concern if they took it off the shelves."
Also appearing on the panel were Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency's medical research committee; former Pittsburgh Steeler Steve Courson, who has admitted using steroids; and Steve Holman, a former middle-distance runner who is an athlete ambassador for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
Courson referred to the investigation of BALCO, the California lab at the center of the federal probe. Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds' trainer, was among four men indicted by the grand jury - all four have pleaded innocent, and Bonds has denied using illegal steroids.
Tim Montgomery, who testified before the grand jury, was one of several sprinters who received a letter Wednesday from USADA warning they could face punishment for alleged steroid use. Marion Jones, who won five medals in the Sydney Olympics, also is being investigated.
Jones and Montgomery have denied using prohibited drugs.
Courson said it's a myth that there are "only a few bad apples."
"BALCO shows us that some of the people under suspicion are some of the greatest athletes in the world," he said. Courson said that if Montgomery is banned for life, "there are probably 100 sprinters waiting in line who are using the same drugs."
Source: AP
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