Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 31, 2007
Advance Notice

The New York Times notes the possibility exists for players to get advance notice of surprise drug tests:

The night before testers arrive at major league stadiums to take urine samples from players, officials for the home team receive a call from the testing company requesting stadium and parking passes for the drug testers. This procedure is not outlined in the league's 48-page testing policy, which baseball promotes as one of the toughest in sports. Teams are not told which players will be tested -- or how many -- but the number is said to be roughly five per visit.

According to Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations and human resources and the official who oversees the sport's drug-testing programs, team officials are not supposed to tell players that tests will be conducted. He said a person with each club -- often the general manager or the assistant general manager -- is responsible for arranging for tester access and for space to be set aside in the locker rooms for tests.

Whether players are getting a heads up or not, I don't want to think about this device too much (emphasis added):

Advance notice of only a few hours could provide the opportunity for players to dilute their urine, use a masking agent or use a device that allows them to fill their bladders with drug-free urine.

That's gross on two levels. Where does the urine come from, and how do they get it in there?


Posted by David Pinto at 03:36 PM | Cheating | TrackBack (0)
Comments

You really want to know?

Also, there's external bladders filled with clean urine.

Posted by: Blastings Thrilledge at October 31, 2007 04:28 PM

ah yes, the "whizzinator"

Posted by: josh o. at October 31, 2007 05:23 PM

Never heard of a Catheter? Just reverse the process by using gravity. Might be "gross" to some, but to a nurse or other health care provider it's just another task. If the next multi-million dollar contract depended on it, this probably wouldn't be that hard for anyone to do!

Posted by: Junkcat at October 31, 2007 06:47 PM

Even poor guys who don't want to buy a whizzator can use a makeshift one. All one has to do is get clean relatively new or recent urine that has been refrigerated but is now back at body temperature and put a small amout in a baggie. I'm sure no one watches as the baseball player urinates so they can just use that clean urine from the baggie. Of course this is ghetto stuff so if you are a millionaire you can afford the "whizzinator." There are many ways to get clean urine if you know when you are being tested.

Posted by: bill rettig at October 31, 2007 06:50 PM

We all know about the Whizzinator. Regarding the first option (refilling one's real bladder with a catheter), how can this possibly work? You can't stop your kidneys from sending down fresh drug-laced urine to top off the stuff you just refilled your bladder with.

Posted by: Tor at November 2, 2007 09:54 PM
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