Drug testing experts said that results from a recently released MLB report "detailing the sport’s out-of-season drug tests" undercut MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s claims "about the rigor and effectiveness of baseball’s drug policy," according to Michael Schmidt of the N.Y. TIMES. The report, issued last Friday by Selig's office and the MLBPA, revealed that "slightly more than 10 percent of baseball players had been tested for drugs" last offseason. It is the "first time the exact numbers" of offseason tests have been released. The testing experts contend that to "have tested such a modest percentage of athletes during that time frame is ... less than impressive." Schmidt notes the 138 offseason tests in '10 cited in the report account for just 3% of "all the tests conducted on players in the course of the year." By comparison, all NFL players are "tested at least once in the off-season, and half of the players are tested twice." The NFL's 4,000 offseason tests account for 40% of the league's tests each year. However, an NFL spokesperson acknowledged that "many of its tests came at training camps." MLB officials "defended the current off-season regimen as sufficient, considering the short off-season -- roughly three months -- and the fact that players are scattered throughout the world during that time." As part of the current CBA negotiations, Selig's office is asking the union "to accept the testing of blood for human growth hormone, which Selig put in for the minor leagues last season" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/6).
