PORT ST. LUCIE — Don’t expect any human growth hormone testing in the majors anytime soon. And even if there were an effective test, it appears the Players’ Association will not agree to a blood test during the season, according to new union chief Michael Weiner.
“If a scientific valid urine test is developed it goes into place automatically,” Weiner said yesterday after meeting with the Mets for an hour and a half. “Blood testing is much more complicated; issues in terms of the interference with the player’s job and at this point we also have questions about the science of the test.
“Given the demands on baseball players,” Weiner said, “in terms of the daily requirements of the players, asking to draw players blood before he has to go play on a summer night in St. Louis is different than to supply a urine example before he has to go play on a summer night in St. Louis or asking him to draw blood after he plays on a summer night in St. Louis and has to play on a summer afternoon the next day is different than collecting his urine.
“Blood testing during the season creates additional complications.”
Evidently baseball is too strenuous a sport to draw blood. Baseball has never tested for HGH. Current blood testing for HGH only has about a 36-hour window of effectiveness. Effective urine testing for HGH is considered years away.
“We have to look at the scientific validity of the test, we have to look at the effectiveness of the test in terms of what the detection window is, in other words how long it can detect the use, prior to the administration of the test, we have to look at how it is administered,” Weiner said.