Derek Jeter Says Sign Me Up

In the wake of the Mitchell Report Hearings on Capitol Hill, Major League Baseball's most prominent player said he doesn't mind being tested for HGH, even if it means having to give the league a blood sample.

In a statement to the Bloomberg News, the New Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said, "You can test for whatever you want to test for... We get pricked by needles anyway in spring training, so we have a lot of blood work to begin with."

That must be Player Union's chief Donald Fehr's worst nightmare. Fehr has been against blood tests in baseball for quite a while now. His position on the matter has been that blood tests are an invasion of the players' privacy, and thus the implementation of these tests into the sport has been dismissed.

Nevertheless, with a prominent player like Jeter saying that he is okay with the blood tests, that opens up a completely new can of worms for Fehr and the Player's Union.

Right now, there is a test out there that can detect HGH use; however, it can only be done with a blood sample. It is a test that has been implemented into some other non-major sports, and has been proven quite effective.

Fehr's opposition to this test, however, is not effective. Claiming that it is an invasion of privacy is just ludicrous. How on earth is a blood test for HGH an invasion of privacy? The only way one could deem that a violation of the Bill of Rights is if you deemed using HGH was a private issue.

Well, I'm sorry to say, Mr. Fehr, but using HGH is not a private issue for major league baseball players. Their livelihoods are based on their bodies, and that includes what they put into them. In addition, if they are cheating, or there is reason to believe there are players in baseball cheating, then the MLB and the public have a right to investigate the issue.

Yet we all know what Fehr is really holding back against allowing a blood test on his players. It's twofold actually. For starters, his players have cheated, still cheat, and will continue to cheat, as long as they can't be proven to have taken HGH. And if there is no test in place to prove it, then they have nothing to worry about. It's Fehr's responsibility to look out for the best interests of his players, and if that means not allowing them to be tested then that is what he will stand up for.

Secondly, if the walls start close in on him about this issue and he is essentially forced to give in to blood testing on players, then he wants to have been on record as having fought it so that when he comes to the bargaining table to allow the MLB to do that he can ask for something in return for his players. That could be anything from longer contracts to other off-field perks for the players.

However, it's hard to have any bargaining chips when a guy like Derek Jeter steps up and says, "[The problem] has gotten so much attention now, I think

Naturally, other players who are asked about the blood tests will be forced to follow suit and say something along the lines of Jeter, because none of them wants to be the guy to stand out against blood test, or even seem to waver on the issue, when Jeter, a guy no one has any suspicion about, is so adamantly for an HGH blood tests.

Somewhere out there, Donald Fehr is cursing Jeter under his breath and is trying to figure out a way to get A-Rod to run him over on an infield fly.