The Test for Human Growth Hormone Does Exist

Don't let the people out there fool you. There is indeed a test for HGH.

Just recently (sometime shortly after the Congressional hearings with Roger Clemens), I heard Mike Golic of the ESPN and the "Mike & Mike" show said that "if" there was a blood test then it would be interesting to see if the MLB Players Union would accept that.

It would be interesting to see if they would accept that. However, it's not like there isn't a blood test out there for HGH.

In fact, as long ago as June 7^th, 2006, Darren Rovell of ESPN.com reported on such a test in an article he did for their website.

So the test has been around for a long time. The question is, "Why isn't it in baseball?"

And to be fair, the same question can be asked of the NFL, which most people assume has a lingering HGH problem in their league.

But it's not as if it's the NFL that was just called to Congress for a second set of Congressional hearings, and it is not the NFL that is facing huge media, political, and fan scrutiny. Sure, there bottom line hasn't been hurt by the added scrutiny, in fact, their bottom line has probably never been better than it has been over the past couple of seasons that have incurred record attendance numbers.

Yet, there is no denying that if baseball does not take measures to increase their efforts to control HGH use in their sport, then eventually, the wall will come tumbling down. In a sport where records are held sacred and where the mere mentioning of steroids can damage a player's every single At-Bat, you would have to expect baseball to make a move to change the status quo, even if for no other reason than to make its critics shutup.

If Bud Selig and Players Union Representative Donald Fehr don't want to find themselves back on Capitol Hill one day, then they need to accept this blood test for HGH as standard practice in the MLB. The idea that there is a test out there that can detect for this stuff and it's not being utilized by baseball is ridiculous. I sat on my couch and watched and listened as both of them sat there and promised to progress their testing methods, yet I have still have seen no concessions.

The perception is that there is no way that Donald Fehr is going to accept a blood test as standard testing practices for his players. To me, such a stance would be completely contradictory to his sworn statements on Capitol Hill. But the even greater tragedy here is that I have heard no such proposal by Bud Selig and the owners that they want to institute a blood test. I don't have any reason to believe that MLB even approached the Union with the idea of these blood tests, and that to me is unacceptable.

The tools for them to start implementing a legitimate instrument in the riddance of HGH from baseball is available and baseball must start using it immediately. Otherwise, they are saying it is okay that HGH persists. Because you don't tell your kid to stop using up all of the gas and keep giving him the keys to the car when he doesn't listen to you, and that is exactly what baseball is doing right now.

If only Social Services could take the players away from Fehr, Selig, and the owners, maybe then they'd get their acts together.