While some people remain outraged at the possibility that baseball players are using performance enhancers and others are saying that we’ve got to take sports as an “it is what it is” proposition, no one is taking a look at one possibility.
Gary Matthews Jr. was named in an Albany Times-Union story as one customer of a mail-order pharmacy. I’m sure many of you are customers too, though not for anything illegal: By-mail prescriptions make up over half of all prescriptions according to 2005 data provided by Wellpoint, a large health insurer. You’re probably saying “I don’t get HGH.” But you could.
I’ve been following one possibility but have not been able to get confirmation — so let’s talk about this as a mere possibility. What if baseball knew? Yes, there exists a mechanism by which Gary Matthews Jr.– or any player — could use HGH or testosterone legally. In fact, we know that at least three players use testosterone within the bounds of this mechanism. It’s called the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). When a player needs a medication due to some condition — asthma, attention deficit disorder, low hormone levels after cancer or chemotherapy, or theoretically a low intrinsic level of HGH — the player is allowed to use the substance consistent with accepted medical practices.
The TUEs are not automatic. Far from it, in fact. The system was overhauled by MLB in 2006 in anticipation of the amphetamine ban. The thought was that many players would try to get TUEs for ADD drugs and the new system was put in to require the review of an independent medical expert to certify the need for this type of drug as well as the lack of legal alternatives. Why is this in place? Consider the case of Chad Cordero, who could not use his inhaler due to the drug he uses not being exempted for international competition by WADA. He was forced to take his life into his hands to play for Team USA.
I know there are cheaters in baseball, if that’s what you want to call them. They are breaking the rules, using undetectable drugs such as insulin growth factor or even insulin itself, a powerful anabolic agent. I also know that there are minor leaguers scared to take a Power Bar because teams are advising them not to take anything that could contain a banned substance. Even items on the MLB “Blessed” list - a small, but notable list of manufacturers who have been approved by NSF — are being advised against ingestion in direct controversion of this program. There’s a middle ground, somewhere.
Gary Matthews Jr. David Segui, and Jose Canseco have been implicated in this latest scandal. Besides ink and pixels, we have absolutely no evidence regarding what went on. While I will neither defend them nor indict them, I will say that unless we both allow them the presumption of innocence, the right of due process, and the open-minded consideration that we might not fully understand all the facts that could come to bear, we’re doing the game a disservice.
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