Mud Hens react to testing for performance-enhancing drug HGH

When asked about performance-enhancing drugs, Mud Hens manager Larry Parrish posed a hypothetical question.

"If you can take a drug that could help you make 50 times as much [salary] as you do now, would you do it?" he said. "I think it's hard to criticize anyone who made that choice."

Some professional athletes have made that choice in recent years, taking "performance-enhancing" drugs such as steroids and human growth hormone, which is known as HGH.

Since 2001 minor league players such as the Hens have submitted urine samples for a drug test that scans for both steroids as well as "drugs of abuse" such as marijuana or cocaine.

On Thursday, Major League Baseball announced that it would expand its drug-testing program in the minor leagues, testing players' blood for signs of HGH.

International League president Randy Mobley said the tests are administered by Major League Baseball, with suspensions that begin at 50 games for the first positive test, 100 for the second positive test and a lifetime ban from baseball for the third positive test.

"I think the entire issue of drug testing is an issue in this industry because of the credibility factor," Mobley said. "Anything that increases the credibility of the game is a positive, and this certainly qualifies."

Mobley also said that players aren't the only people subjected to the test: coaches, front office personnel and league administrators also can be tested. Major League players can't be tested without

approval of their union, while minor league players have no say in the matter.

As would be expected, minor league players aren't pleased about the ruling.

"I'm hearing different stories on how accurate the test is," said former Hen Mike Hessman, who is in town with the Buffalo Bisons. "People have told me that it only will detect something that you have taken in the last 24 hours

"I just don't know how reliable the tests are going to be. And how many minor leagues have the money to afford that stuff anyway?"

Mud Hens general manager Joe Napoli understands the players' skepticism.

"Everyone supports the goal of eradicating drugs from sports," he said. "But the challenge is this: How do you institute a drug testing program this is fair to everyone involved?

"What if the test is not reliable? You can taint a person's career."

Parrish, who hit 256 home runs in 15 big-league seasons, said the statistics of players who set home run records while taking steroids also have tainted the game.

"As an ex-player, seeing some of the stats that guys [on performance-enhancing drugs] put up probably bothers me the most," he said. "The numbers for what constitutes a great year in the 1990s were [numbers] that were unheard of except for a few elite players.

"Then with those drugs big numbers became more common, and numbers like 30 homers and 100s weren't such a big deal."

And yet Parrish was quick to point out the positive aspect that steroids played in baseball.

"I've made my livelihood in this game, and I know that after the strike in 1994 the sport was in bad shape," he said. "Then two guys named Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa - who, it turns out, were on performance-enhancing drugs - brought the game back to the front page."

In 1998 McGwire and Sosa challenged to break the single-season home run record of 61 set by Roger Maris, with McGwire eventually setting a new high with 70.

Parrish's major-league career ended in 1988, slightly before the start of the steroids era. But that doesn't mean the Hens manager didn't have contact with performance-enhancing drugs.

"We had a strength coach while I was at Texas who said, 'If you would take a cycle [of performance-enhancing drugs], you could break bats and still hit homers,'•" Parrish said. "But it was too dicey. It was stuff you had to ingest, and it had side effects that just didn't sound good to me.

"But I don't know if, when I was 22 years old and knew so-and-so was doing it, I could have turned that down at that age.

"There are a lot of people who cast stones at the people who did that. If those same people would have been in the same situation at age 22 or 23, I think many of those same people would have taken the [steroids] shot."

-John Wagner