Minor League drug program is working

Thirty-eight. It was a startling number, to say the least. In early April, Major League Baseball released the names of 38 Minor Leaguers who were being suspended for using steroids or performance-enhancing drugs.

It was difficult for anyone on the outside looking in not to think that this was an epidemic that was out of control. As the names and suspensions continued to come in as a steady trickle, those suspicions seemed to be receiving confirmation.

In the interest of fairness, it's time to set the record straight. If these suspensions are going to be publicized, it's only fair that the public should know the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. None of it, it should be noted, tries to belittle the problem or excuse any player from what they did.

First, there's that list of 38. While coming as a lump sum made it seemingly point to an unwieldy crisis, a large majority of those were unserved suspensions stemming from last year. And even as more suspensions came in and the totals appeared to pile up, there was actually an expectation that the number of positive test results were going to decline this year.

How can this be, you ask? The main reason is publicity. Unlike in the Majors, where the policy is brand new, Minor League Baseball has had a policy in place for years. But because of the need for overall transparency, each suspension is announced very publicly. Every positive test gets its own press release.

"It's more exposure for a declining problem,"said Minor League Baseball COO Pat O'Conner, who acts as a liasion between the Minors and the Commissioner's Office on this and other issues. "We felt it was working, by taking care of business within the family. For many reasons, it's now public. It's a serious problem and we're not going to take for granted that it's going to continue to decline."

Before the Jose Canseco book, the Congressional hearings, the op-ed pieces, all of which moved the steroid issue front and center in public consciousness, the Minor Leagues have been testing, catching and suspending players when necessary completely under the radar. And the results have shown a drop in use over the years. But before this year, no one noticed.

"It was done and suspensions weren't announced," O'Conner said. "There was no fanfare, and to be honest, there wasn't interest.

"If a guy is gone for a couple of weeks, the general fan isn't going to notice because roster movement is so common. It's not uncommon for guys to move around, get promoted or demoted. It wouldn't lead a fan to wonder, 'Where did this guy go?'"

The reasons for his departure can also be more varied than under the new Major League policy. The Minor Leagues don't have to worry about union approval for their program, so the list of banned substances that would cause a positive test is longer than the Major League list.

"Everybody wants to refer to it as the steroids testing policy," O'Conner said. "But that's just one small part of it. It's illegal and banned substances.

"We don't announce the substance the positive was thrown for. I don't want to cast aspersions at any of the young men who were suspended, but it could've been for a number of things. What the public and our players need to understand is that it's not just a steroid testing program."

There are some other differences as well. While the Major League policy calls for a first-time suspension of 10 days, Minor Leaguers who test positive draw 15 games. If you ever saw a Minor League paycheck, it'd be easy to see that 15 games taken out is going to hurt an awful lot. And that's not even taking into consideration the missed development time and how it might hurt his status within his organization and even throughout baseball.

It's interesting to note the type of player who have shown up on these press releases. I don't know about you, but after seeing guys like Sosa, McGwire and Canseco in front of that committee, the obvious assumption was that most of the positives would come from power hitters trying to give themselves an extra edge.

The reality, at least at the Minor League level (and at the big league level so far to an extent with Alex Sanchez), has been that every kind of player is susceptible to the pressures of gaining some kind of edge.

I was struck by the "fringiness" of the overall list. Many of the suspended in the Minors were guys who are trying to hang on in pro ball or guys who have gotten stuck and were trying to find a way to get out of A-ball. There were a surprising number of speed guys and pitchers on the list, a testament to the wide range of banned substances in the Minor League policy. It's something worth noting with mounting pressure for the various leagues to move closer to the banned list employed by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

"I think the program is working, and it has to work," O'Conner said. "It's a player health issue, aside from a performance and integrity issue."