WADA to test players for World Baseball Classic

By Steve Keating

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Major League players taking part in
next year’s World Baseball Classic will face the same rigorous
out-of-competition testing as Olympic athletes, the chief of
the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said Monday.

However, while any player caught using performance
enhancing drugs at the 16-nation World Cup style tournament
faces a possible two-year ban from international competition,
any sanctions will have no impact on their major league
careers.

Major League Baseball drug penalties, which are far less
harsh than those outlined in the World Anti-Doping code will
also remain in place, including a 10-game ban for first time
offenders.

“It’s not a very good message but we’re not going to be
able to solve this problem in six months. We’re going to keep
at it,” WADA chief Dick Pound said during a media briefing at
the world swimming championships..

“We won’t do in-competition testing. We’ll do
pre-championship out-of-competition testing.”

By keeping the MLB’s drug testing policy in place sluggers
such as San Francisco Giants’ Barry Bonds and New York Yankees’
Jason Giambi, who have been implicated in the BALCO steroid
scandal, can compete for the U.S without fear of losing two
years of their careers and millions of dollars in salaries.

If WADA penalties had been applied it is doubtful MLB would
have been able to convince players to take part in the
competition, which is scheduled for next March.

The World Cup has suddenly taken on added importance for
MLB and the sport’s international profile after the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) dropped baseball, along
with softball, from the Olympic program during a vote earlier
this month in Singapore.

One of the reasons given for dropping baseball was MLB’s
weak and ineffective drug-testing.

After continued criticism and intense pressure from the
U.S. Congress, MLB commissioner Bud Selig has made moves to
toughen baseball’s drug-testing policies and penalties.

“That’s part of the deal,” said Pound. “When they put this
competition together, that there would be international
standards and not Major League Baseball, where you can hold up
the liquor store five times before you get a meaningful
(penalty).”