Congressmen urge MLB test for HGH, ban tobacco

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Two House Democrats are urging Major League Baseball and the players union to implement testing for human growth hormone and ban chewing tobacco by players in uniform and in public view.

Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Frank Pallone of New Jersey made those requests in a letter Wednesday to Commissioner Bud Selig and Michael Weiner, executive director of the players union.

It’s the latest in a series of salvos from Capitol Hill on tobacco and HGH, although recent congressional attention on HGH has focused on the NFL.

Waxman, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Pallone, the top Democrat on the panel’s health subcommittee, held a hearing last year on chewing tobacco and dip — collectively known as smokeless tobacco. They’re making a push on tobacco and HGH as MLB and the union negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, with the current one set to expire next month.

“These issues affect the integrity of the game, the health of your players, and most important, the health of teenagers who aspire to be like pro players,” the congressmen wrote.

The players union declined to comment on the letter. MLB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Waxman and Pallone noted that Selig testified in 2008 that he would support an HGH test “when a valid, commercially available and practical test for HGH becomes reality,” and that Weiner’s predecessor, Donald Fehr, said at that hearing the union would “consider in good faith any valid and effective test which is developed.” Waxman chaired that hearing, held to discuss the Mitchell Report, which identified major league players it said had used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

“The time to begin testing for HGH in baseball has arrived,” the congressmen wrote, citing the use of blood testing for HGH in the Olympics.

The NFL and its players already agreed to begin blood testing for HGH as part of their new collective bargaining agreement reached in late July — but only if the union agreed to the methods. The union has delayed implementing the test.