Turf battle awaits on testing for HGH - As Congress considers funding, baseball owners and players may duel over whether to wait for a urine test to be developed or use a blood test sooner.
NEW YORK -- With human growth hormone emerging as the drug of choice for baseball players, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) said Friday he would consider federal funding to support the search for an effective HGH test.
That prospect cheered Dr. Don Catlin, the former UCLA scientist charged by baseball with developing a urine test for HGH.
"I'd certainly put my hat in the ring for a grant," said Catlin, who now runs the Anti-Doping Research Institute in Los Angeles.
In the aftermath of the Mitchell Report, the next great battle between baseball players and owners could be fought by scientific proxy.
With Waxman summoning Commissioner Bud Selig and players' union chief Donald Fehr to Congress for another hearing next month, the most contentious issue could involve whether baseball should wait for the possible development of a urine test for HGH or implement blood testing as soon as next year.
Fehr said Thursday that players would approve any urine test for HGH. Catlin, who previously expressed skepticism that one might ever be developed, said he is newly optimistic in the wake of his most recent research.
"I'm close to the point of saying, 'Yeah, there are experiments we can do that may well lead to a solution,' " Catlin said. "I think it is possible."
He conceded, however, that possibility could require several years and cost millions of dollars. Gary Wadler, advisor to the World Anti-Doping Agency, said baseball should bank on a blood test, not a urine test.
"There are many who believe there will never be a urine test for HGH," Wadler said.
The Mitchell Report called a blood test for HGH "available, but its limitations are such that its practical utility is doubtful," echoing recent comments by Selig and Fehr. Wadler said those limitations -- in mass-market availability and unquestioned reliability -- should be resolved in "a matter of months" and criticized Selig and Fehr for seizing on them.
"Both baseball and the NFL have translated that to mean there is no test," Wadler said. "There is a test."
That could lead to a showdown in the Jan. 15 hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Waxman. He could ask Selig to commit to the implementation of the first available and reliable HGH test, which could put Fehr alone in dissent because the players' union has reservations about potential abuse of blood drawn for testing. The NFL players' union also has opposed blood tests.
