Teams to sell legal supplements to their players
Makes sense, even if it seems a bit odd:
Major-league baseball teams will start selling approved supplements to players in an effort to prevent positive drug tests.
Management and the players’ association are having NSF International, a company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., certify that products are clean. Once a supplement is certified, teams will buy the products and make them available for resale to players in the 30 major-league clubhouses.
With the new drug-testing rules in place this season, a first positive test will result in a 50-game suspension. Yikes. I guess I’d be selling legal supplements to my players too, since many of last year’s suspensions were likely due to banned substances found in supplements bought legally overseas. Hell, if I’m an MLB owner, I’d probably start giving the stuff away just to ensure nobody’s using something that could cost my team 50 games.
They’re idiots for not doing this already. But then, I suppose to do so would mean admitting that the game has a rampant steroids problem, and that was certainly never going to happen…until they were forced to. How about that? Baseball did something smart, for once.