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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Bautista randomly drug tested 16 times?
This is an interesting story.
So in a sense, if they’re lucky enough to be unlucky, they could be tested numerous times.
According to Major League Baseball, about 1,200 random drug tests are administered during a regular season on the roughly 750 players, with 375 more tests given in the offseason.
If a player is found to have been in violation of the drug policy over a stimulant, he is subjected to six more random tests over the next year. Positive tests for stimulants are not make public.
Unless Bautista was exaggerating, you’d have to think he’d have to be really lucky to hit the drug testing lottery 16 times in the past two seasons. Unless somebody thinks there is a “reasonable or probable cause” or “suspicion” that he might be taking something.
But those additional drug tests are usually conducted based on a player’s sudden change in appearance, or demeanor, or if somebody saw something either in or outside the dressing room, or the player gets into trouble with the law.
Suddenly hitting home runs at a remarkable rate wouldn’t cause a drug test or a player to be specifically targeted, according to a Major League source. However, any player, who has previously failed a test, is subject to increased testing.
The Blue Jays third baseman/outfielder declined to comment on the matter via the team on Thursday but a team source said Bautista was neither upset about his testing nor wished to make an issue out of what was said at the banquet.