Klapisch On Reyes, Galea, and Why HGH Testing is Necessary

From Bob Klapisch:

The Mets seem trapped in an endless cycle of disappointment, particularly in Reyes’ case. First, the hamstring injury, now the thyroid, both of which have come crashing down on a kid seemingly as innocent as a dove.

But is Reyes’ predicament just a case of an aggrieved baseball god? Or is there more to this story? It might take a monster not to pity Reyes, but it take an equal measure of naïveté to gloss over his association with Canadian doctor Tony Galea.

You know, Galea: the HGH specialist who’s treated Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez and has been charged with smuggling the performance enhancing drug into this county. Reyes is a patient, too, although the shortstop insists he merely underwent blood-spinning treatments on his leg.

If that’s true, then why didn’t Reyes seek out a doctor in the U.S., where the practice is both legal and widespread? No one is directly accusing Reyes on any wrong-doing, but in this day and age suspicion is baseball’s most prevalent currency.

Klapisch goes on to say that this is one of the reasons why the MLBPA needs to start opening up to the idea of HGH blood tests. He goes on to say that "If Reyes is indeed innocent, he’s precisely the type of athlete who could benefit from this screening," which is very true.

It's hard for any fan that's been awake for the past decade not to question someone this young whose basically broken down in front of our eyes. Testing would clear up all this stuff, and clear those types of players' names if they are in fact innocent. And if not, then they deserve to be outed

Later, he blasts union chief Michael Weiner for continuing the same nonsense that his predecessor, Donald Fehr, was so good at. Enabling players to cheat and taint the game.

Weiner was recently down in Mets camp to talk about PEDs and other topics, and once again told the players that the players association was behind them and would fight these tests. Klap then warned that this could delay HGH testing for "at least another two years."

“Blood testing is much more complicated in terms of the safety issues,” Weiner was saying on Saturday. That’s another way of saying the union would rather wait for the more-easily administered urine test, knowing that’s years away from being implemented.

Weiner says drawing blood during the afternoon, before a game, would compromise a player who’s about to take the field. He also says any such testing should be done in spring training. Both points are preposterous.

First, there’s nothing wrong with testing after games, the way it’s done in the Olympics? And second, if the testing is limited to spring training, then the newly-discovered blood test – which can only detect usage in the previous 36 hours – can easily be defeated. All a player would have to do is skip a cycle before reporting to camp.

Klapisch is right, and it's really a shame that the players association isn't backing this. After all, the game is what matters here, not protecting a few cheaters. Klapisch mentions how the clean players want these tests, and uses this quote from Derrek Lee to demonstrate that:

“test for everything, get it all out. Then there would be no more questions.”

Lee can't the only one. I'm sure that if you polled players from around the league, more of them would be for the testing than not. Many of these guys have nothing to hide. It's time for the league and the players to do what's necessary to clean up the game for good.