Drug Testing Good, Product Testing Bad

Posted on 23. Mar, 2011 by Corey in All, Dayton Dragons Baseball, General Baseball, NCAA Basketball.

I respect what Major League Baseball has done the last few years to “clean up the game,” and try to eliminate all performance enhancing drugs.  I understand that it can be a pain for a player to have to pee in a cup a few times a season at random times, and sit through numerous meetings about what you can and cannot take, but it is an important and necessary step.  The black eye that baseball took in the so called “Steroid Era,” will never happen again.  But what I don’t respect and can’t get my arms around are the products that are ok and certified and the ones that aren’t.

For a product to pass Major League Baseball standards, it must have been properly tested and stamped with the “NSF” sticker, meaning National Certified For Sport.  But the biggest pain is that these products must be purchased from the team, directly from the company.  For example, a product that is certified to take cannot be bought at a GNC store or Vitamin Shop.  Those products are said to be produced differently and COULD contain ingredients that would force an athlete to test positive.

The product I want to talk about is Muscle Milk, made by Cytosport.  To me, Muscle Milk has the best tasting product on the market.  This is the newest protein powder addition to the approved list for professional baseball players to take.  But only four flavors have been approved, cookies and cream, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  Again, only Muscle Milk that is bought through the dealer of a team is approved.  What really gets me are the RTD products, which stands for “ready to drink.”  These are the premixed bottles that you would find at a gas station in the cooler.

As of last season, these were not allowed to be consumed by professional baseball players and if consumed, they could lead to a positive drug test.  But what makes me laugh is that Muscle Milk has become a huge sponsor in Collegiate Athletics, and the RTD’s are what they push.  They even go far enough to place college logos on the bottles and sell to their athletes and students.  So you are telling me that these things are safe and legal for college athletes (who do get drug tested), but a pro athlete cannot take them because they may get popped with a positive test?

It appears the entire supplement industry has become about money. If a company has enough, they can “buy” a license to have their products legal, but if they don’t pay, they will not get certified.  This became evident to me when Black Powder, by MRI, was being utilized in professional baseball.  Black Powder came in three flavors, orange, fruit punch and blue raspberry, but only the orange and fruit punch were certified. When I asked a strength coach about this, his answer to me was, “MRI only paid to have two tested and didn’t want to put enough money up to have all three tested.”

Love the idea and concept about drug testing, having products certified and checked out to make sure they are legit, but it is getting out of hand.  You are not going to have me belief that the ones sold at your local drug store are made separate from the ones sold to athletes that are certified. But, athletes can never take that chance, because if they test positive, they have no case.

I fear this problem will only get worse until some organizations stands up and gets it fixed.