The number of Major League Baseball players allowed to use otherwise-banned drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) dropped to the lowest level since the sport started issuing annual reports in 2008.
The results were presented in a report issued on Monday by Thomas Martin, the Independent Program Administrator for the drug program of Major League Baseball and the players’ association.
There were 91 therapeutic use exemptions for ADHD drugs in the year ending with October’s World Series. That was down from the previous lows, 101 last year and 103 in 2017. Exemptions for hyperactivity disorder had ranged from 105-119 annually from 2008 to 2016, prompting some to criticize their issuance as too lenient.
Drugs prescribed to treat ADHD often contain amphetamine and methylphenidate, stimulants on baseball’s banned list.
The overwhelming therapeutic exemptions in MLB are for ADHD. There were just three in the past year for other conditions, one each for hypersomnia, hypogonadism and kidney disease.
MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem has said the sport’s experts maintain the condition is more frequent in young adult males than among the general population.
Halem and the union did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
Total drug tests rose to 11,619, including 9,332 urine samples to detect performance-enhancing substances, stimulants and the drug dehydroepiandrosterone, and 2,287 blood samples used to detect human growth hormone. That was up slightly from 11,526 tests in the year ending with last year’s World Series.
MLB and the players’ union are negotiating to add testing for opioids, talks that began after Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died on July 1 at age 27 in his hotel room in the Dallas area.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office said Skaggs’ death was caused when he choked on his vomit with a toxic mix of alcohol and the painkillers fentanyl and oxycodone in his body.
In next year’s report, the Independent Program Administrator is to disclose how many out-of-season tests took place during the previous five years.
Eight players were suspended under the big league drug program in the past year, including seven who received 80-game bans following positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs.
Forty-six players have been suspended this year under the minor-league drug program.
Politicians are meant to kiss babies, not crash into children, but on the campaign trail yesterday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison barrelled into a young boy during a friendly kickaround, eliciting a chorus of stunned “ooohs” and “aaaws” from spectators. Morrison was playing five-a-side soccer in northern Tasmania, where he is trawling for votes ahead of Saturday’s election. At first, Morrison — shorn of his jacket, but still sporting a shirt and tie — sauntered around the field somewhat aimlessly, trying to get a toe on the ball here and there as it ping-ponged from boy to boy. However, then the 54-year-old stepped
Being shot in both eyes and completely blinded did not stop Zion Ricks-Gaines from skateboarding. It made him want to do it even more. “I still want to go pro, I still want to accomplish being a professional skateboarder,” the 19-year-old said as he readied a kickflip at a skate park in San Francisco. He wants to share that enthusiasm with everyone he meets. “I want to start more skate after-school programs for students. I feel like I wouldn’t have really looked in that direction if I had my sight,” he said. Ricks-Gaines’ life was derailed outside a bar late last year when a
Taiwan’s Chuang Chih-yuan on Sunday clinched the men’s singles title at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Feeder Westchester tournament in New York state after defeating Benedikt Duda of Germany in the final. Chuang, 41, known as Taiwan’s “godfather of table tennis,” edged out 25-year-old Duda 3-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7 in 55 minutes, 54 seconds at the Westchester Table Tennis Center. The win was Chuang’s first men’s singles title since he won the International Table Tennis Federation World Tour Hungarian Open in Budapest in 2016. It was his second title in Westchester following a victory in the mixed doubles final with
IN THE HUNT: With the FA Cup win and a League Cup victory in February, Liverpool are in the running to be the first English team to win all four major trophies in a season Juergen Klopp on Saturday hailed his “mentality monsters,” as Liverpool held their nerve to win the FA Cup after a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Chelsea kept the quadruple chasers’ history bid alive. Klopp’s side won 6-5 on penalties at Wembley Stadium as Greek defender Kostas Tsimikas was the unlikely hero with the decisive kick, after Alisson Becker kept out Mason Mount’s effort. A hard-fought final had finished a 0-0 draw after extra-time, setting the stage for a nerve-jangling shoot-out that featured misses by Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta and Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, whose shot was saved by Edouard Mendy when he had a chance