I don’t have a problem with HGH being legal. But I also think corked bats should be legal, because they don’t help. If the players decide that the legality of HGH is a problem, then I have no problem with a ban. At the same time, I would put forth no effort to make it legal.

If new studies showed that HGH did in fact help baseball players’ performance, would you then be ok with it being illegal in baseball?

Yes, but I don’t think we will see such studies and I’m OK with it being illegal now. I find the ban on HGH no less arbitrary than the requirement that all players must wear a hat. It’s in the rule book and players must abide by the rules.

What I don’t like is the effort wasted on blaming a substance without fully understanding what it is and what it does. The ignorance of many in the media may in fact be fueling the use of HGH because players hear the same mis-information. Some poor kid in Triple-A may think “Cool, a new undetectable steroid!” and end up with a swollen head, carpal tunnel syndrome, and not understand why his warning track fly balls don’t become homers. All because some reporter is too lazy to call an expert and ask some simple questions.

This is a tough question and one that I don’t have time to address here. However, I have a chapter on it in my book where I addresses why some performance-enhancers are accepted and others are not.

1. Do you believe HGH should be legal in baseball (by which I mean players should not be penalized/suspended by MLB if they take HGH although they may still be subject to legal jeopardy if they obtained the HGH by questionable means)?
2. If new studies showed that HGH did in fact help baseball players’ performance, would you then be ok with it being illegal in baseball?

From what I have read the recovery aspect is more rumor than fact. I have seen no evidence of its aid in recovery. And from the article one researcher states “there’s no evidence at all that [HGH] helps anyone recover from injuries.”

The real problem with this whole episode is that the rumors have been discussed as fact for so long that people don’t know what to believe. And I don’t blame them. Michael Kay and his ilk have gone out of their way to remain ignorant so that you can’t blame the public. For example, the HGH improves your eyesight is an unsubstantiated qualified opinion based on the sample size of one athlete (Barry Bonds) from Game of Shadows. Yet, I see the eyesight evidence cited as fact quite often.