Archive for the ‘Drugs’ Category

Rookie of the Year, five All-Star appearances, a National League MVP award, and glass urine containers. These are all items currently ingrained in the legacy of Ryan Braun. As Major League Baseball continues to funnel time, money, and energy into the Biogenesis clinic and the players who allegedly hold ties to the PED house, at least one of the names implicated in the scandal is leaving a lasting impact on the landscape of scary sports drugs. According to a report from Andy Martino at the New York Daily News, MLB has made a switch from plastic urine containers to glass in light of Ryan Braun’s successful challenge on a 50-game PED suspension.

Braun overturned his suspension by challenging the sample collection process. The Milwaukee Brewers star’s urine sample remained in possession of the collector for two days before it was sent to the lab for to be tested. Prior to Braun’s victory, MLB used triple-sealed plastic containers to collect and transport urine samples. Now, as Martino reports, glass containers are used:

Now, the collectors use glass bottles, made by the same manufacturer, but considered even more secure. The bottles have a locking mechanism on the top, as opposed to tamper-proof stickers on the plastic version. The only way to open the glass bottles is to smash the top with a hammer, which the lab does in what a person familiar with the process described as a “controlled manner.”

Martino notes the new glass containers will be more difficult to tamper with. While there was no announcement on the change, it was part of several changes made to the league’s testing program over the last year.