Baseball's Attention-Deficit Disorder ...

I previously wrote a brief story concerning professional baseball's ban on amphetamines, or "greenies" as they are commonly called, and the resulting effects of their absence in todays' game ... as Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia has said, "There have always been things that players have used." ... along with the aforementioned use of energy drinks and stout coffees, which are among the less dangerous or creative alternatives presently available, albeit comparatively ineffective ... while doing a bit of research for "The Dirty Edge", I stumbled across yet another option that some players are now using to replace amphetamines ... "therapeutic use exemptions" ... which enables a player to skirt around MLB's ban on amphetamine use so as to obtain and use drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall under the guise of treatment for Attention-Deficit Disorder or ADD ... baseball has now been diagnosed with a new "epidemic" ... whether legitimate or not is the burning question ...

By the time a baseball player reaches the big leagues, he would have been required to exhibit a higher than average level of concentration and alertness during that extremely competitive process ... however, last year (2007) 103 players -- nearly 4 times as many as in 2006 -- sought "therapeutic use exemptions" in order to licitly take controlled substances such as Ritalin and Adderall ... such an abrupt rise in those numbers could be legitimately described as "epidemic" ... taking into account the fact that ADD is not a contagious malady, a more credible explanation could be that many professional ball players are feigning a medical disorder which could subsequently allow them to legally take stimulants such as Ritalin or Adderall within the rules of MLB, thus getting around the ban on amphetamines ...

At a congressional hearing centering on baseball's attempts to drudge it's way out of it's long-standing steroid scandal, Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass, submitted that the startling statistics related to professional baseball players who have recently been diagnosed with ADD suggest yet another drug problem has invaded America's pastime ... MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, along with players' union chief Don Fehr, on whose watch this fiasco occurred, insisted that they are taking full responsibility for the steroid problem and moving to implement recommendations outlined within former senator George Mitchell's stern report on the state of performance-enhancing substances in the game of baseball ... although neither Selig nor Fehr can hardly be taken seriously considering the fact that neither man seemed particularly shocked by the extremely high numbers ... however, if 103 players -- 7.6% of the league -- are suffering from Attention-Deficit Disorder, it's striking baseball at a rate nearly 75% higher than in the general population ...

So far, no cases of abuse have been reported, but determining which cases might be bogus would require a thorough study of both the prescribing physicians and the thoroughness of their examination process ... Bud Selig says the league is investigating the ADD diagnoses to determine which ones are legitimate medical problems and which ones might be attempts to evade the amphetamine ban ... separating legitimate users from the abusers won't be an easy task ... estimates of ADD vary widely from a little as 4% among adults, to as much as 16% among adolescents and young adults ... a diagnostician must assess a variety of behaviors -- some of which might appear to be similar to ADD, but in reality are other conditions (the medical establishment often uses the term ADHD -- Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder -- interchangeably with ADD) ... a diagnosis of ADD requires not only the evaluation of an adult's behavior and mental state, but also a look into the individual's childhood and family background ... ADD is a genetic condition that makes it's appearance early in life ... the similarity of symptoms relating to other conditions such as bipolar disease, anxiety disorder, depression and developmental or learning differences can make ADD diagnoses very difficult and subjective ...

Further complicating the issue is that playing sports can both strengthen and undermine a person's mental well-being ... intense physical activity fosters a level of focus and commitment that helps the athlete improve the functioning of the brain ... Dr. John J. Ratey, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" says athletic competition can be the best cure for ADD ... Ratey has treated numerous athletes who suddenly displayed the symptoms of ADD after being sidelined by injuries ... he prescribed medications during the down time, then weaned the athlete once he got back into action ... on the other hand, lifestyles of professional athletes which might include -- constant travel, bad food, abuse of alcohol and drugs and irregular sleep patterns -- can scramble the brain thus undoing all the positive effects of strenuous physical activity ... improper drug use often serves to only mask the real problem ...

I'm reminded of former Atlanta Braves first baseman Adam LaRoche ... who didn't seem to be trying hard ... who came across as inattentive, sluggish and a little too laid-back to be a professional athlete ... who's relaxed approach ... along with a disorder that made it hard for him to concentrate ... came under scrutiny after an intensely embarrassing moment on the field during a Sunday game against the Washington Nationals in 2006 ... after scooping up a routine grounder that should have been the final out of the inning, LaRoche took his time getting to first base and was stunningly beaten to the bag by Washington's Nick Johnson, who had been hustling all the way ... this error allowed the Nationals to score 4 unearned runs on their way to an 8-1 victory over the Braves, and resulted in LaRoche being benched for the following game against the Florida Marlins the next night ... LaRoche eventually entered that game in the sixth inning as a pinch hitter, remained in the game to play first base, then wound up scoring the winning run in an 11-8 victory after leading off the seventh inning with a double, hustling all the way to second base ... in fairness to LaRoche, he was diagnosed with ADD while in high school, had suffered with the condition throughout the minors, but had not been under any type of treatment (including medication) for the disorder since trying medication back in 2004 while playing winter ball in Puerto Rico ... LaRoche discontinued taking medication at that time because of the adverse effect that it had on how he felt ... LaRoche is now with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization ...

More than two years after "greenies" were banned, professional baseball still can't seem to clean up it's act ... with the steroids scandal still rippling through baseball, MLB is under particular pressure not to allow a new drug controversy to develop ... management faces a dual challenge -- preventing the use of drugs that give an unfair advantage to some players by hopping up their bodies like race cars while not denying medication and other assistance to an athlete suffering from a legitimate medical disorder -- the experts say the best way to ultimately identify both legitimate medical conditions and illicit drug use is to devise top-to-bottom systems that track a player's progress on a number of dimensions ... to know a player is to know when he might be heading off course ... still, players and owners just don't get it ... fans want clean and fair competition untarnished by steroids, amphetamines, prescription-drug abuse and anything else that puts rule-abiding players at a disadvantage ... getting rid of amphetamines from the game of baseball might turn out to have been as easy as a leisurely stroll in the park compared to the difficult challenges currently facing MLB in making the distinction between legitimate versus illicit ADD diagnoses among players ... what about integrity and morality? ... obviously both are rare commodities in the grand old game ...

--sja