NEW YORK, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Major League Baseball and the Players' Association made a joint statement Wednesday to try to offset rumors regarding the drug testing program.
"All drug-testing results are reported directly to HPAC (Health Policy Advisory Committee), and no one else in the sport has access to them," said Rob Manfred, MLB executive vice president, and Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the MLBPA.
"Positive test results are thereupon reported directly to the player involved. After the exhaustion of any available appeal, disciplines are announced publicly."
Baltimore Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro is scheduled to return Thursday from his 10-day suspension for testing positive for steroids.
Palmeiro was suspended after reportedly testing positive for the powerful anabolic steroid stanozolol -- the same substance that Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for in 1988. Reports of which substance Palmeiro allegedly used were leaked through published reports.
