SOUTH KOREA – Former Korean League All-Star Ma Hae-young has caused a furor in South Korea with a new, tell-all book claiming that some professional Korean ballplayers have taken steroids in the past.

Ma, the the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) 2002 Korean Series MVP, wrote that he personally witnessed both Korean and foreign players used performance-enhancing drugs. The accusations have caused a media frenzy in one of the world’s top professional baseball leagues.

KBO officials belied Ma’s claims that its players are using steroids or any other illegal substances.

“The players know better than anyone about the dangers of taking performance-enhancing drugs,” said Jung Geum-jo, head of the KBO’s operations department. “None of the players in domestic or international doping tests have tested positive. It’s a stretch to suggest some of our players are taking banned substances.”

However, a former trainer of a league franchise supported Ma’s claims in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo that some Korean players had turned to performance-enhancing drugs in the past.

The former trainer estimated that between 20-30 players took illegal drugs in the past, and that “at least one to two players per team have taken performance-enhancing drugs.”

The same source also indicated that while foreign players in the league played a key role in Korean players using banned substances, some domestic players were already familiar with illegal drugs before the influx of import players in 1998.

While Major League Baseball officials have been under constant attack in the United States for a morbid drug testing program, the KBO has an even weaker drug testing procedure. According to an article on Korea’s Joongang Daily website, the 28-year-old league has tested players for banned drugs only three times – all within the last two years.

Some of the top managers in the KBO believe that stricter drug testing is needed. Kim Sung-keun, who has guided SK Wyverns to back-to-back titles, recently said that the league needed to toughen its current procedures. However, not all skippers jumped on the band wagon.

Samsung Lions’ manager Sun Dong-yol – regarded as the KBO’s all-time greatest pitcher – commented that Ma would be better off focusing on just being a broadcaster. However, many believe Ma took a swipe at Sun in his book when he wrote that he had little respect for “certain managers who had been top-class players” because they had limited understanding of less-talented players.

Currently, the league randomly choose three domestic players from each of the eight clubs to test for drugs. And, starting this season, the KBO will also begin testing foreign players.

Source: Joongang Daily

Tags: South Korea