Baseball: Bechler tragedy sparks call for drug ban

Baseball faces a new drugs controversy after the death of a Baltimore Orioles player during spring training in Florida – a tragedy blamed on the stimulant ephedrine which is banned by many other sports.

Steve Bechler, a 23-year-old pitching prospect, collapsed during a workout on Sunday morning. As his body temperature soared to 108 degrees he was rushed to hospital, where he died the following day.

After carrying out an autopsy, Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner, said Bechler had been taking a supplement which contained ephedrine, widely used to reduce weight. Preliminary findings indicated that Bechler died from complications of heatstroke that caused multi-organ failure, Perper said.

Almost certainly, he added, the drug had contributed to Bechler's death. He urged the sport to ban it.

Ever since government regulations were relaxed in 1994, making ephedrine more readily available over the counter, specialists have warned about its dangers, especially if the drug is taken in hot weather.

At least one death of a National Football League player during summer pre-season training has been blamed on ephedrine, which is banned by the NFL as well as by the International Olympic Committee and US college sports.

Last Sunday, while large parts of the north-east United States were paralysed by a blizzard, the temperature at the Orioles training camp at Fort Lauderdale, just north of Miami, hit 81 degrees (27 degrees Celsius), with 70 per cent humidity.

Bechler, by his own admission, was in poor condition and had been determined to lose weight fast.

His death will increase pressure on Major League Baseball to crack down on drug use. The sport has dragged its heels on banning steroids, despite the claim last year by Ken Caminiti, a former all-star, that 50 per cent of Major League players used them to enhance performance.

In 1998, the year he smashed the single-season home run record, the slugger Mark McGwire admitted taking androstenedione, which is classified as an androgenic steroid. It too is banned by the NFL and the IOC.

Despite the latest tragedy, baseball seemed in no mood to follow Perper's recommendation that ephedrine be outlawed. "We're going to wait until we know what happened," Rich Levin, an MLB spokesman, said.