Ten years ago Blackley, who is from Melbourne, Australia, was found to have attention deficit disorder and was given a prescription for Adderall, a psychostimulant that some believe has been abused by some baseball players as a way of sneaking performance-enhancing amphetamines into their bloodstream to boost energy levels during games.

Adderall is banned in baseball except for players with documented cases of A.D.D. who receive a therapeutic use exemption. Doubts about the legitimacy of some exemptions have arisen during questioning of baseball officials by Congress.

Blackley, 27, does not have a severe case of A.D.D. He said he did not want either the stigma associated with taking Adderall or, worse, the side effects that kept him up at night pounding hotel room pillows and endlessly flipping through TV channels while desperately trying to get back to sleep.

When he took Adderall, Blackley said, he was able to concentrate better during games in Australia, but he also developed a maddening case of insomnia. The benefit he may have received from the drug during work hours simply was not worth the aggravation at night.

“I don’t know much about the long-term effects of it,” he said, “I just know what I didn’t like about it. It’s just staying awake forever, it’s like insomnia. It’s the worst feeling in the world. I would much rather have a problem with my concentration than have that.”

According to a report by baseball’s drug testing administrator, Dr. Bryan Smith, 108 players received exemptions in 2009 — up from 103 in 2007. In 2006 there were only 28. The sudden increase alarmed some members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, as well as other baseball players.

Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur played in Atlanta alongside Adam LaRoche, who also has A.D.D. Francoeur recognizes the need for some players to have an exemption so they can take medication for their ailment, but he admires Blackley’s decision to abstain.

“I have total respect for that,” Francoeur said. “I played with Adam and he has to take it. If he doesn’t, he forgets stuff and he really needs it. But some people can take advantage and try to get a therapeutic exception. For me, they need to make sure there’s something wrong with them and they’re not just out there taking Adderall to help them out. That’s when I would have a problem.”

Blackley said he was first found to have A.D.D. in 1999, when he was in college in Australia, after he could not concentrate for his exams. He was given the prescription, but when he was signed by the Mariners in 2000 and then came to the United States to join Class A Everett (Wash.), he had only two pills left, and he said he never bothered to refill the prescription.

“I had kind of forgotten all about it,” he said. “And I didn’t want to deal with the insomnia.”

But now he believes he has finally found a way to deal with his A.D.D., which he said would crop up at times in the middle of a game when he was younger, and it is not through medication.

As a starting pitcher in years past, Blackley found that at some point during the course of a game he would lose his focus, sometimes for an entire inning, blanking out and then wondering what had just happened.

“You don’t realize you’re doing it until you get into a 3-0 count with the bases loaded and one out, and you’re like, ‘How did this happen?’ ” he said. “I don’t even remember what I was thinking about.

“It happens more with reading. I’ll be reading a book and my eyes are scanning the page and I’m floating off somewhere else. I’ll get a page and a half later and I’m like, ‘What happened, what did I just read?’ ”

But at the end of the 2008 season, Blackley was transformed into a reliever by the Class AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs and he discovered that in just one inning of high-intensity work, there was no problem with concentration.

“I got moved to the bullpen and went out there and just killed it,” he said. “I went from being an inning eater to closing. I was striking guys out and felt confident. And then they put me in to start again. I didn’t want to start, but I’ll do what they need me to do.”

Blackley started for Hermosillo in Mexico this winter, and with his 92-mile-per-hour fastball, did well enough to impress a Mets scout into signing him to a minor league contract with the hope that he would make the team as a left-handed reliever. That role is what particularly appealed to Blackley.

When he arrived in camp, he took his physical and spoke with the Mets’ physician about his A.D.D., and they briefly discussed the possibility of getting an exemption and renewing his prescription, but Blackley said they agreed it was not the best choice.

“It’s not really necessary,” he said. “Other doctors are just, ‘Ah, here you go, take it.’ But it’s really not good for you.”

Blackley has also found other ways to avoid problems with concentration. A good diet, he said, seems to help, and when possible he likes to enter a game to the head-pounding beats of heavy-metal music. Asked if he is ever tempted to refill his prescription, Blackley, who has pitched two scoreless innings this spring, said he is not.

“I can’t afford to get released,” he said. “Then I’d have to go back to Australia. I have too much riding on this job.”

Ten years ago Blackley, who is from Melbourne, Australia, was found to have attention deficit disorder and was given a prescription for Adderall, a psychostimulant that some believe has been abused by some baseball players as a way of sneaking performance-enhancing amphetamines into their bloodstream to boost energy levels during games.

Adderall is banned in baseball except for players with documented cases of A.D.D. who receive a therapeutic use exemption. Doubts about the legitimacy of some exemptions have arisen during questioning of baseball officials by Congress.

Blackley, 27, does not have a severe case of A.D.D. He said he did not want either the stigma associated with taking Adderall or, worse, the side effects that kept him up at night pounding hotel room pillows and endlessly flipping through TV channels while desperately trying to get back to sleep.

When he took Adderall, Blackley said, he was able to concentrate better during games in Australia, but he also developed a maddening case of insomnia. The benefit he may have received from the drug during work hours simply was not worth the aggravation at night.

“I don’t know much about the long-term effects of it,” he said, “I just know what I didn’t like about it. It’s just staying awake forever, it’s like insomnia. It’s the worst feeling in the world. I would much rather have a problem with my concentration than have that.”

According to a report by baseball’s drug testing administrator, Dr. Bryan Smith, 108 players received exemptions in 2009 — up from 103 in 2007. In 2006 there were only 28. The sudden increase alarmed some members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, as well as other baseball players.

Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur played in Atlanta alongside Adam LaRoche, who also has A.D.D. Francoeur recognizes the need for some players to have an exemption so they can take medication for their ailment, but he admires Blackley’s decision to abstain.

“I have total respect for that,” Francoeur said. “I played with Adam and he has to take it. If he doesn’t, he forgets stuff and he really needs it. But some people can take advantage and try to get a therapeutic exception. For me, they need to make sure there’s something wrong with them and they’re not just out there taking Adderall to help them out. That’s when I would have a problem.”

Blackley said he was first found to have A.D.D. in 1999, when he was in college in Australia, after he could not concentrate for his exams. He was given the prescription, but when he was signed by the Mariners in 2000 and then came to the United States to join Class A Everett (Wash.), he had only two pills left, and he said he never bothered to refill the prescription.

“I had kind of forgotten all about it,” he said. “And I didn’t want to deal with the insomnia.”

But now he believes he has finally found a way to deal with his A.D.D., which he said would crop up at times in the middle of a game when he was younger, and it is not through medication.

As a starting pitcher in years past, Blackley found that at some point during the course of a game he would lose his focus, sometimes for an entire inning, blanking out and then wondering what had just happened.

“You don’t realize you’re doing it until you get into a 3-0 count with the bases loaded and one out, and you’re like, ‘How did this happen?’ ” he said. “I don’t even remember what I was thinking about.

“It happens more with reading. I’ll be reading a book and my eyes are scanning the page and I’m floating off somewhere else. I’ll get a page and a half later and I’m like, ‘What happened, what did I just read?’ ”

But at the end of the 2008 season, Blackley was transformed into a reliever by the Class AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs and he discovered that in just one inning of high-intensity work, there was no problem with concentration.

“I got moved to the bullpen and went out there and just killed it,” he said. “I went from being an inning eater to closing. I was striking guys out and felt confident. And then they put me in to start again. I didn’t want to start, but I’ll do what they need me to do.”

Blackley started for Hermosillo in Mexico this winter, and with his 92-mile-per-hour fastball, did well enough to impress a Mets scout into signing him to a minor league contract with the hope that he would make the team as a left-handed reliever. That role is what particularly appealed to Blackley.

When he arrived in camp, he took his physical and spoke with the Mets’ physician about his A.D.D., and they briefly discussed the possibility of getting an exemption and renewing his prescription, but Blackley said they agreed it was not the best choice.

“It’s not really necessary,” he said. “Other doctors are just, ‘Ah, here you go, take it.’ But it’s really not good for you.”

Blackley has also found other ways to avoid problems with concentration. A good diet, he said, seems to help, and when possible he likes to enter a game to the head-pounding beats of heavy-metal music. Asked if he is ever tempted to refill his prescription, Blackley, who has pitched two scoreless innings this spring, said he is not.

“I can’t afford to get released,” he said. “Then I’d have to go back to Australia. I have too much riding on this job.”