McCain threatens MLB baseball players with legislation over steroids

WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. John McCain gave major league baseball a choice Wednesday: come up with a comprehensive drug testing plan or Congress will act.

''Your failure to commit to addressing this issue straight on and immediately will motivate this committee to search for legislative remedies,'' McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, told players' union chief Donald Fehr.

''I don't know what they (the remedies) are. But I can tell you, and the players you represent, the status quo is not acceptable. And we will have to act in some way unless the major league players union acts in the affirmative and rapid fashion,'' the senator said.

McCain, R-Ariz., made the threat after Fehr refused to accept the senator's challenge to agree to the more comprehensive policy found in the NFL. McCain said sports such as baseball are ''aiding and abetting cheaters'' with a weak testing policy.

Fehr said that he couldn't commit to any changes in the 2002 collective bargaining agreement, which called for anonymous tests last year for the first time. Five to 7 percent of those survey tests came back positive for steroids, which triggered testing with penalties this year.

McCain and other senators on the panel called the policy inadequate, noting that a player doesn't face a one-year suspension until the fifth offense. The NFL, by contrast, has a year-round random testing program for players and imposes immediate suspensions on those who test positive for banned substances.

''I believe that the program that we instituted has had some effect,'' Fehr said.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said he didn't disagree with McCain about the need for stronger testing. He called the current program a compromise, adding that the union's resistance prevented a tougher plan.

''I realize that we have work to do,'' Selig said. ''We need more frequent and year-round testing of players. We need immediate penalties for those caught using illegal substances.''

Selig said he hopes to make the sport's policy for players with minor league contracts apply to those with major league contracts: a year-round testing plan, with an immediate 15-game suspension for first violation.

McCain used NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and players' union chief Gene Upshaw as an example of the kind of collaboration he wants baseball to adopt.

Tagliabue and Upshaw presented a united front, saying that a strong policy is in the best interests of both the NFL and its players.

''To allow the use of steroids and banned substances would not only condone cheating, but also compel others to use them to remain competitive,'' Upshaw said. ''We have a responsibility to protect our players from the demonstrated adverse health effects of steroids and banned substances.''

Added Tagliabue: ''There is complete agreement between us to enforce the program.''

Fehr said that baseball players made a ''concession'' when they agreed to the current testing program, noting that the union still opposes, on philosophical grounds, testing players without cause. But some players, such as Atlanta Braves All-Star reliever John Smoltz, have called this year for stronger testing.

Selig said that baseball supports legislation sponsored by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., that would ban over-the-counter sales of androstenedione, a steroid-like supplement that Mark McGwire used the year he broke the single-season home run mark, and the newly detected steroid THG.

Biden criticized the players union for resisting stronger testing for steroids.

''The union's wrong, here,'' Biden said.

Fehr didn't take a position on the legislation, but he said it was wrong to ban players from taking substances that are legal. If Congress doesn't think players should take substances such as androstenedione, he said, it should ban them.

The suspicion that some of the game's greats are using steroids has loomed over spring training this year.

The San Francisco Chronicle, quoting information it said was provided to federal investigators, reported last week that steroids were given to San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds, who broke McGwire's record in 2001; New York Yankees stars Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield; three other major leaguers; and one NFL player. Bonds, Giambi and Sheffield have denied using steroids.

That report came out of a grand jury investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. Last month, two company executives, along with Bonds' trainer and a track coach, were charged with supplying steroids to athletes.

By Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press, 3/10/2004 13:55

Fehr looked like a real ass during this. Selig actually put the ball in his court and hung Fehr with the blame in this.

You have to give props to Sen. McCain for putting the issue right in the face of both MLB, and the Players Union. Do something about this problem or Congress will. Hopefully the powers that be in baseball will respond with more than just lip service. The game itself faces a major crisis if they do not act soon.

wil.

Congress should pass a motion to get that piece of shit Fehr out of the game.

Scumbag lawyer has done more damage to the game in the last 10 years than steroids ever could.

Oh Jeez, here comes the Feds to the rescue! Riding in on their white horses to SAVE us from ourselves again. Oh thank you, thank you Mr. McCain for saving the UNION from this impending disaster just in the nick of time. Pul-eeeeze.

Let's try and get a grip here people. What in God's name does Congress have to get involved in this issue for? In a list of the top 1000 things wrong in this world, this would rank about 995th. I mean, what are we talking about? A legal substance used by players to gain an unfair advantage in a GAME!! McCain even said it himself ... "sports such as baseball are ''aiding and abetting cheaters'' with a weak testing policy. But I can tell you ... the status quo is not acceptable. And we will have to act in some way unless the major league players union acts in the affirmative and rapid fashion." So there you have it - cheating at a game is now going to be a FEDERAL CRIME, if McCain has his way.

What a pathetic country we are becoming. There was a time when we Americans took pride in solving our own problems without the nannies in Congress holding our hands. Sadly, those times appear to be forever in the past.

John McCain himself agrees that congress should be the last resort used to solve this problem. Sometime it takes a shove from big brother to get stubborn organizations to police themselves. This is nothing new for congress, most notably going all the way back to the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and the Curt Flood anti-trust case, the US Congress has had to intervene in MLB's business.

wil.

03/10/2004 2:49 PM ET
Selig, Fehr testify before Senate
Commissioner willing to reopen Basic Agreement
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Major League Baseball has reached "a tipping point," regarding how the sport addresses the use of illegal steroids by its players, top officials of the game and the players association were told at a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning.
"Your failure to commit to addressing this issue straight on and immediately will motivate this committee to search for legislative remedies," said Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who chairs the committee. "The status quo is not acceptable."

McCain also said that baseball has serious public relations and legitimacy problems because of the issue. His comments came after testimony given by Commissioner Bud Selig and Don Fehr, the executive director of the players association.

Selig, responding to a question from McCain, said he would be willing to immediately reopen the Basic Agreement to address concerns about baseball's Major League drug policy, which calls for random drug testing for steroids this season followed by treatment for a first positive result and punitive measures if the same player tests positive again.

"My answer is unequivocally, 'yes,'" Selig said. "I realize that we have work to do. We need more frequent and year-round testing of players. We need immediate penalties for those caught using illegal substances."

Fehr demurred, saying the current policy is adequate and that he expects a "drastic reduction in steroid use" when testing is completed and the results are released this season. Fehr also said there are provisions in the current agreement to address any evolving issues and that the union would be happy to engage in discussions under those auspices.

McCain noted that steroids testing in the National Football League is a year-round program and that a player is suspended without pay for one quarter of the season (four games) on the first offense. Any Olympic athlete testing positive is suspended one year from all international competition for the first offense and permanently for the second offense.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, NFL union executive director Gene Upshaw, and Terry Madden, the executive director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, also testified at the hearing.

"Mr. Fehr and Mr. Selig, all I can say is that this issue has reached the level where the President of the United States has discussed it in his state of the union message," McCain said. "We will have to act in some way unless the MLB players association acts in an affirmative and rapid fashion. The integrity of the sport and the American people demand a certain level of adherence to standards that frankly are not being met.

"Sports organizations that allow athletes to cheat through weak drug testing regimes are aiding and abetting cheaters," McCain said.

Selig told the committee that he wants a zero-tolerance policy in the Major Leagues, similar to the one unilaterally implemented to all non-40-man roster players in the minor leagues three years ago.

"That's my objective," Selig said in an interview after the nearly 2 1/2-hour hearing in the Russell Building just adjacent to the Capitol had ended. "We need that policy. The more medical people I talk to the more I have to insist that it happens. I've spent a lot of sleepless nights worrying about it."

The committee also is examining legislation sponsored by Sen. Joe Biden that would ban over-the-counter sales of androstenedione, a steroid-like supplement that Mark McGwire used the year he broke the single-season home run mark.

Biden criticized the players union for resisting stronger testing for steroids. "The union's wrong, here," said Biden (D-Del). "Baseball is the national pastime, but it's the repository of the values of this country.

"There's something simply un-American about this. This is about values, about culture, it's about who we define ourselves to be."

wil.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>John McCain himself agrees that congress should be the last resort used to solve this problem.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
WRONG! Congress should have NO business in this issue whatsoever - at any point in time. It is not a LEGAL ISSUE. Steroids are legal. This is an issue between MLB and its players union concerning players allegedly breaking some RULES imposed by MLB. RULES, not LAWS.

What we have here is just another case of our assinine Congressman and Senators demagoging an issue by running out in front of the parade to get public brownie points for doing SOMETHING about the latest "crisis of the moment". Why don't you go back and do something about the 10 zillion dollar deficit if you wanna really be helpful, there John.

Baseball, like any other industry is not immune to Congressional inquiry.

"Everyobody thinks of baseball as a sacred cow. When you have the verve to challenge it, people look down thier noses at you. There are a lot of things wrong with a lot of industries...baseball is one of them." - Curt Flood (Cardinals OF)

wil.

MD Kid- You bring up some good points. Unfortunately, saying steroids are legal isn't one of them. Steroids are legal when they are prescribed by a doctor for a legitimate medical reason. I'm going out on a limb here but taking steroids so you can hit a baseball 500 feet isn't a legitimate medical reason. The drug testing policy that is now in place is a total farce.

I'm not a big John McCain fan but I just like the fact that he's busting Donald Fehr's balls. And rightly so. MLB and the player's union are going to have to sit down and come up with a tough drug policy and testing policy immediately or Congress will. I'm not saying I'm in favor of Congress getting involved here but had MLB and the player's union done the right thing, they wouldn't have to.

SB - I feel the same way, I very much hope Congress does'nt have to pass any kind of law, as MD Kid points out they have much more pressing business. I do however hope that Sen. McCain's admonishments will give both MLB and the player's union the goose they need to get off their butts and address the problem internally.

wil.

McCain is full of krap because Congress can't do anything to force MLB to drug test the players.

The only thing he can do is get the DEA to reschedule the questionable substances to Schedule 1, and then doctors could not prescribe them.



Meanwhile, the only ones who should be concerned about this topic are the owners and the players. No one else has a legitimate take in it.

I am not one who fears MLB being damaged because some players choose to build themselves physically in ways that were unknown prior to 20 years ago.

I watched the All Time HR record which had stood since 1935 be redefined THIRTY NINE YEARS later. I've watched another 29 years pass and the 1974 record of 755 still stands.

Oh, Bonds will likely get over by the end of 2005, but I'm not persuaded that his new number won't stand for another couple of decades, even given the number of seeming contenders.

As for the general tone of The Great Game, I notice that despite all the so-called inflated power, the average scores of games remain constant. Post season series feature matchups that fall between 6-12 runs most every time.

Shrinking the strike zone to the size of a shoebox has done far more for Barry Bonds HR totals than any steroid.

If pitchers could get back the belly high strike, we'd see a return to pre 1995 HR numbers.

If MLB isn't concerned enough to eliminate steroids, it won't change my love for watching The Great Game.

damn politicians will do anything to get their names in the media...

Tell that to the half-a-million or so American teenagers who now use steroids, according to the National Institutes of Health. Kids see beefed up atheletes, and naturally want to emulate them. Why is there a comprehensive testing program in minor league baseball, but a joke program in the bigs? Easy enough to answer, just look at MLB's Players Association stand on the matter. I love baseball as much as most, and have great respect for it's history, I watched Ted Williams play when I was young. Ted nicknamed the "Spendid Splinter" could never be described as muscle bound, he just set the records he did with his natrual God given talent. Williams and numerous other greats from the past don't deserve their records to be broken by the artificially ultra ripped ballplayers of today.



wil.

Are you ignoring the loss of a legit strike zone?

And don't worry about anyone replicating TW's numbers anytime soon.

I'm a few years younger than you (44), but am still waiting for another guy to end his career with .340+ BA, 500+ HRs and two Triple Crowns.

Barman, lots of things are very different today than when Williams played. Actually his batting ave. records are not in jeopardy, I just used him as an example of a player who we can look at and say he did it with his natural talent. Look at Babe Ruth's 60 homer record. Once in 70 years it gets broken (Maris), then all of a sudden it is re-broken half a dozen times in a 4 year period. Stike zones, live balls, corked bats, small ballparks, lousy pitching are all possible contributing factors. The fact still remains where there is smoke there is bound to be fire, and right now there is a lot of smoke resulting from steroids hovering over MLB.

wil.