Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has proposed a 50-game suspension for any player testing positive for steroids on a first offense, and a lifetime ban for a third positive test.
In a letter sent to the players union last week, Selig made it clear he wants to abolish the taint the steroid controversy has brought to the national pastime.
Instead of the current 10- game suspension for first-time offenders, Selig proposes a 50- game suspension – about one- third of a 162-game season. The current 30-game suspension for second-time offenders would go to 100 games.
Instead of a 60-day suspension for a third offense, Selig wants a lifetime ban. Three strikes, and a player is out.
Under the current policy, players don’t receive a lifetime ban until a fifth offense.
“Whoever would be stupid enough to get caught once would surely stop under this new proposal,” Colorado Rockies pitcher said. “Fifty games, that’s a big hit. It would definitely be a deterrent.”
Selig also requested that amphetamine be added to the list of banned substances that includes steroids, steroid precursors, masking agents, ephedrine, androstenedione and human growth hormone.
“We’re going to let the letter speak for itself and make no further comment,” said Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s top labor lawyer and the man who oversees the drug policy.
Manfred did say Selig’s proposals would become part of the minor-league steroid policy next season. Minor leaguers not on 40-man big-league rosters are not protected by the union.
As for getting his proposal to fly with players, Selig may count on escalating pressure from the public and the U.S. House Government Reform Committee that chastised baseball officials at a March 17 hearing. It has threatened to institute an independent, all-sports drug-testing system unless baseball strengthens its policy.
“I have grave concerns about the damage that has been done to Major League Baseball by players’ use of performance- enhancing substances,” Selig wrote union boss Donald Fehr. “The use of such substances … (presents) a fundamental challenge to the integrity of the game.”
The players union is expected to balk at the proposal.
Among the concerns raised since baseball began formal drug testing last season is the realization that several steroid agents stay in a person’s bloodstream for six months or longer.
This would present the possibility that even if a player swore off steroids after using them once, he still could eventually face a lifetime ban if regularly tested under Selig’s proposal.
Players “still don’t know what you can buy over the counter and what you can’t buy over the counter and (whether it will) come up positive or negative,” said Jason Phillips, the Los Angeles Dodgers catcher, who is adamantly opposed to Selig’s proposal. “There’s too much gray area right now.”
The players also may argue that they made the unprecedented move of reopening the collective bargaining agreement in January to address steroids. In the steroid policy implemented last season, first-time offenders were not punished and players were tested just once. The policy was revised this season to subject players to unlimited testing and to punish first-time offenders.
Union leaders are expected to argue that implementing even harsher penalties before the new policy is 2 months old would leave the players worried that no matter what they do, it would never be enough.
“I thought we already negotiated this,” Rockies star said. “I don’t think we ought to negotiate things because the press wants us to.”
The drug-testing polices from the basic agreement did not expire until after the 2006 season. The new rules run until December 2008.
The players also could argue that early indications of the current drug-testing policy is it’s the best among the four major sports. The NFL has been testing for steroids for 15 years and has suspended 54 active players, an average of 3.6 a year. Baseball’s revised steroid testing program has suspended four players in two months.
Although steroid use is believed rampant in sports, baseball has taken the brunt of the controversy, in part because many past and present star sluggers – including Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield – have been linked to the illegal substance.
McGwire set the single- season home run record with 70 in 1998, and Bonds broke it three years later with 73.
“Congress is so adamant about cleaning up steroids in baseball, they ought to clean up some of the stuff they’re doing,” Rockies outfielder Dustan Mohr said. “I don’t think all of them are saints either.”
Staff writer Troy Renck contributed to this report.
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
