McCain puts heat on Fehr

In pointed criticism of Major League Baseball's drug testing program, Senator John McCain told Players Association executive director Donald Fehr yesterday that either he agree to a more comprehensive policy or Congress would intervene.

"Your failure to commit to addressing this issue straight on and immediately will motivate this committee to search for legislative remedies," said McCain, a Republican from Arizona and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, addressing Fehr, commissioner Bud Selig, and other top baseball and football officials in attendance at yesterday's hearing on Capitol Hill.

McCain's comments came after Fehr said he could not commit to changes in the 2002 collective bargaining agreement, which called for anonymous tests last year for the first time and doesn't call for a player to be suspended for a year until a fifth offense.

Major League Baseball has sought stiffer penalties, similar to the National Football League's, in which one positive test results in a four-game suspension (a quarter of the NFL season), and a third offense is banishment from the league.

"I don't know what [the remedies] are," McCain told Fehr. "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."

Saying that sports such as baseball are "aiding and abetting cheaters," McCain added that, "Each of you [representatives of MLB and the NFL] and particularly Major League Baseball has a legitimacy problem. As your athletes get bigger and stronger, the credibility of your product in the eyes of the public gets weaker."

Fehr said MLB's policy already has had some effects. After MLB and the union agreed on anonymous testing, 5-7 percent of the players tested positive, which triggered testing with penalities this year.Selig, who all along has pushed for a stronger program, indicated the agreement was a "compromise" and that baseball couldn't enforce a stricter program because of the union's resistance. However, Selig agreed with McCain and the panel on the need for tougher testing. "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 reiterated that he hoped to implement the minor league policy of year-round testing and a 15-game suspension for a first positive. Minor league baseball also requires four random tests per season, year-round, as opposed to major league baseball's two tests.

Also testifying at yesterday's hearing was NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw, both of whom explained their tough steroids and drug policy to the panel.

"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."

In something not seen in major league baseball in decades, Tagliabue and Upshaw were in concert on the issue of testing. "There is complete agreement between us to enforce the program," Tagliabue said.

Fehr called the current testing agreement in baseball "a concession," emphasizing that the union philosophically opposes testing players for no reason. However, some of Fehr's constituency have spoken out. Braves closer John Smoltz has called for stronger testing.

"There's a way they should do tests," Smoltz said. "Do them the way they should be done -- not a platform that's just a smoke screen." Union lawyer Gene Orza recently said there would be no change in the policy until the CBA expires in December 2006. Orza was also quoted as saying recently that cigarettes were more harmful than steroids.

Also at yesterday's proceedings, Selig went a step further and indicated baseball supports legislation (sponsored by Senator Joe Biden, D-Del.) that bans over-the-counter sales of Androstenedione, a steroid-like supplement that Mark McGwire used the year he broke the season home run mark, and the newly detected steroid THG.

"The union's wrong, here," said Biden, a panelist yesterday. "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."

Fehr countered that it's wrong to ban players from taking something that's legal, and that if Congress doesn't think players should take substances such as Androstenedione, they should make them illegal.

The San Francisco Chronicle, citing federal investigators, reported last week that Giants star Barry Bonds, Yankees stars Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield, and three other major leaguers received steroids from BALCO, a California nutritional supplement laboratory. Bonds's personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was among four men indicted on steroid conspiracy charges.

Material from Associated Press was used in this report.