Baseball adds THG to list of banned drugs

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- With baseball grappling with how best to curb the use of steroids, players and owners yesterday agreed to ban the drug THG, the synthetic performance enhancer that gained notoriety in the scandal involving a personal trainer to slugger Barry Bonds and three other men charged with illegally supplying the drug to athletes.

The development unfolded amid a new clash over the prospect of commissioner Bud Selig's invoking his powers under "the best interests of baseball" clause in baseball's constitution to supersede the major league's labor contract and enact stricter policies aimed at cracking down on anabolic steroids.

"You bet I'm exercising every option," Selig said yesterday of trying to beef up the game's steroid policies, an effort he pledged last week in Congress. "But we do have a collective bargaining agreement."

The contract, reached in 2002 after months of contentious negotiations narrowly averted a strike, runs through 2006 and includes sanctions for steroid use that are considered far more lenient than those established by other professional sports and the Olympics.

Under the baseball agreement, players must test positive for steroids at least twice before they face a maximum suspension of 25 days ad must test positive five times before they are suspended for a year. THG now joins the list of 28 substances that, if detected in a player's urine, would trigger those sanctions. Officials of the Major League Players Association said the agreement was fairly negotiated and legally binding.

"We have no concerns about that," said Gene Orza, the union's associate general counsel, of Selig possibly overriding the pact by invoking the "best interests of baseball" provision. "That's not going to happen. It's got enormous legal and practical problems."

Commissioners have often cited the clause to support their actions, as Bowie Kuhn did in the 1970s when he voided Oakland owner Charlie Finley's sale of Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi to the Red Sox for $3 million. Bart Giamatti cited "the best interests of baseball" in 1989 when he launched an investigation into Pete Rose's alleged gambling. And Selig invoked the provision in suspending John Rocker in 2000 for publicly insulting immigrants, blacks, and homosexuals.

But players who support the labor agreement argued that those cases and others did not involve a commissioner effectively rewriting part of a negotiated contract.

"That's something that should happen in the next bargaining session," said Johnny Damon, the union representative for the Red Sox. "The steroid issue is going to be something the sides aren't going to agree on. We want it out of the game, but we know that if we concede to [Selig's initiative], there is always going to be something else they want."

Between 5 and 7 percent of players tested positive for steroids last year in a survey conducted under the labor agreement to determine whether further testing would be permitted. By exceeding 5 percent, the players became subject for the first time this year to two unannounced mandatory tests and possible penalties.

Damon said the Sox clubhouse is "pretty divided" over the issue. While the overwhelming majority of players want to cleanse the game of steroids, a number of stars, including Curt Schilling and Nomar Garciaparra, have expressed distrust over the integrity of the testing program. Schilling and Garciaparra, for example, said last year's testing was subject to a strict confidentiality rule, yet results have been subpoenaed in the case involving Bonds's trainer.

"As a player, I don't trust the people who run the game to handle drug testing," said Schilling, who helped negotiate the bargaining agreement. "I never have. We were told last spring we were taking anonymous tests, and we found out that's not the case."

Selig has expressed deep concern about the image of the game and the health of its players because of the steroid problem. Since the players and owners agreed to the contract 19 months ago, the case against the four men charged with illegally supplying steroids from Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in California has focused national attention on the possible role of banned performance enhancers in the game. Stars such as the Giants' Bonds, and Yankees Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield were identified as having been shipped steroids, though none have been charged and all have denied using them.

Selig believes the game's integrity may be at stake.

"It's critically important to me," he said of maintaining the public's trust. "Relative to the fans, to all of us, there's the integrity issue, the record issue. I understand that."

Selig favors adopting a tougher steroid policy like one that has been in force in the minor leagues since 2001. That policy calls for a 15-game suspension for the first positive test and includes random testing (up to four unannounced tests per year). He presented his case last week to the Senate Commerce Committee, whose chairman, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), said Congress would step in unless the union joins Selig in creating stricter standards.

"I articulated my concerns in Washington," Selig said. "There's no question the minor league policy is what we ought to have."

But the union expects Selig to stand by the bargaining agreement, and the union is virtually undefeated in challenging Major League Baseball in the courts. After Selig appeared before Congress, he sent the union a letter asking for greater cooperation in strengthening the steroid policy.

"They know what the response will be," Orza said. "If they have any ideas about how a drug program might be better worked, we'll listen to what they have to say. But we have little sentiment for a wholesale revision of the basic agreement."

Schilling considered it ironic that Selig last week cited the need to adhere to the industry's established rules when he was discussing an effort by the Oakland A's to build a new stadium in possible conflict with the territorial rights of the San Francisco Giants. "If you don't have internal rules," Selig told reporters, "you have anarchy."

Schilling suggested a binding contract also represented a set of rules.

"It's obvious they run by their own set of rules, and that's not always the best thing," he said of the owners. "The best interests of baseball are to have a situation where the players can trust the people administering the tests and can trust that what people say they basically mean, and that's never been the case between these two parties."

The decision to ban THG (tetrahydrogestrinone) was reached by representatives of both sides under a provision of the labor contract. THG becomes the 28th drug on a list of steroids officially banned under the pact. Because baseball and other sports did not know about THG before last October, drug testing was unable to detect it. The FDA last year said the substance was not approved for consumption and provided "considerable risks to health."

"Although purveyors of the THG represent it as a dietary supplement, in fact it does not meet the dietary supplement definition," the FDA said in a statement. "Rather, it is a purely synthetic `designer' steroid . . . that is explicitly banned by the US Anti-Doping Agency."

But beyond agreeing to ban THG, the players and owners may struggle to find common ground soon on much more.

"I know that what we have is not working, but it's not as easy as people want it to be because of the parties involved and the people involved," Schilling said.

Dan Shaughnessy of the Globe staff contributed to this report.