Baseball hits a home run
THE AGREEMENT reached last week between Major League Baseball and its players union was a great step in putting an end to the use of steroids and other harmful drugs in baseball. It was a victory not only for the fans, players, and owners, but also for the game itself.
In one day, professional baseball went from being known as the league that turned a blind eye to steroids and drugs to the league that cracked down the hardest on drug abusers and cheaters. This agreement sends the message that cheating in sports is unacceptable and that if you get caught, you will be punished and ultimately banned from the game. The agreement also sets a standard and puts a challenge out to other major team sports, such as the NFL, NBA,and NHL, to get serious about cracking down on illegal drugs.
Baseball's new agreement is tough. The first drug offense is a 50-game suspension, the second is 100 games, and the third kicks you out of the game for life. Beyond that, one of the most pioneering provisions is the inclusion of testing and penalties for amphetamines. This is a first for baseball because amphetamine use may be a bigger problem than steroids. ''Greenies" and other ''uppers" sprouted in the clubhouse in the 1970s and have stuck around baseball ever since. We didn't have steroids or amphetamines in the 1950s and 1960s when I played. We had beer. And we didn't even get that until after the game.
Although the agreement did not touch on the records and statistics of those who used drugs, millions of fans hope that Major League Baseball can address this issue. The Elias Book of Baseball Records could even address this on its own. Maybe an asterisk -- or an Rx -- could be put with the cheaters's statistics.
The best thing about the agreement is that two private parties came together to accomplish it and the US Congress didn't have to mandate it. Congress held some tough and revealing hearings with past and present players, my fellow Hall of Famers, and the heads of Major League Baseball and its union. Members also introduced tough legislation in Congress, and my bipartisan bill was close to passing the Senate. I have a feeling that without congressional prodding, we may not be where we are today.
But what matters now is that the agreement is followed. From my days as a baseball player and union representative, I know that sometimes agreements that you were told were written in stone can somehow change. Fortunately, the owners already voted unanimously for the agreement, and hopefully the union's executive board will do the same in December. I and my colleagues will be watching very closely, and if things unravel, we have tough legislation we can move through Congress.
The biggest winners in all this were the kids. I know some roll their eyes when a politician says they address an issue ''for the children." But in this case what is happening in baseball and other sports has directly affected our youth. Hopefully, this tough agreement will help stop the problem and teach our children that you will not prosper if you cheat.
Kids see home runs blasted like cannons and quarterbacks sacked like lunch bags, and they want to feel that thrill and accomplish that feat for themselves. So they emulate these sports stars any way they can. The competition in junior high and high school sports is tough, and too many kids take the route of the needle and pill to get any edge they can.
These drugs affect the body physically with fatal liver cysts and cancer, blood clotting, hypertension, and heart attacks or strokes. Also, studies show these drugs have detrimental emotional and mental side effects, including depression and aggression. It is serious and ugly stuff.
Earlier this year I received a letter from Joseph, a Boy Scout from Louisville who wrote me about steroids in baseball. He summed up the problem with the words, ''taking performance-enhancing drugs is cheating. Cheating should not be the American way of doing things." Joseph hit it right out of the park.
When I played baseball with greats like Ted Williams, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, and Frank Robinson, if you got caught cheating -- whether it was by sharpening your spikes or corking your bat -- you were punished and suspended.
It has been a long time coming, but I think baseball got it right this time. In the bottom of the ninth it came through with a big play to save the game.
Jim Bunning is a US senator from Kentucky and former pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies. 
