Baseball Agrees to Drop Steroid Fines By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer NEW YORK - Baseball players and owners agreed Sunday to drop the possibility of fines for steroid use, leaving suspensions as the only discipline, according to management's top labor lawyer. Congressmen repeatedly criticized baseball for the fine possibility during Thursday's hearing before the House Government Reform Committee (news - web sites). Management officials told the committee they were willing to eliminate the fine provision, held over from baseball's first drug-testing agreement in 2002. "We do have an agreement with (union head Donald Fehr) that the language after the disjunctive in the various disciplinary levels is going to be eliminated," Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, said Sunday. "It will be just the straight suspension, which everybody knew was going to happen anyway. To the degree there was any doubt, I think this change should put to rest any concerns in that regard." Fehr told the committee he would have to consult with players, who have not yet approved the deal. "The agreement still has to be ratified, but the negotiators have agreed to modify that language," said Michael Weiner, the union's general counsel. Commissioner Bud Selig repeatedly said during the hearing that his intent was to suspend players for all positive tests. Baseball's new agreement had called for a 10-day suspension or up to $10,000 fine for a first positive test. A second positive was to result in a 30-day suspension or up to $25,000 fine, a third in a 60-day suspension or up to $50,000 fine and a four in a one-year suspension or up to $100,000 fine. After that, discipline is determined by the commissioner. Now, it's suspensions only. Earlier Sunday, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said he thought legislation may be needed to force a tougher plan. "It just seems to me they can't be trusted," the Arizona Republican told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "It seems to me that we ought to seriously consider ... a law that says all professional sports have a minimum level of performance-enhancing drug testing." House Government Reform Committee chairman Tom Davis said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he agreed with McCain's suggestion that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency could be called in to govern baseball's testing. The agency oversees drug testing and discipline for U.S. Olympic athletes. "They've got this season. We'll see how they respond when they find someone testing positive," the Virginia Republican said. Well, we'll see what happens. I am glad that they got it more right than before. Logically, a player could have been caught 4 times and never miss a game or never have been publicly outed. Now, who will be first? I still maintain that it will not be a top tier player that gets caught first.
Damn straight, now we can know who the cheaters are. I was pissed to hear that they could avoid the public eye by just payinga fine. Glad to hear this.
Who did mlb think they were kidding. These are smart people. The fine was in there as an out. I can guarantee you that. I'm glad to see Congress nailed their ass to the cross before the wool was pulled over our eyes. It goes to show you that the Congress actually knows what it is doing, and if they want to call that grandstanding, or pure luck, whatever, but the congress opened all of our eyes in less than 24 hours and exposed all the cheats from top on down. Good stuff.
I had heard the excuse from MLB that it was an out just in case the player took something w/o knowing it contained a banned substance they would at least garner somekind of punishment. The IOC doesn't make judgement calls. Either you're clean or you have a banned substance and you get suspended. I do think that an appeal process should be part of the deal, just as in international sport. At the very least it would be public knowledge. Allowing the players to pay a fine and no one's the wiser was a joke.
