Does Bud Selig finally
Selig seeking stiffer steroid penalties
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Perhaps, at least in one area, we may be seeing some evidence that Bud Selig, perhaps one of the absolute worst commissioners in the history of Major League Baseball, may finally be "getting it" in the area of Steroids and other performance enhancers in his sport.
From FoxSports.com, originally Associated Press. Headline is linked.
Selig seeking stiffer steroid penalties
RONALD BLUM / Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig asked players to agree to a 50-game suspension for first-time steroid offenders and a lifetime ban for a third violation under what he called a "three strikes and you are out approach" to doping.
In a letter sent this week to union head Donald Fehr, Selig proposed a 100-game ban for a second offense. He also asked the union to ban amphetamines, to have more frequent random tests and to appoint an independent person to administer the major league drug-testing program.
"Third offenders should be banned permanently. I recognize the need for progressive discipline, but a third-time offender has no place in the game," Selig wrote to Fehr. "Steroid users cheat the game. After three offenses, they have no place in it."
Under the rules that began this season, a first offense gets a 10-day suspension, with the penalty increasing to 30 days for a second positive test, 60 days for a third and one year for a fourth. For a fifth positive, the penalty is at the commissioner's discretion.
Baseball currently has no penalties for amphetamine use by players on 40-man major league rosters. Amphetamines are banned for players under minor league contracts.
"Last winter, we reopened our agreement to deal with steroids," Selig wrote in the April 25 letter, a copy of which was obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. "I am asking you now to demonstrate once again to America that our relationship has improved to the point that we can act quickly and effectively deal with matters affecting the integrity of our great sport."
Reached Saturday, Fehr said the union was not yet prepared to discuss Selig's proposal.
"We'll respond in due course," Fehr said, adding he anticipated replying early next week.
Some players began thinking about Selig's proposal Saturday.
"That would get it out of the game - in a heartbeat," Kansas City Royals pitcher Brian Anderson said.
New York Yankees player representative Mike Mussina said he wanted to study the proposal before responding.
"I don't know if Bud's trying to get out in front and make us the good guys or the bad guys," said New York Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, a senior union leader.
"I happen to be able to believe that our program is a good one and if we leave it alone, it's going to do what we want it to do," Glavine told the AP in Washington. "But if everybody has their mind set on making it tougher, then you're going to have to take the time, continue to look at it, and continue to look at alternatives. It's not something you can expect to happen in two weeks or two months. It's going to take a while, but I still think that it's something, that if it's deemed to be changed, you can probably get something done by next season."
Baseball players agreed during the offseason to reopen the drug agreement, which was not set to expire until December 2006. The new rules, which began in March, for the first time instituted suspensions for a first positive test for steroid use. Four players have received 10-day bans, all with relatively low profiles: Tampa Bay outfielder Alex Sanchez, Colorado outfielder Jorge Piedra, Texas minor league pitcher Agustin Montero and Seattle minor league outfielder Jamal Strong.
The new agreement, not scheduled to expire until December 2008, has been criticized by many in Congress as not tough enough and several congressmen threatened to propose federal legislation.
"I continue to believe that time is of the essence in addressing this issue," Selig wrote to Fehr.
Several congressmen cited the World Anti-Doping Agency code as their ideal. It calls for a two-year ban for a first offense and a lifetime ban for a second, unless there are mitigating circumstances.
Some in Congress also were concerned that baseball's program is administered by a committee of management and union representatives, and several wanted a ban on amphetamines, long referred to as "greenies" in baseball.
"It is time to put the whispers about amphetamine use to bed once and for all," Selig wrote. "To the extent that our culture has tolerated the use of these substances, the culture must change."
... more at linked article
As noted in commentary preceeding this clipped article, it seems that perhaps Selig is finally "getting it", now if his counter-part, Mr. Fehr, actually understood the same issues, we might get some where.
I'm a fan of baseball. I have been for most of my life, going back to the glory days of Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, and some of the best players to ever wear Baltimore Orioles uniforms. I wasn't "aware" of the Washington Senators when I was a youngster. D.C. had unfortunately gone through hard-times with race riots following the death of Martin Luther King and others, and sports coverage wasn't what it is now in the ESPN-inspired modern era of 24 hour sports networks, sports news channels, and such.
When I was young, black and white TV was all many people had. Baseball games were most frequently listened to, rather than watched. Or were watched on game-of-the-week broadcasts on CBS, ABC or NBC. Cable was just beginning to get started, and baseball games on TV were farther apart, or broadcast on stations that we couldn't get in the days of "the big 3" and a few independents on the VHF side. If you were lucky, you might actually get a few UHF channels, and there you might find a few broadcasts. Still, for the most part, being a fan meant reading scores in the newspaper, and as a kid, I was interested in newspapers only to find the comics in.
Still, again, I knew who the Orioles were, and I loved to follow them and listen to my grandparents talk about how well the Orioles were doing. Back then players like Brooks Robinson played baseball during the season for 2 - 3 times what a well paid worker might get in a "regular job". Most players had full-time jobs in the off-season, and the season was compressed because there were fewer off-days scheduled, and more double-headers mixed into the schedule.
Football players were even worse off, with great players like Johnny U. and others almost literally killing themselves to play the game so they could entertain us, and perhaps lift the spirits of their team's home town as they tried to scratch out a championship or even a play-off game.
Over time though athletes in all sports have become more highly compensated and their need to work outside of their sport has diminished into nothingness for most. If a player manages his money well (has a good agent and financial advisers), they take the money they make and invest it wisely. They make many times an average U.S. citizen's income and they perform at levels not much different then the good old days -- similar statistics in most cases, or poorer ones, including lower batting averages, more strike-outs per at-bat attempts, etc.
But because of the money in the game, and the obscene amounts of it, baseball players and other professional athletes are looking for every possible advantage to get a leg up in their sports. It's especially bad in baseball, where once hallowed numbers in record books have been eclipsed or are being eclipsed by men that have added muscle mass very quickly. They've made themselves into freakish muscle bound hulks that smack baseballs out of the ballparks at amazing frequency because "chick's dig the long-ball" and because they can demand ever larger contracts thanks to their home-run hitting heroics.
Over the past several seasons, as Hank Aaron's one time impossible to reach record has come closer and closer to being eclipsed by a man many would look at and automatically assume is "juiced", and as the accomplishment of impossibly tortured Roger Maris, he the anti-hero of the Yankee faithful that wanted so desperately to see Mickey Mantle break the Babe's record, fell to a pair of players that looked more like they belonged on a football field opposite Ray Lewis than on a baseball diamond opposite a pitcher, it's become all the more obvious that baseball has a problem and it needed to be addressed.
The problem obviously exists in other sports, including the NFL where testing existed long before it came to Major League Baseball. But it's not been ignored in the same ways that the MLB did while the problem manifested itself in the sport.
Thanks to the potential for interference on the part of Congress, Selig and Fehr came together to help clean up the sport. In the last few years, things have improved greatly, but still, there are many cheaters active in the sport. Until they face the possibility that cheating will END their career rather than further it, many of those cheaters will not quit. They'll continue to push the envelop through science, rather than through training and hard work. And that must be fixed.
Baseball has to get back to being "America's sport" or at least to being a sport that U.S. citizens can be proud to watch, rather than be ashamed of. All of which means that Selig has to "get it" and he has to drag Donald Fehr and the players along, even if they kick and scream along the way, until fans can be assured that they're watching players who are naturals or who have worked hard to fine tune their talents, rather than having taken the easy way out.
Lets all hope that this is addressed soon, and hopefully not via political means in Congress, but rather through common sense approaches such as those discussed in the original article clipped above.
From FoxSports.com, originally Associated Press. Headline is linked.
Selig seeking stiffer steroid penalties
RONALD BLUM / Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig asked players to agree to a 50-game suspension for first-time steroid offenders and a lifetime ban for a third violation under what he called a "three strikes and you are out approach" to doping.
In a letter sent this week to union head Donald Fehr, Selig proposed a 100-game ban for a second offense. He also asked the union to ban amphetamines, to have more frequent random tests and to appoint an independent person to administer the major league drug-testing program.
"Third offenders should be banned permanently. I recognize the need for progressive discipline, but a third-time offender has no place in the game," Selig wrote to Fehr. "Steroid users cheat the game. After three offenses, they have no place in it."
Under the rules that began this season, a first offense gets a 10-day suspension, with the penalty increasing to 30 days for a second positive test, 60 days for a third and one year for a fourth. For a fifth positive, the penalty is at the commissioner's discretion.
Baseball currently has no penalties for amphetamine use by players on 40-man major league rosters. Amphetamines are banned for players under minor league contracts.
"Last winter, we reopened our agreement to deal with steroids," Selig wrote in the April 25 letter, a copy of which was obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. "I am asking you now to demonstrate once again to America that our relationship has improved to the point that we can act quickly and effectively deal with matters affecting the integrity of our great sport."
Reached Saturday, Fehr said the union was not yet prepared to discuss Selig's proposal.
"We'll respond in due course," Fehr said, adding he anticipated replying early next week.
Some players began thinking about Selig's proposal Saturday.
"That would get it out of the game - in a heartbeat," Kansas City Royals pitcher Brian Anderson said.
New York Yankees player representative Mike Mussina said he wanted to study the proposal before responding.
"I don't know if Bud's trying to get out in front and make us the good guys or the bad guys," said New York Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, a senior union leader.
"I happen to be able to believe that our program is a good one and if we leave it alone, it's going to do what we want it to do," Glavine told the AP in Washington. "But if everybody has their mind set on making it tougher, then you're going to have to take the time, continue to look at it, and continue to look at alternatives. It's not something you can expect to happen in two weeks or two months. It's going to take a while, but I still think that it's something, that if it's deemed to be changed, you can probably get something done by next season."
Baseball players agreed during the offseason to reopen the drug agreement, which was not set to expire until December 2006. The new rules, which began in March, for the first time instituted suspensions for a first positive test for steroid use. Four players have received 10-day bans, all with relatively low profiles: Tampa Bay outfielder Alex Sanchez, Colorado outfielder Jorge Piedra, Texas minor league pitcher Agustin Montero and Seattle minor league outfielder Jamal Strong.
The new agreement, not scheduled to expire until December 2008, has been criticized by many in Congress as not tough enough and several congressmen threatened to propose federal legislation.
"I continue to believe that time is of the essence in addressing this issue," Selig wrote to Fehr.
Several congressmen cited the World Anti-Doping Agency code as their ideal. It calls for a two-year ban for a first offense and a lifetime ban for a second, unless there are mitigating circumstances.
Some in Congress also were concerned that baseball's program is administered by a committee of management and union representatives, and several wanted a ban on amphetamines, long referred to as "greenies" in baseball.
"It is time to put the whispers about amphetamine use to bed once and for all," Selig wrote. "To the extent that our culture has tolerated the use of these substances, the culture must change."
... more at linked article
As noted in commentary preceeding this clipped article, it seems that perhaps Selig is finally "getting it", now if his counter-part, Mr. Fehr, actually understood the same issues, we might get some where.
I'm a fan of baseball. I have been for most of my life, going back to the glory days of Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, and some of the best players to ever wear Baltimore Orioles uniforms. I wasn't "aware" of the Washington Senators when I was a youngster. D.C. had unfortunately gone through hard-times with race riots following the death of Martin Luther King and others, and sports coverage wasn't what it is now in the ESPN-inspired modern era of 24 hour sports networks, sports news channels, and such.
When I was young, black and white TV was all many people had. Baseball games were most frequently listened to, rather than watched. Or were watched on game-of-the-week broadcasts on CBS, ABC or NBC. Cable was just beginning to get started, and baseball games on TV were farther apart, or broadcast on stations that we couldn't get in the days of "the big 3" and a few independents on the VHF side. If you were lucky, you might actually get a few UHF channels, and there you might find a few broadcasts. Still, for the most part, being a fan meant reading scores in the newspaper, and as a kid, I was interested in newspapers only to find the comics in.
Still, again, I knew who the Orioles were, and I loved to follow them and listen to my grandparents talk about how well the Orioles were doing. Back then players like Brooks Robinson played baseball during the season for 2 - 3 times what a well paid worker might get in a "regular job". Most players had full-time jobs in the off-season, and the season was compressed because there were fewer off-days scheduled, and more double-headers mixed into the schedule.
Football players were even worse off, with great players like Johnny U. and others almost literally killing themselves to play the game so they could entertain us, and perhaps lift the spirits of their team's home town as they tried to scratch out a championship or even a play-off game.
Over time though athletes in all sports have become more highly compensated and their need to work outside of their sport has diminished into nothingness for most. If a player manages his money well (has a good agent and financial advisers), they take the money they make and invest it wisely. They make many times an average U.S. citizen's income and they perform at levels not much different then the good old days -- similar statistics in most cases, or poorer ones, including lower batting averages, more strike-outs per at-bat attempts, etc.
But because of the money in the game, and the obscene amounts of it, baseball players and other professional athletes are looking for every possible advantage to get a leg up in their sports. It's especially bad in baseball, where once hallowed numbers in record books have been eclipsed or are being eclipsed by men that have added muscle mass very quickly. They've made themselves into freakish muscle bound hulks that smack baseballs out of the ballparks at amazing frequency because "chick's dig the long-ball" and because they can demand ever larger contracts thanks to their home-run hitting heroics.
Over the past several seasons, as Hank Aaron's one time impossible to reach record has come closer and closer to being eclipsed by a man many would look at and automatically assume is "juiced", and as the accomplishment of impossibly tortured Roger Maris, he the anti-hero of the Yankee faithful that wanted so desperately to see Mickey Mantle break the Babe's record, fell to a pair of players that looked more like they belonged on a football field opposite Ray Lewis than on a baseball diamond opposite a pitcher, it's become all the more obvious that baseball has a problem and it needed to be addressed.
The problem obviously exists in other sports, including the NFL where testing existed long before it came to Major League Baseball. But it's not been ignored in the same ways that the MLB did while the problem manifested itself in the sport.
Thanks to the potential for interference on the part of Congress, Selig and Fehr came together to help clean up the sport. In the last few years, things have improved greatly, but still, there are many cheaters active in the sport. Until they face the possibility that cheating will END their career rather than further it, many of those cheaters will not quit. They'll continue to push the envelop through science, rather than through training and hard work. And that must be fixed.
Baseball has to get back to being "America's sport" or at least to being a sport that U.S. citizens can be proud to watch, rather than be ashamed of. All of which means that Selig has to "get it" and he has to drag Donald Fehr and the players along, even if they kick and scream along the way, until fans can be assured that they're watching players who are naturals or who have worked hard to fine tune their talents, rather than having taken the easy way out.
Lets all hope that this is addressed soon, and hopefully not via political means in Congress, but rather through common sense approaches such as those discussed in the original article clipped above.