In the wake of the BALCO scandal it has become obvious baseball needs an unconventional approach to the drug problem. It is not an issue that the owners, most players or the public find acceptable. The Players Union has a number of issues with allowing an across the board drug policy to be implemented because many of its members would probably be penalized. Due to the way baseball is currently run the powers that be don’t really have to allow changes for four more years until the current Collective Bargaining Agreement is up.

However with courage and leadership from Commissioner Selig, the owners and the Union there is no reason that baseball and the public should have to wait that long.

In order to understand how changes in baseball are made it is particularly important to realize how baseball is governed right now.

Baseball is really governed by three groups,

1) The owners who pay the salaries, make the money, and run the business. The owners and the business of baseball are exempt from the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

2) The commissioner who in theory is supposed to be impartial and do everything which is best for the game. However Selig, despite his efforts cannot be impartial but instead like many commissioners before him is just the mouthpiece of the owners.

One of the great flaws of the commissioner’s job it that the owners - who can also vote him out, vote him into power. Selig is more compromised than many others however due to his former ownership of the Milwaukee Brewers, who while nominally a Major League team as they are being run today, are still run and controlled by his daughter.

3) The Players Union (the MLBPA - the Major League Baseball Players Association), and their leader Donald Fehr who is supposed to represent the players and their interests. Fehr is somewhat autonomous but does need the approval of membership on major matters including approval of the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement).

The structure of the union is as follows:
Every player*, manager, coach and trainer that has a contract with a major league team is eligible for membership in the union. They pay $30 a day for 183 days in a whole season (or part thereof) and their team representative is then able to represent them. I am not aware of any Major League players that are not in the union but there is no reason that they have to join.

Team Reps are elected by their teammates in a secret ballot. The team rep is responsible for keeping his finger on the pulse of his team and taking their issues to the union head and other reps during a twice-annual meeting. They also report to their teammates on union decisions.

The Reps report to the union head, which has been Donald Fehr since 1983.

The Players Union and Fehr represent the players in Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations with ownership and the commissioner’s office. (All changes within the rules must be achieved through collective bargaining) In addition, they represent the players in dealing with grievances and salary arbitrations. They work to makes sure the games are played in conditions that meet basic standards for safety no matter where they are played. The union also serves as the group-licensing agent for all Major League Players (except Barry Bonds who just recently opted out: See Barry Sells Out).

In most businesses owners are able to decide how to run their businesses and they may also act in whatever fashion is most profitable for them. However that is not always true with businesses when unions come into play. Baseball is one of those organizations and perhaps like no other business because the Players Union wields much power.

In baseball any change in the game - from tiny changes in rules, playoff structures, games played abroad, and any issue involving players, or on field matters - must be agreed upon in writing between the Players Union and the owners. The agreement that is reached is called a Collective Bargaining Agreement and both sides are legally bound to abide by it - unless modified by agreement of both parties.

This is the hurdle that baseball needs to overcome. Neither the players nor the commissioner nor the owners can be forced to act they need to agree to modify the agreement and both sides have mixed feelings on the drug issues. Neither side really wants to do something that will taint the game, yet if a drug policy, with real drug testing, was implemented today there would be a scandal and not just with steroids, but with recreational drugs.

No player will stand up and take a pro-recreational drug stance, nor will the union, but a recreational drug policy might be scarier than a policy on steroids. There is probably not a player in baseball today that doesn’t know someone on their team that does not do one type of drug or another - be it marijuana after a game, harder drugs, or even an illegal performance enhancer.

No matter how a player might feel on this issue the problem is that it is hard to vote for something that you know will bite not just the “wrongdoers” but friends and teammates. It is especially a difficult thing when an issue strikes that close to home.

So, what is the solution? Perhaps something suggested by another writer on this site (Robert Grossman: see Drugs: Baseball on the Verge of Disaster) is key - have the owners offer an amnesty period to the MLBPA during which time players can either wean themselves from illegal drugs or get help anonymously and without recrimination. At the end of that time a drug policy - and a tough one at that - should be enforced by MLB AND THE UNION.

It’s a difficult suggestion and if the union balks then the owners should do something that under other circumstances I would consider terrible. They should lock the players out until a drug policy is ratified into the current CBA. The public will not support a Players Union that refuses to take a stance to ban substances that affect the play of our national pastime. By holding out and refusing to come to terms the players would be casting themselves as villains and outlaws in a court of public opinion in which they could not win.

There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of players would do the right thing, despite any objections made by union management, because the players want a fair game too – a game where players and teams are judged by their on field chemistry and accomplishments, not by the accomplishments of chemists manipulating those in the field.


*Players who crossed the picket line during the 1994-95 strike are not eligible to become members of the Union or share in licensing revenues.