Selig Throws the Ball Back

by Jonathan Leshanski
May 5, 2005

Bud Selig has finally had enough. He’s tired of being the bad guy and allowing the blame for baseball’s farce of a steroid policy fall upon him. This week he finally did what he should have done all along, and what he should have done in front of Congress. He said to the world I want a real drug policy which includes not just steroids but amphetamines. But it appears that the MLBPA won’t let me have an agreement with the inclusion of amphetamines just yet. .

He threw the ball where it belonged in the first place, back in the lap of the Player’s Union leader Donald Fehr. It’s been an interesting story an I’ve enjoyed covering it, but I’ve wondered why Selig wouldn’t put the blame where it belonged. I’m sure he thought that he was being a good baseball man and trying to easy management-player relations, but the stubborn ass in this case was Donald Fehr who seems to still be under the impression that steroids, like baseball’s other problems in the past, can be swept under the rug.

The Union has done a terrible job here. They threw Mark McGwire to the wolves instead of trying to step to the fore and create a real drug policy before congress got involved. But like an ostrich burying its head in the sand the Union has turned a blind because it thinks that Selig has the situation under control.

Every player should take note of how loyal the union has been to baseball’s heroes. It should scare the heck out of them, because the Union is willing to sacrifice their careers and reputations been rather than act with some degree of responsibility.

Now, Selig has thrown the ball back to the union. He’s publicly washed his hands of the mess and said this is what the owners, and the league, want - a 50 game suspension for a first offense, 100 games for a second an a lifetime ban for a third positive test. It’s severe, it’s serious and it’s for real. It’s an offer the Union really can’t refuse without admitting that it’s the bad guy in this case, something that would assuredly bring some form of intervention from Congress, not to mention the ire of the paying public.

It’s an offer they can’t refuse, isn’t it? No, it’s not. While Donald Fehr has said he’s willing to talk with Selig about that policy it’s more of the misdirection the Union usually gives us. Sure they could accept the plan, or even negotiate it downwards to something along the lines of 25 for the first, 50 for the second and 100 for a third positive test (a policy akin to that of the NFL). Odds are the Union will do nothing of the sort.

The Union might risk it all on a roll of the dice that Congress doesn’t have enough support to create a law governing professional sports and performance enhancing drugs, or if they do, that whatever they do won’t be as severe as the policy that Selig has put forth. And they may be right.

Congress, in their hearings with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue last week, practically deified the man. Congress essentially called him the only man they had yet interviewed who was straightforward and knew what the heck he was talking about. It was a far cry from the treatment that Selig and MLB found themselves subject too during their turn last month.

But football has not been handcuffed by the NFL’s counterpart to the Players Union and is not forced to deal with them as equals, or to manage everything though a Collective Bargaining Agreement. Over the years in baseball the Union has stifled every attempt to create any sort of a drug policy until early this year when pressure from fans, the media and Congress was so great that the players themselves asked the Union to re-negotiate the CBA (as it pertains to drug use).

Obviously the Union leadership missed the point and Congress during their hearings called baseball’s drug policy a sham, and they are right. Even the few player’s who’ve toed the union line and spoke up asking Congress and the public to “give it time” must realize how hollow that plea really sounds.

The truth is that MLB has suspended five players, three whom most of us had never heard of, but none of the bulked up superstars who are the league’s bread and butter
(many in the media suspect that MLB is being dishonest with its drug testing in that none of the “star” players have been found guilty thus far).

Whatever the reason baseball has already changed. Power numbers were down last month compared to those a year ago, despite punishments and tests that are weak. Maybe it’s a foreshadowing of better things to come, including a real drug policy.

The Union has the ball. Now we need to see what they do with it.

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