A group of APSE sports editors met in April in New York with commissioners from the four major sports leagues, plus the NHL and Major League Baseball players associations, NASCAR, U.S. Track and Field and the United States Olympic Committee. Here's what they had to say.

Donald Fehr, for one, doesn't believe baseball's drug policy is as bad as it has been made out to be.

"The purpose of the agreement we reached is prevent the use of steroids, and we believe it will," Fehr, the head of the major league players union, told a group of sports editors gathered in New York in late April.

Outside of the players union offices, however, patience with baseball's drug-testing policy is wearing thin.

Fehr, along with baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the heads of other major professional sports, was called before the Senate Commerce Committee in March and threatened with "legislative remedies" if baseball didn't take immediate steps to toughen its steroid-testing policy. The two-hour grilling on Capitol Hill was the latest dramatic fallout from a federal investigation of a California laboratory accused in a 42-count indictment of providing steroids to dozens of baseball, football and track and field stars.

Various published reports said federal investigators were told that steroids were given to seven baseball players, including San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds, whose personal trainer, Greg Anderson, is one of four men charged in the case.

Baseball adopted steroid-testing guidelines for the first time in the collective bargaining agreement signed in 2002. Because more than 5 percent of the tests conducted in 2003 came back positive for steroids, players this season are subject to penalties for positive drug tests for the first time.

But the policy has been widely criticized as being too soft. On a first offense, players testing positive for steroids will be subject to counseling but will not be fined, suspended or publicly identified. By contrast, a first offense under baseball's minor league testing protocol calls for an unpaid suspension of 15 days. In Olympic sports, a positive steroid test would result in a two-year ban from competition.

Fehr defends the policy as being more effective than it is perceived. "You have to ask whether the purpose of the program is to penalize or to stop usage," he said, indicating that he is more interested in the latter. He said he opposes the use of steroids and any illegal substances.

As he did on Capitol Hill, Fehr said there are privacy concerns that he must protect on his players' behalf. Underscoring that concern, U.S. agents recently seized urine samples from drug tests conducted as part of baseball's program, perhaps jeopardizing player anonymity called for under the collective bargaining agreement. Attorneys representing the players union are attempting in federal court to have the samples returned.

Fehr acknowledged there are ongoing discussions with baseball officials about modifying the drug-testing policy. "You can always reach agreements," he said.

In early May, the players union agreed to Olympic-style drug testing for the proposed World Cup next year, which could subject baseball's best players to several weeks of random, round-the-clock testing. Fehr said the union didn't oppose the change because playing in the World Cup was voluntary.

— Dave Morgan
Los Angeles Times