Steroid Issue Won’t Vanish Into Thin Air

For the record, there is no formal reopening provision in the collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Assn.

The current contract does not expire until after the 2006 season, but forget what’s formal in it and what’s not.

Either side can request discussion on potential changes at any time.

The other side can reject the request or agree to it.

If the sides agree to discuss the suggested change but fail to approve it, labor law prevents the calling of a lockout or strike in mid-term of a bargaining contract.

At this point, there is no test scheduled on the above material, but there could be.

A high-ranking baseball official was saying Thursday that there would be discussions internally on whether to ask the union to consider stiffening the steroid policy now included in the labor contract.

It’s a fascinating prospect with risk and reward for both management and a union that was hammered from all sides during Wednesday’s Congressional hearing in which Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) said the status quo in regard to baseball’s steroid policy would not be tolerated and that Congress was prepared to act in some unspecified way if baseball didn’t.

It’s an election year, of course, and a lot of the volume emanating from Capitol Hill should be categorized as political grandstanding.

Make no mistake, however:

In the shadow of the BALCO investigation and the lingering possibility that some of baseball’s most renowned players could still be identified in the probe as having used steroids, the issue isn’t going away.

Neither is the accompanying spotlight with its inherent pressure on management and labor to produce a meaningful resolution.

In fact, less than 24 hours after the conclusion of the hearing, the government provided a reminder that it was serious about the subject.

The Food and Drug Administration notified the 23 companies that produce androstenedione, the supplement that Mark McGwire credited for helping maintain his workout regimen in 1998 when he broke Roger Maris’ 37-year-old home run record, to quit selling it by April 12 unless they can prove it is not dangerous.

The FDA statement said in part that andro, as it is known, carried the same health risks as an anabolic steroid and anyone taking it in sufficient amounts to build muscle or improve performance could incur long-term and irreversible consequences.

The decision by the FDA to possibly clear the market of the controversial supplement was undoubtedly a byproduct of President Bush’s steroid remarks in his State of the Union address and not a direct response to union leader Don Fehr’s oft-stated position -- and one he reaffirmed Wednesday -- that he can’t ask players to avoid taking an over-the-counter product the government says is legal.

Now, one of those products may soon be illegal, and if the FDA’s timing was coincidental, the message may prove unmistakable: The government will take action if baseball doesn’t.

In other words, there’s going to be ongoing movement, but when and in what form is difficult to predict.

Will the government, for instance, allow baseball to wait three years until the current labor pact expires before negotiating a new steroid policy?

Will baseball, satisfied in the last negotiations to at least put a steroid policy in place and unwilling then to risk a union strike by pushing for a tougher plan, play the good cop in the context of public perception and try to open discussions with the union on a plan similar to the more comprehensive minor league arrangement?

Will a union that has seldom bowed to public pressure or opinion, continues to stubbornly cite privacy rights in rejecting year-round or more frequent testing and considers the current buzz akin to what one official said is “mass hysteria,” agree to reopen talks if asked by management?

One thing seems certain:

It is unlikely to be the union that makes the request, no matter how much battering it receives from Congress and the media.

Although several players have publicly pushed for a tougher plan, union lawyer Michael Weiner continued his camp tour in Dodgertown on Thursday and said “there is no groundswell of support” for reopening talks.

“The players are behind the agreement,” he said.

Dodger catcher Paul Lo Duca agreed

While refusing to respond directly to McCain’s dismissal of the status quo, Lo Duca said, “Everyone keeps harping on it but we have drug testing, it’s random, you can get caught, there are consequences. Everyone keeps harping on it, but let’s let it run its course.”

In Arizona, Angel outfielder Tim Salmon reiterated his willingness to test for just about anything anyone wanted to put on the list and said he regarded all supplements as snake oil.

Of the possible banning of andro by the government, Salmon expressed skepticism.

“I bet there are five other things on the market that are the next andro,” he said, adding of the government, “they always seem to be one step behind.”

Will management and the union try to stay one step ahead by reworking the steroid plan?

Is there anything the government really can do to force them?

Providing answers is more difficult than spelling androstenedione.