TenaciousD21
01.12.05, 08:43 PM
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Sides to announce new plan Thursday
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com news services
Baseball players and owners have reached a new agreement on steroid testing, and the much-harsher penalties for players testing positive will include suspensions on the first offense.
The agreement is expected to be announced Thursday from the owners' meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Penalties will be more severe than those built into the current agreement. Sources familiar with the negotiations have told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that the agreement will include the following components:
Suspensions on the first offense will carry a maximum length of 10 games, a baseball source told ESPN the Magazine's Buster Olney. Under the system in place for 2004, a player would have had to test positive five times before the first suspension.
All players will be subject to year-round random testing. Every major league player will be tested at least once a year.
There are no stipulations requiring that a player be tested more than once. But an unspecified number of players will be selected at random to be tested numerous other times throughout the year. So unlike the current system, a player would not know, following his one mandatory test, that he had no future tests to worry about for the rest of the year.
Players can now be tested during the offseason. In the first two seasons of the agreement, testing took place only between the opening of spring training and the last day of the season.
A large number of substances would be added to the list of banned drugs, including THG and various steroid precursors. The new agreement does not address the issue of stimulants.
Commissioner Bud Selig, asked in Scottsdale about an agreement, declined comment to The Associated Press but did say: "We'll have announcements to make [Thursday]." Gene Orza, the union's chief operating officer, also declined comment.
Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said he anticipated confirmation of a deal by the end of the owners' meeting.
"It will be wonderful once it's done, but I don't want to pre-empt any announcement, and I certainly don't want to pre-empt all the work the commissioner has done on this, so I'll reserve my comments until after it's announced," he said.
The sides spent the past month negotiating the deal after the union's executive board gave its staff approval to pursue an agreement on a more rigorous testing program. Some in Congress threatened to take action unless baseball reached an agreement on its own.
"I'm glad we could come to an agreement," said Chicago Cubs pitcher Mike Remlinger, who was briefed on the deal Wednesday. "It was the right thing to do. I think it was something that needed to be done, and I think players understand it needed to be addressed."
Tony Clark, another senior union leader, said public questions about steroid use had caused players to think about a tougher agreement.
"The integrity of our game was beginning to come under fire, and there are too many great players, past and present, that deserve to be celebrated for their ability to play this game at a very high level," the free-agent first baseman said in an e-mail to the AP. "If a stricter drug policy brings that level of appreciation back, we felt that it was worth pursuing."
Players and owners agreed to a drug-testing plan in 2002 that called for survey-testing for steroids the following year. Because more than 5 percent of tests were positive, random testing with penalties began last year. Each player was tested for steroids twice over a single five- to seven-day period.
A first positive test resulted in treatment. If a player tested positive again, he would have been subject to a 15-day suspension.
No player was suspended for steroid use in 2004.
Since the 2002 agreement, baseball has come under increased scrutiny for steroid use. Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield testified before a federal grand jury in December 2003. Giambi and Sheffield admitted using steroids, according to reports by the San Francisco Chronicle. Sheffield said he wasn't aware when he used the substances that they contained steroids.
Bonds, according to the Chronicle, admitted using substances prosecutors say contained steroids.
"Everybody believed that the program we had in place was having an effect and definitely it was doing what it designed to do," Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, a senior member of the union, told AP. "but having said that, with the stuff that was going on and whatnot, it forced us to take a look at revising it or making it a little tougher. It was not a question anymore if that agreement was going to be enough. It was a question to address some of the new issues that came to light and get our fans to believe we were doing everything we could to make the problem go away 100 percent."
Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.
This system is a lot better then the previous one i think.
Sides to announce new plan Thursday
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com news services
Baseball players and owners have reached a new agreement on steroid testing, and the much-harsher penalties for players testing positive will include suspensions on the first offense.
The agreement is expected to be announced Thursday from the owners' meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Penalties will be more severe than those built into the current agreement. Sources familiar with the negotiations have told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that the agreement will include the following components:
Suspensions on the first offense will carry a maximum length of 10 games, a baseball source told ESPN the Magazine's Buster Olney. Under the system in place for 2004, a player would have had to test positive five times before the first suspension.
All players will be subject to year-round random testing. Every major league player will be tested at least once a year.
There are no stipulations requiring that a player be tested more than once. But an unspecified number of players will be selected at random to be tested numerous other times throughout the year. So unlike the current system, a player would not know, following his one mandatory test, that he had no future tests to worry about for the rest of the year.
Players can now be tested during the offseason. In the first two seasons of the agreement, testing took place only between the opening of spring training and the last day of the season.
A large number of substances would be added to the list of banned drugs, including THG and various steroid precursors. The new agreement does not address the issue of stimulants.
Commissioner Bud Selig, asked in Scottsdale about an agreement, declined comment to The Associated Press but did say: "We'll have announcements to make [Thursday]." Gene Orza, the union's chief operating officer, also declined comment.
Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said he anticipated confirmation of a deal by the end of the owners' meeting.
"It will be wonderful once it's done, but I don't want to pre-empt any announcement, and I certainly don't want to pre-empt all the work the commissioner has done on this, so I'll reserve my comments until after it's announced," he said.
The sides spent the past month negotiating the deal after the union's executive board gave its staff approval to pursue an agreement on a more rigorous testing program. Some in Congress threatened to take action unless baseball reached an agreement on its own.
"I'm glad we could come to an agreement," said Chicago Cubs pitcher Mike Remlinger, who was briefed on the deal Wednesday. "It was the right thing to do. I think it was something that needed to be done, and I think players understand it needed to be addressed."
Tony Clark, another senior union leader, said public questions about steroid use had caused players to think about a tougher agreement.
"The integrity of our game was beginning to come under fire, and there are too many great players, past and present, that deserve to be celebrated for their ability to play this game at a very high level," the free-agent first baseman said in an e-mail to the AP. "If a stricter drug policy brings that level of appreciation back, we felt that it was worth pursuing."
Players and owners agreed to a drug-testing plan in 2002 that called for survey-testing for steroids the following year. Because more than 5 percent of tests were positive, random testing with penalties began last year. Each player was tested for steroids twice over a single five- to seven-day period.
A first positive test resulted in treatment. If a player tested positive again, he would have been subject to a 15-day suspension.
No player was suspended for steroid use in 2004.
Since the 2002 agreement, baseball has come under increased scrutiny for steroid use. Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield testified before a federal grand jury in December 2003. Giambi and Sheffield admitted using steroids, according to reports by the San Francisco Chronicle. Sheffield said he wasn't aware when he used the substances that they contained steroids.
Bonds, according to the Chronicle, admitted using substances prosecutors say contained steroids.
"Everybody believed that the program we had in place was having an effect and definitely it was doing what it designed to do," Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, a senior member of the union, told AP. "but having said that, with the stuff that was going on and whatnot, it forced us to take a look at revising it or making it a little tougher. It was not a question anymore if that agreement was going to be enough. It was a question to address some of the new issues that came to light and get our fans to believe we were doing everything we could to make the problem go away 100 percent."
Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.
This system is a lot better then the previous one i think.