Players’ union needs to agree on tougher drug testing in major league baseball

So, the Major League Baseball Players Association has finally come out and said that they… So, the Major League Baseball Players Association has finally come out and said that they would agree to “more stringent steroid testing.”

Three words: It’s about time!

Baseball operates under the loosest, most lenient set of steroid regulations in all of professional sports. And they have recently been taking some pretty serious heat because of it. Donald Fehr, head of the MLBPA, said that he would not be surprised if the steroid policy was changed before the end of the labor agreement in December of 2006.

“You have to be willing to look at things again as current situations change,” Fehr said. “I’m not surprised about anything one way or another.”

Aside from the light penalties, many are upset because players are tested just twice, in a one-week span, each year. Earlier this month, many congressmen criticized Fehr and the MLBPA for not doing enough to get steroids out of baseball.

Regardless of your political affiliation, or what you may think of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., give him some credit for stepping up and saying something about the problem.

“The status quo is not acceptable,” McCain told Fehr. “And we will have to act in some way unless the major league players’ union acts in the affirmative and rapid fashion.”

And McCain wasn’t the only one in Congress making his voice heard.

“I don’t think that the players’ union has gotten the message, but they’re getting it,” Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said last week. “If somebody keels over dead because of an overdose, it doesn’t do the players any good, because dead players don’t pay union dues.”

Fehr was not alone in receiving criticism due to lack of action taken. Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., feels it is time for commissioner Bud Selig to stop playing softball with the players’ union.

“He can’t just tiptoe around the tulips like he’s done for so many years as commissioner,” Miller said.

All of these congressmen make great points, but we certainly do not want to see government interference in professional sports.

This is supposed to be our game, and we should do anything and everything to protect it and keep it from being compromised. Do we really want to see an asterisk in the record book next to the home run records?

While it may be a little too late for that, it isn’t too late to put a stop to the steroid problem and bring some respectability back to the game.

Of course, if you listen to what most current players say, there is no steroid problem. But if you take the word of former MVPs Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti, steroid use is rampant in baseball.

For obvious reasons, Canseco is not the most reliable source. But he is not alone in speaking out on baseball’s steroid problem. Let’s not forget Turk Wendell’s war of words with Barry Bonds, or Bonds’ trainer being indicted by a federal grand jury, even though both Bonds and his trainer have both vehemently proclaimed their innocence.

The only good news in the situation is that Fehr has yet to ask players to stay silent on the steroid issue.

“We don’t have any gag orders,” Fehr said. “We believe in free speech.”

Most baseball fans also believe in free speech, and its time that people start speaking out, in order to preserve the game.

Professional baseball just keeps sliding farther and farther down the tubes. If something isn’t done soon, all respectability in the game will be lost. We’re talking about America’s pastime here, aren’t we?

It’s your world, squirrel, and Ryan Walker is just happy to be part of it. E-mail him at rpw973@yahoo.com.