Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig renewed his call Thursday for tougher penalties for players caught using steroids and for independent administration of the game's drug-testing program.
At the same time, a leader of the House Committee on government Reform, which held nationally televised hearings earlier this year about the issue of steroid use, pressed for an outside investigation into the history of the problem in baseball.
Selig's statement, in a news release, appeared to be designed to put pressure on the Major League Baseball Players Association, which had balked at his proposal in April for a "three-strikes-and-you're-out" steroids policy. Selig made his recommendation in a letter on April 25 to Donald Fehr, executive director of the union.
Fehr had said that the existing program needed time to work and that changes should be negotiated in the collective bargaining process. He had no comment on Selig's statement on Thursday. Fehr has been traveling around the country to meet with players to talk about a variety of issues, including Selig's proposal. Union officials are expected to meet with management before the end of the month.
This week's suspension of Rafael Palmeiro, one of four players with more than 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, has allowed Selig to renew his push. Palmeiro tested positive for stanozolol, a powerful, short-acting steroid, according to a person in baseball with direct knowledge of the test result. That person did not want to be identified because of confidentiality provisions in the testing policy.
In March, Palmeiro testified to Congress that he had never used steroids.
Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House committee, endorsed Selig's call for tougher penalties and independent administration of testing.
"However, I'm disappointed that he isn't trying to find out how this scandal was allowed to happen," Waxman said in a telephone interview. "I think we need a thorough, broad and independent investigation so that we can restore baseball's credibility."
Selig has been considering an in-depth investigation, like the Dowd Report on Pete Rose and gambling in baseball, to try to get to the bottom of the steroids scandal. Congressional leaders indicated in April that they would defer their own plans for an examination of past steroid use if the leaders of the game appointed an independent investigator.
"I'm waiting to hear back from them on that," Waxman said. "I think the Palmeiro matter has even made a greater urgency for this to happen."
Richard Levin, a spokesman for Selig, said Thursday that he had not heard of any progress in the possibility of baseball investigating past steroid use.
Philip Schiliro, chief of staff for Waxman and the Democrats on the committee, said, "As far as we understood, baseball is continuing to think about it, the union is continuing to think about it, and congressman Waxman's view is that right now is the time to do it."
Waxman said he would still consider having congressional staff members investigate the matter if baseball leaders failed to do so. But he added that he had not talked about the subject this week with Tom Davis, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the committee. A spokesman for Davis said he would not have any comment Thursday. Such an investigation could determine whether some of the game's most hallowed records, including the single-season home run mark set by Mark McGwire and broken by Barry Bonds, were tainted.
Anabolic steroids enhance size, strength, endurance and recovery. Their use is illegal under baseball rules and federal law. Thursday, the Baltimore Orioles, at Palmeiro's request, canceled a ceremony planned for Aug. 14 to honor him for reaching 3,000 career hits.
Waxman pointed to an interview in the Philadelphia Inquirer Thursday in which Joe Morgan, a highly respected Hall of Famer and an ESPN announcer, blasted steroid users and said the game had tolerated and profited from the abuses during the long-ball era after the 1994 strike. He dismissed the idea that modern power-hitting records could be designated with a footnote about drug use.
"There's not a big enough asterisk to handle all of this," Morgan said, adding, "If you are going to let people into the Hall who have done steroids, then you have to let Pete Rose in, because this has hurt baseball more than what Pete did."
Selig is proposing discipline of 50 games for a first offense, 100 games for a second offense and a lifetime ban for a third offense. Under the current policy, a player is suspended 10 days for a first offense, 30 for a second, 60 for a third and a year for a fourth. The penalty for a fifth offense could be a lifetime ban.
Eight major league players have been suspended for steroid use this year.
"While I believe the suspensions show that the current program is working, they underscore the need for an even tougher policy," Selig said in his statement Thursday. "There is a deeper issue confronting baseball. It is the integrity of the game and that transcends the viability of the current program."
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