Baseball Delima

The Christian Science Monitor, Nov 17, 2005 p02

Baseball takes lead on drug testing; Now the hard part: Catching cheats will require tough - and expensive - monitoring. (USA)

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Science Publishing Society

Byline: Mark Sappenfield Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON -- Even to its critics, Major League Baseball's new antidoping policy is no small thing. To be sure, there were factors outside baseball's good intentions to move the process forward - not least an international scandal that tainted Olympic sprinters and baseball sluggers alike, and Congress's not-so-subtle attentions.

Yet the fact remains that in the space of a single season, Major League Baseball has been transformed from American pro sports' most profligate flouter of performance-enhancing drug policy to their pioneer. In the process, the league has overturned the deep reservations of what has been called the country's most powerful union - the players' association - and weathered repeated allegations that some of the most accomplished players of its recent past were drug cheats.

Now, however, comes the hard part. As the Olympic movement has discovered, drug testing is an ever-evolving underworld of new substances and masking techniques. Even under the best circumstances, the testers are always a step behind.

The major leagues have now entered this arena in earnest, and the success of this week's pact - if it is ratified as expected - will depend on baseball's desire to adapt and reform after the browbeating ends.

"This is a work in progress," says Gary Wadler, who works with the World Anti-Doping Agency and has testified before Congress on the issue of performance-enhancing drugs. "It has to be monitored - both its details and the implementation of the details."

Broad strokes

Those details are not yet clear. The plan presented by baseball officials Tuesday lays out the leagues' new guidelines in broad strokes. Yet some of these broad strokes, in and of themselves, are groundbreaking.

The penalties, though still below the Olympic standard, are now the toughest in American team sports: 50 days' suspension for a first positive test, 100 days for a second, and a lifetime ban for a third - with the possibility of backdoor reinstatement through the commissioner after two years. Perhaps more significant, baseball also took on amphetamines - stimulants known to be