Owners End Joint Drug Agreement

Baseball club owners voted unanimously Tuesday to end a 1 1/2-year-old anti-drug enforcement agreement with the players union after being told that the two sides had failed to approve a new program.

In a statement issued at the World Series, the owners “reaffirmed their dedication to the elimination of the drug problem in baseball.”

According to the statement, the decision to end the old agreement came after Barry Rona, chief counsel for the Players Relations Committee, told the owners that the committee had been “unable to make any substantial progress in reaching a drug-testing agreement” with the players union.

Under such conditions, the owners decided that the current drug agreement, which doesn’t include mandatory testing, “could not work.”

“It is extremely unfortunate for all baseball that we were unable to reach a testing agreement with the association,” Rona said.

Commissioner Peter Ueberroth declined to comment on the action and said he would not discuss the drug issue until after the World Series.

Baseball’s drug plan, negotiated by the players union and player relations committee director Lee MacPhail, was separate from the Basic Agreement which governs most aspects of the game. It provides for counseling, anti-drug education and, under certain circumstances, amnesty for players who come forward and acknowledge a drug problem.

But there are also provisions for penalties against players who fall outside the guidelines, generally those who are repeat drug offenders.

Bob Fishel, executive vice president of the American League, said the owners “have the right to terminate the agreement unilaterally, according to Barry (Rona).” Fishel said such a stipulation was written into the agreement.

Gene Orza, counsel to the player’s union, confirmed that both sides had the option of ending the agreement.

“We hope we get something else,” Fishel said. “The commissioner is going to give it some thought. We’re going to do everything possible, explore every possibility.”

Earlier this year, amid increasing reports of drug use by ballplayers, Ueberroth announced a mandatory testing plan for everyone in baseball except major-league players.

At the time he instituted that program, Ueberroth acknowledged that, because the drug agreement had been negotiated as part of baseball’s basic contract with major-league players, he could not order that group to take tests. But he said then, and has repeated many times since, that he hoped the union would agree to testing.

Last month Ueberroth asked the players to vote on whether there should be mandatory urinalysis for drugs. The players, in turn, voted overwhelmingly to leave the matter in the hands of the union.