Padre Players Seeking to Form Their Own Drug Plan

YUMA, Ariz. — With yet another of their teammates checked into a rehabilitation center, San Diego Padre players decided Friday to formulate their own voluntary drug-testing plan.

“We’ll try to come up with something as a team,” infielder Jerry Royster said after pitcher LaMarr Hoyt decided Thursday to seek help for possible “substance abuse.”

“We’re working on getting a program together ourselves. We’re gonna do it, and try to go through the (players’) association. We think we’re a special case. Lord only knows we’re a special case. Two springs, and we’ve been through two of these.”

Last April, infielder Alan Wiggins also entered a rehabilitation center.

The Padre front office, naturally, is all for the testing. Team President Ballard Smith met with the players, urging them to adopt a program. He distributed copies of the Baltimore Orioles’ voluntary system, which leaves testing in the hands of independent doctors, rather than the team itself.

“It’s gotten to the point where a few players are making us all look bad regardless if you do or don’t (do drugs),” outfielder Tony Gwynn said. “I don’t. And if we come up with something, I’m signing it. I don’t give a (bleep) what the player association says.”

First baseman Steve Garvey said: “Hopefully, we’ll make progress. I’m quite sure we will.”

Royster said: “I feel we’ve become a unique case. Most of the guys are ready to do something about it. I was against testing. I said it all winter long. But my stand has changed totally now. I think, with the problems we’ve had, well, I’m just ready to show everybody I’m fine.

“Actually, it’s nobody’s business to know whether I’m clean or not, but under the circumstances, things have changed.”

But Terry Kennedy, the Padre player representative, stressed that anything they do will involve the players’ association.

“We’re just still talking about it among ourselves,” he said. “We’ll try to work something out so that we can present it to the association so that they can come back with something. Maybe we’ll come up with something good that will help all 26 teams.”

What can be done? They can adopt the Orioles’ system or something similar to it. Neither the players’ association nor Commissioner Peter Ueberroth has come out against the Oriole program, so it is feasible.

The Orioles started their program through attorney Ron Shapiro, who happens to be Hoyt’s agent. Shapiro went to Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School for help.

In his program, it’s up to the player. If he signs the voluntary agreement, he can be tested a minimum of three times and a maximum of six times in a year. It’s up to independent Johns Hopkins doctors to do the testing. The Orioles can suggest to the doctors that a player be tested, but it is not the team’s decision.

If a player tests positive, it is up to the doctors whether he needs treatment. If he must miss a game, the Orioles are alerted, but all test results must be kept confidential. Testing is paid for by the team, and treatment is paid for by the player or through his medical insurance coverage.

“They (the Padres) could do what our guys did,” Shapiro said Friday. “They can go to a hospital, preferably an academic institution, and ask the doctors there to create a program. They’d sign up with the hospital, and they’d have a program for testing and for treatment. It’s feasible. I think they’d have to consult the players’ association, though.

“But what’s important is that it’ll be a patient-physician relationship rather than a club player relationship.”

Out of 40 Orioles, only three didn’t sign Shapiro’s agreement.