Ueberroth Says Baseball’s Battle With Drugs Is Over

Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth said again Wednesday that the sport has overcome its drug abuse problems, declaring: “Frankly, the battle is over.”

Ueberroth, who made a similar claim just before the opening of the baseball season, credited controversial urinalysis tests on 3,000 minor league players and on front-office personnel in both the minor and major leagues with returning the national pastime to its “proper dignity.”

Testifying before the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, Ueberroth conceded that the sport may experience “a flare-up or two from time to time” but said: “You’re not going to hear about any baseball scandals from this day forward.”

When pressed to provide documentation for his optimistic claim, however, Ueberroth refused.

Last summer, two dozen current or former professional players rocked the sport when they testified or were mentioned during cocaine-trafficking trials in Pittsburgh.

Ueberroth later announced that he would suspend seven players unless they agreed to spot drug-testing, to contributing portions of their salaries to anti-drug programs and to perform a specified number of hours in public service.

All of those players agreed to his terms, although some have subsequently been cut by their teams.

At the committee hearing, Ueberroth was the star witness among a dozen from business, government and law. Their testimony centered on the volatile question of drug testing in the workplace, an issue that increasingly divides employers and employees.

At the same time, the hearing provided a forum for criticism of the federal government’s inability to stem the tide of illegal drugs--mostly cocaine--that is estimated to compose a $110-billion underground business annually, draining productivity and addicting countless workers.

“We are not making the war on drugs a national priority,” Ueberroth complained. Comparing drug smugglers to terrorists in Libya, he said: “If we declare war on some terrorist in Tripoli, when the hell are we going to declare war on terrorists bringing poison across our borders?”