Baseball Drug Penalties More Lenient Than First Thought

In Houston Wednesday night, Keith Hernandez will start at first base for the New York Mets in the opening game of the National League playoff.

Hernandez and the 10 other players suspended conditionally by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth Feb. 28 for drug involvement completed the regular season without imposition of the suspensions.

Does this mean they fulfilled the financial and community-service obligations Ueberroth asked them to complete while allowing them to continue playing?

No.

It only means that they are still discharging those obligations.

Ueberroth, it turns out, gave the seven players who drew the stiffest penalties--a year’s suspension--25 months to satisfy the financial stipulations, donations of 10% of their 1986 base salaries to approved drug programs. The four other players, suspended for 60 days and donating 5% of their salaries, were given a year to comply.

Thus, the seven players suspended without pay for one year from the first day of the 1986 season, do not face a complete accounting until the spring of 1988.

If that seems softer than Ueberroth’s initial announcement implied, legal sources say he had no choice.

In fact, the entire decision could still be overthrown, depending on arbitrator Tom Roberts’ ruling in response to a grievance filed by the Players Assn., challenging Ueberroth’s authority.

The hearing on that has been completed and a decision is expected this winter.

But there was more at issue than a question of authority.

There were other considerations that forced Ueberroth to tread lightly, according to the legal sources, who requested anonymity.

They mentioned that much of the evidence derived from testimony the players gave under immunity in the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials and that, in some cases, the suspended players had already been punished judicially and/or had shown no recent pattern of drug use, having already, in several instances, undergone rehabilitation.

They maintain, however, that Ueberroth’s ruling is not without punch, pointing out that the players still can be suspended should they fail any of the random drug tests they must take for the rest of their careers, or fail to provide monthly or periodic documentation of their continuing financial donations and community service.

Said Ed Keating, who represents Dale Berra: “It would be a mistake to think the commissioner is going to let anything slip through. This is going to be done and done right. He’s made that clear.”

Said Randy Hendricks, who represents Joaquin Andujar: “I can assure you that the commissioner’s office isn’t being lazy on this. They want page after page of reports. Maybe the public hasn’t heard a lot about it because of the stress on confidentiality, but it’s going on. The obligations are being met.”

Ueberroth, speaking by phone recently, said the relaxed timetable represents a “latitude and flexibility” consistent with a drug philosophy that emphasizes rehabilitation and community involvement rather than punishment.

He said each of the suspended players is on a schedule that guarantees he will comply with the stipulations during the time frame.

“As a group, their behavior on and off the field is exemplary,” he said. “In fact, if anything, they have taken a leadership role on their teams and in their communities. They have been a credit to baseball.”

Ueberroth suspended Enos Cabell, Jeff Leonard, Dave Parker, Lonnie Smith, Hernandez, Berra and Andujar for a year but said he would not enforce the suspensions if each donated 10% of his 1986 base salary to a drug program in the city in which his team is located, and contributed 100 hours of drug related community service work in both 1986 and ’87.

He suspended Al Holland, Lee Lacy, Claudell Washington and Lary Sorensen for 60 days but said he would hold those suspensions in abeyance if each donated 5% of his salary and contributed 50 hours to community service in 1986.

The financial donations, so as not to appear that they are coming directly from the club through payroll deductions, are being paid by personal checks. In addition, the players can donate any amount at any time to any program approved by the commissioner’s office. No one has yet paid in full.

Lonnie Smith is probably typical.

Jim Bunning, the former pitcher who represents Smith, said: “We have two years to meet the financial requirements and we’re right on line. We’re reporting to them monthly. We’re fulfilling our end of it.”

Bunning said that Smith expects to do most of his community service now that the pressure and demands of the season are over, which is the case with many of the others.

Adherence to confidentiality makes it difficult to nail down specifics.

One agent said: “Most of the players are proud of what they’re now doing, but the problem in identifying the programs to which they’re giving time and money is that we start getting calls from all those other programs wondering why we’re not helping them.

“I mean, I was inundated by requests when the suspensions were first announced. How can you help them all?”

Probably no group of players, suspended or otherwise, has been more active in community work than the group represented by attorney Tom Reich, who has offices in Pittsburgh and Sarasota, Fla., and maintains an apartment in the Century City area of Los Angeles.

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the Duquesne law school, Reich, 47, has been a player agent for 17 years and represents about 90 players.

Among the suspended players, Reich represents Parker, Leonard, Cabell, Holland and Lacy.

He is also handling Washington’s financial and community obligations in response to a request by Washington’s own representatives.

Among the programs that Reich’s clients have been supporting as part of their community service obligations, sources said, are the Abraxas Foundation in Pittsburgh, the Palmer Drug Abuse Program in Los Angeles, the Juvenile Detention Center in Downey and the Camp Kilpatrick Juvenile Center in Malibu.

Reich said he could not be specific, but he did acknowledge support of the highly regarded Abraxas program as part of an effort to compensate for the “damage done to Pittsburgh” during the 1985 drug trials there.

Nancy Flaherty, director of development at Abraxas, said that Parker, Cabell and Leonard have all made visits of two or more hours to Abraxas and that Parker, Leonard and Holland have also made “generous” financial donations.

Speaking of Parker’s visit, Flaherty said:

“He was very candid in talking to the kids about the mistake he had made taking drugs and how sorry he was about it. He was very moving, talking about the impact it had on his family and how, as young kids, they have to begin thinking about the future and what drugs can do to them.

“Let’s face it, kids look up to athletes as heroes, and when your hero says ‘Don’t do it. Don’t take drugs,’ it means a lot more than if it was coming from you or I. It’s a powerful message coming from a Dave Parker.”

Reich knows that and has been tying to convince his clients of it.

He believes that players, as fathers and idol figures, should make at least three community appearances a year. And he is giving the concept more than lip service.

Reich has had Dock Ellis, former pitcher and addict, on retainer for “seven to eight years.” Ellis now works in rehabilitation and community service full time and has helped Reich identify suspected problems among his players and the programs with which they should be involved.

Said Reich: “As far as offering players for testing and community service, we were in full measure on that before the suspensions and we will continue that effort and relationship even after the compliances have been satisfied.

“I have already asked all of my players to make at least one appearance a month at a school in the area in which they live this winter, and the response by the players has been tremendous.”

Reich said he agreed with Ueberroth’s view that cocaine use in baseball has decreased significantly but said it remains a threat to the industry because it remains a societal epidemic.

He said that baseball, as a game belonging to the public, has to respond with a uniform drug plan that will restore the public’s confidence.

Reich, in fact, has authored his own plan based on education, mandatory testing, confidentiality, non-punitive rehabilitation and community involvement. It is similar to the plan advocated by Ueberroth and opposed by the Players Assn. because of the testing provision.

Reich recognizes that his support of a plan that incorporates testing could jeopardize his relationship with the union.

“I have great respect for Don Fehr (the union’s executive director), but I believe the majority of players now favor testing and I feel that if the two sides can’t come together on a uniform drug plan, if they can’t confront the biggest problem in our industry and country, then I don’t want to be involved with them,” he said. “I’ll go into making real estate deals and a hell of a lot more money.

“I don’t mean to say that Tom Reich is the important equation in this. I’m not putting myself ahead of anyone. I don’t care who writes the plan or where it comes from. I’m only saying we have to have one.

“I’m saying that testing has been a deterrent in the minors, and it’s a way for baseball to say to the public, ‘We know it’s your game and we care.’ It’s a situation where everybody wins.”

In addition, Reich said, a uniform drug plan would help restore “normalcy and trust” to the relationship between the owners and the union. He said a “strike mentality” now exists and that the relationship is the worst he has seen in his 17 years as an agent.

Part of that, he said, stems from the owners’ free-agent freeze-out last winter and their new, hard-line approach to guaranteed and multiyear contracts. Part of it, he said, stems from the debate over testing.

Is a solution imminent? Reich pursued it again last week, meeting independently with Ueberroth and union officials in New York. He is optimistic that there will be an agreement but is uncertain about when.

“I have no doubt but that the drug issue is Ueberroth’s No. 1 priority,” Reich said. “He’ll make it happen.”

Although periodic talks between the union and the owners’ Player Relations Committee have failed to produce definitive progress on a uniform drug plan, Ueberroth said there is a new awareness in baseball and that both sides, in their own ways, seek the elimination of drugs.

“The important thing is what happens on and off the field, and I think the ultimate results will be good for the fans,” he said.

“I’m pleased that there has not been one single (drug) incident this year.”