Policy Isn’t Fantasy in This Small World

Arbitrator Richard Bloch had no choice but to order the reinstatement of Tony Phillips to the Angel roster Wednesday.

A complex situation is that simple.

The Walt Disney Co., in suspending Phillips for refusing the Angels’ request to enter an inpatient counseling program for substance abuse, acted outside the parameters of the owners’ drug policy. Acted, in fact, in the manner of a renegade, said Gene Orza, associate counsel of the players union.

That policy, forged over the last 10 years by management and the union, prohibits disciplining of first-time offenders, which is what the Angels tried to do.

Criticize the policy if you wish, but there it is.

Or as Orza said: “The Angels do not have a right to a different view of the matter.”

They may have a right to a different view, but they do not have right to a course of action that is at odds with policy.

This is not the Magic Kingdom. Disney is a partner in baseball.

If baseball’s standards are not high enough, than the entertainment giant should work within the system to raise them and not flaunt its image--which is what the suspension seemed to be about.

The owners’ executive council reminded Disney of that in an unprecedented action before the New York hearing, informing lawyers for the owners’ Player Relations Committee to support the union’s position on Phillips and let Disney executives Tony Taveras and Sandy Litvack go it alone before Bloch.

The council, sensitive to independent actions by the clubs since New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner forged his own marketing deal with Adidas, which led to Steinbrenner suing baseball for trying to block parts of that deal, may also fine the Angels for forcing a hearing on an independent action that violated drug policy.

Asked if he was pleased by the council’s stance, Orza said:

“Yes, but I think the executive council realized it was in their best interest to do that. The clubs have a great stake in a unitary drug policy. The clubs have no interest in seeing that policy fail. I mean, people have no understanding of how we [management and the union] have worked together to create a meaningful policy. There’s no room for clubs to fashion their own.”

The union is a convenient but misleading target in the Phillips’ situation. Arrested by Anaheim police Aug. 10 and charged with felony possession of cocaine, Phillips was cleared to play by doctors representing both baseball and the union, a procedure under the policy.

Was the union supposed to ignore that?

Was the union supposed to ignore the Angels’ attempt to discipline a first-time offender?

Orza called the Angels’ action in creating a situation it knew it would lose a “public relations” ploy and “cheap shot” in that it generated the unfounded impression that Disney and the Angels care more about drug use than the union does.

“I don’t question Disney’s motivation, but we’re concerned about the propriety of what people take from it,” Orza said.

Former commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who unilaterally terminated baseball’s joint drug agreement in 1985 (“because it lacked teeth,” he said) and whose subsequent attempt to order mandatory random testing for all major league players was defeated by the union, would not comment on the Phillips’ case when reached at his Irvine office. But he said the union has always acted responsibly and he placed “zero fault” on the union for any of baseball’s lingering drug problems--minor compared to the widespread incidents of the ‘80s.

“No country or sports organization has ever won a war on drugs, but baseball, of all the sports, has far and away less problems than any part of society or other sports,” Ueberroth said.

He added that the educational programs he and the union instituted and the mandatory random testing he initiated in the minor leagues have helped ease the problem in baseball, but that he still believes mandatory random testing in the majors would “catch cases early and send a message to the fans that we’re doing something about it.”

Since Ueberroth terminated the joint agreement, the union has signed on to the basic parameters of what has evolved from the experiences of the last 10 years, Orza said, and what is known as the commissioner’s drug policy. The union and player relations committee, he also said, have been working on new ideas and additions to that policy, but none would have changed the policy as it applies to the Phillips case.

Can the versatile and fiery Angel return as the player he was? Can he regain his leadership role? Can he ignore the taunts of fans?

Time will tell, but this much is clear: He has a right to return under baseball’s policy. Arbitrator Bloch merely underscored that.