Drug Policy Talks Set

Representatives of the Major League Baseball Players’ Assn. and the commissioner’s office are scheduled to meet Tuesday in New York on the topic of toughening baseball’s drug policy.

Union chief Donald Fehr was cleared by his membership last week to continue negotiations after the BALCO scandal and leaked grand jury testimony from Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield.

Fehr and Rob Manfred, baseball’s lead labor negotiator, are expected to discuss terms of an amendment to the collective bargaining agreement that could bring major league policies against performance-enhancing drugs more in line with stiffer minor league testing and disciplinary procedures.

The negotiations would be the first since Fehr announced Tuesday during union meetings in Phoenix that players expressed a willingness to consider a more stringent steroid program two years before the basic agreement expired.

-- Tim Brown