Selig Says He Wants ‘Zero-Tolerance’ Drug Policy

As the cloud of illegal steroid use continued to hover over the game, Commissioner Bud Selig said Friday he would like baseball to institute a “zero-tolerance” drug policy similar to the program currently used in the minor leagues.

“We instituted the drug policy in the minor leagues -- it is stringent, and it has been successful -- and that’s the objective we have,” Selig said in the wake of Tuesday’s report that San Francisco Giant slugger Barry Bonds, New York Yankee stars Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield and three other major leaguers received steroids from a Bay Area nutritional supplement lab. “That’s where I want our sport to be.”

Getting there, of course, is another issue entirely. Unlike the rigorous minor league program, which was put into place in 2001, any changes in the current big league drug policy would have to be approved by the powerful -- and often resistant -- Major League Baseball Players Assn.

Asked if he planned to invoke his “best-interest-of-the-game” powers in an effort to circumvent the union on the steroids matter, Selig, who attended the Angels’ exhibition opener in Tempe Diablo Stadium, said, “I’m not going to get into all the solutions; it’s highly technical, and I’m not going to discuss it....

“The [current] drug policy negotiated [in 2002] certainly was a first step in an evolutionary process. Other events have unfolded in the interim, so we have been spending a lot of time talking about what we should do and how we should do it. We know what the goal is; it’s just a question of how we get there.”

Unlike major leaguers, who are subject to one random drug test during the season and one follow-up test within five to seven days, minor leaguers are subject to two random tests a year, to be conducted during the season or off-season.

Minor leaguers are tested for steroids and drugs of abuse, such as amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and ecstasy. Major leaguers are not tested for drugs of abuse unless there is reasonable cause.

The discipline levels also vary for each program. A first-time offender in the minor leagues receives a 15-game suspension without pay. The suspensions increase with each offense, going from 30 games (second) to 60 games (third) to one year (fourth). A fifth-time offender is permanently expelled from the game.

“We’ve only had the program for two years, so it’s difficult to measure the effect,” said Jennifer Gefskey, the MLB executive who wrote the minor league drug policy, “but we do think it’s having a deterrent effect. I don’t base that on numbers but on the attention players and minor league trainers are paying to it.”

Major leaguers were subject to survey testing in 2003, the first year of the new program, and there were no penalties. But because more than 5% of the players tested positive, the penalty phase of the program kicked in this season.

A first-time offender would be required to undergo clinical treatment with additional testing, but he would not be publicly identified. Suspensions would increase from 15 days (second offense) to 25 days (third) to 50 days (fourth) to one year (fifth).

“The goal is to have a zero-tolerance policy, a policy that is very similar to the minor league program,” Selig said. “We want a tough, aggressive program that deals with these issues.”

To institute such a program, Selig will have to deal with union lawyers such as Gene Orza, who, during an Orange County sports symposium Thursday, said: “Let’s assume that [steroids] are a very bad thing to take. I have no doubt that they are not worse than cigarettes.”

Asked for a response to Orza’s comments, Selig said: “I read them, I thought about them, and I don’t have anything further to say about them.... You can read anything into that you’d like.”

*

Minnesota Twin center fielder Torii Hunter, a three-time Gold Glove winner, sprained his left wrist when he ran into the wall in Friday’s exhibition game against Cincinnati. X-rays were negative. He’ll be re-evaluated today, but the Twins were relieved the injury wasn’t serious. “They checked everything out, and it’s fine,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’ll see how sore he is in the morning.”

Alex Rodriguez made his debut for the Yankees, going 0 for 2 with a walk in a 7-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. He played five innings at third base, handling four ground balls without an error, although he did kick one grounder and throw high to first base. “It was like being at the All-Star game, pretty much, standing out there at first base, flipping it out there to those guys,” Jason Giambi said of Rodriguez and shortstop Derek Jeter.

The Giants exercised the option on Manager Felipe Alou’s contract for 2005 and announced that General Manager Brian Sabean signed a contract extension through next season. Alou, 68, took over a revamped roster last season and guided the Giants to a wire-to-wire division title with 100 victories. Sabean, 47, became the club’s general manager before the 1997 season and has been the architect behind division championships in 1997, 2000 and 2003, and a National League championship in 2002.

*

Associated Press contributed to this report.