Hearing Set on Steroid Policies

The Senate Commerce Committee has called commissioners and union chiefs from the four major North American sports to a Sept. 28 hearing to investigate the effectiveness of their steroid policies.

Bills introduced by Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.), who will chair the hearing, and Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) would mandate a uniform federal policy in Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA and NHL, closer to the stricter Olympic standards.

The bills would require a two-year suspension for a first-time offense and a lifetime ban for a second. Also, players would be tested at least five times a year, three times during their season, and for human growth hormone, which can only be detected through blood analysis.

A similar bill is in the House Government Reform Committee, which subpoenaed baseball executives and six players for a March 17 hearing. It later investigated the other three leagues. Also, Washington sources say the House Judiciary Committee has been shopping its own anti-steroid bill with sports leagues and players’ associations and is expected to announce its own legislation as early as next week.

No players are expected at the Senate hearing.

“Obviously, we will participate and cooperate with the hearing,” Major League Baseball spokesman Rich Levin said. “The commissioner has been very clear about what he wants to do.”

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has campaigned for a policy that would require graduated suspensions of 50 games.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue testified before the Government Reform Committee in May. The NFL policy came under review early last year, after three Carolina Panthers reportedly were found to have acquired steroids through prescriptions written by a South Carolina physician. Since then, the league has reduced the amount of testosterone required to produce a positive test. Players are suspended four games for a first offense, six for a second offense and at least a year for a third.

“We have cooperated with the Senate Judiciary Committee on this issue at least as far back as February 2004 and will continue to do so,” NFL Senior Vice President Joe Browne said.

-- Tim Brown and Sam Farmer

Tennis

Third-seeded Andrei Pavel and fourth-seeded Victor Hanescu won to reach the BCR Open quarterfinals at Bucharest, Romania.

*

Third-seeded Alicia Molik and fifth-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld lost in the second round of the Wismilak International at Bali, Indonesia.

Pro Basketball

The New Orleans Hornets, displaced from New Orleans Arena by Hurricane Katrina, have been offered the use of the Forum for the 2005-06 season. The NBA has said proximity to New Orleans would be a factor in determining where the team moves.

*

Guard Yuta Tabuse, the first Japanese-born player to appear in an NBA game, signed with the Clippers.

Miscellany

Former Laker coach Bill Sharman was in intensive care at UCLA Medical Center after undergoing an emergency artery-clearing angioplasty on Wednesday.

Sharman, 79, one of three men in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and a coach, had four-hour shoulder-replacement surgery at the hospital on Monday. The angioplasty was done after he experienced severe chest pains on Wednesday.

“The doctors said he is the luckiest man alive to have been in the hospital at the time,” said Sharman’s wife, Joyce. “If he had been at home, they said he would have suffered a massive heart attack.”

*

Philadelphia Flyer forward Sami Kapanen needs surgery on his injured right shoulder and is expected to miss 10 weeks.... The Colorado Avalanche agreed to terms with Wojtek Wolski, their top draft pick in 2004.

*

Bob Graziano, former president and chief operating officer of the Dodgers, has been named managing director of the western region for Northern Trust, a financial services company.