Baseball Players Association

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan helped push Major League Baseball toward a program to discourage the use of anabolic steroids last summer. Now, he's focusing on ephedrine. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Consumer Affairs Subcommittee that oversees professional sports recently called for hearings to examine the widespread use of ephedrine-based products among professional athletes. If Dorgan has his way, baseball commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball Players Association director Donald Fehr will be summoned to Washington to explain why there are no major-league restrictions on the herbal stimulant and weight-loss aid that apparently contributed to the heatstroke death of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - It's a stimulant. It's a weight-loss product. It's a cold and asthma medication. It also might be a killer. Ephedrine, the active ingredient in the herbal stimulant ephedra, is in the news again this week after the heatstroke death of 23-year-old Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler. The drug is sold - often combined with caffeine - over the counter at health food and supplement stores under brands that promote its ability to burn off fat and give an athlete that extra boost of energy.

NEW YORK -- Lost among the economic complexities of baseball's brand new labor agreement was a simple fact that probably had as much to do with preventing the industry's ninth consecutive work stoppage as any revenue-sharing number or luxury tax threshold. They got it. They finally got it. The owners realized that they didn't have to force the Major League Baseball Players Association to turn the clock back to 1972 to get a contract that would enhance competitive balance and solve some of their economic problems.

Now that everyone has feigned shock and surprise at the revelations by Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti that Major League Baseball is awash in steroid abuse, let's get real. There have been whispers about steroids for years, but baseball was so busy reveling in the Herculean home run feats of its biggest stars that nobody really wanted to rock the boat. Football's dirty little secret had become baseball's salvation, so everyone who wasn't going anabolic just sort of looked the other way. It's kind of reminiscent of the early 1980s, when cocaine became the recreational drug of choice in major-league clubhouses and sparked a criminal investigation that sullied the reputation of several star players.

In the aftermath of the disastrous labor battle that wiped out the 1994 World Series, long-polarized baseball owners and union officials seemed to agree on one very important point: The industry could not afford to go through such a damaging, torturous process again. That was seven years ago. Baseball dug itself out of that public relations mess with the help of Cal Ripken, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and a new Yankees dynasty, but somewhere along the line, the lessons of 1994-95 seem to have gotten lost in another protracted argument over the economics of the sport.

Maybe the possibility of an All-Star boycott seemed like a good idea to a few militant union reps - or whoever leaked the idea to the media last week - but the players and owners need to keep their passions in check during the early stages of this new round of collective bargaining. This is no time for any stupid labor tricks. The last labor war was not so long ago that anyone can be excused for forgetting how much damage was done when the players went on strike for the final two months of the 1994 season and forced the first cancellation of the World Series in nearly a century.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Along with trying to build on his 10-win season and perhaps make a push for the Opening Day start, pitcher Jason Johnson has accepted the added responsibility of being the Orioles' player representative during a potentially turbulent year. Johnson has replaced Sidney Ponson, who didn't want to continue in that capacity. Ponson was filling in for Mike Mussina after the right-hander vacated the job by signing with the New York Yankees after the 2000 season. With Ponson on vacation, Johnson said he was contacted by Phil Bradley of the Major League Baseball Players Association and agreed to attend the December union meetings in Dallas.

Major League Baseball's confusing on-again, off-again contraction proposal may not succeed in solving the industry's financial problems, but it already has had one unintended consequence. It has allowed baseball fans in Washington and Northern Virginia to dream again. The uncertainty surrounding the plan, which is on hold pending legal proceedings, grievance hearings and congressional decisions, has created such an information vacuum that almost anything seems possible. The Washington Post reported yesterday that baseball owners are considering moving the Montreal Expos to RFK Stadium for the 2002 season - that speculation based on a reported inquiry to stadium officials about the possible availability of the facility.

BOSTON - Major League Baseball and the players association yesterday neared an agreement that would shelve franchise contraction until at least 2003, sources from both sides confirmed. Such an agreement would allow teams to begin marketing tickets for next season while removing what union executives and agents believed had become a drag on the free-agent market. "There has been ongoing discussions for several days on this topic. A deal, if it comes, could come at any time," confirmed Major League Baseball executive vice president of baseball opertions Sandy Alderson.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig took his lumps from members of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, but he stuck to his contention that Major League Baseball is in dire financial trouble and needs to eliminate two franchises to improve the industry's revenue picture. Selig traveled to Washington to appear before the committee, which called for a review of baseball's antitrust exemption after club owners voted in November to close two teams - believed to be the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos - before the start of the 2002 season.