Congress Ready to Crack Down on Steroids in Baseball?

U.S. Senator Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky and Hall of Fame baseball player (he was a star pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies between 1955 to 1969), proposes a new federal law that would dictate that pro athletes who test for steroids for the first time be suspended from their leagues for 2 years without pay. (James R. Carroll, "Congress Ready to Crack Down on Steroids," Louisville Courier-Journal, 9/28/2005). For baseball players, that would mean 324 games, plus any lost playoff games. Under baseball's existing plan, such players only miss 10 games without pay, so Bunning's plan would raise the penalty for first time offenders by at least 3,140 percent--a substantial increase indeed, and deterrence would certainly be escalated exponentially, especially considering that the average baseball player can only generate income between the ages of his early twenties and early-to-mid thirties. In other words, 2 years of lost income for a baseball player is akin to most of us being suspended from our jobs for 8 or 9 years. Bunning's law would also dictate that second-time offenders be banned from their leagues for life.

James Carroll interviews several people for the story, including me. While we all agree that Senator Bunning's proposal has significant merit and would add legitimacy to pro sports and particularly baseball (if proving a tad draconian for first time offenders), its timing may not be ideal, particularly in light of larger social problems. Here are some excerpts from those interviewed:

"If you passed a steroids bill now while letting the deficit careen out of control and not doing much to get Iraq on track, they would attract a lot of ridicule for spending their time on it," said Norman Ornstein, senior analyst with the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a Washington think tank.

Thomas Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, another Washington think tank, said steroid-testing legislation would face a schedule squeeze.

"The problem will be finding floor time, especially in the Senate, where Supreme Court nominations, appropriations bills, (budget) reconciliation, and post-Katrina/Rita measures leave little time for anything else," Mann said by e-mail. "Steroids are likely to carry over to next year."

Michael McCann, a sports law professor at Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson, said the political moment for action may not be now.

"I don't know if it's in the public consciousness as it was a few months ago," McCann said, saying the hurricanes diverted people's attention. "Steroids are bad, we don't want our athletes to use them and they set poor examples for our young people, but we've just seen a massive failure of governance on the national and local levels."