King Kaufman's Sports Daily
The yellowing of America: Baseball to force off-field employees to fill jars to prove themselves innocent of drug use.
Read more: Drugs, Sports, Privacy, Baseball, War on Drugs, Workplace, Bud Selig, King Kaufman, Sports Daily
March 2, 2007 | Baseball fans worried that the woman who swipes their credit card at the box office might be juicing can rest easy. Worry not, good spectators, that the underassistant director of Caribbean scouting might be cycling roids.
Major League Baseball is going to randomly drug-test off-field employees too.
Maury Brown of the Web site the Biz of Baseball reports that commissioner Bud Selig issued a memo Feb. 21 titled "Major League Baseball's Drug Policy and Prevention Program," which outlines drug-testing procedures for all personnel, meaning major and minor league players; major and minor league "non-playing personnel"; umpires and employees of the commissioner's office.
It's not clear why secretaries and equipment managers have to be drug-free for Major League Baseball to operate as a safe and successful business, but the policy appears to be a defensive legal maneuver.
"In order to be consistent," MLB spokesman Rich Levin told Brown, "the [testing] policy has to be applied to everyone in MLB, not just the players."
Why? Has anyone demanded that airlines drug-test not just pilots but also reservations clerks, just for consistency's sake? Here's the real money quote, from former Sen. George Mitchell, who you may remember has spent the last 11 months conducting an investigation into drug use in baseball. That is, when he hasn't been helping O.J. Simpson look for the real killers.
"Based on a review of recent history," Mitchell told the club owners at a January meeting, "and on many discussions I've had over the past several months, I believe that a report that is not credible and thorough will significantly increase the possibility of action by others, especially if it's the result of a lack of cooperation by the clubs, or by anyone who is or has been involved with baseball."
By "action by others," Mitchell means his old co-workers, Congress. Baseball doesn't want Congress getting involved, ever.
Recent baseball-Congress exchanges have included Mark McGwire turning himself from hero to pariah in a matter of minutes by repeatedly insisting he wasn't there to talk about the past and Selig telling a committee that baseball was hemorrhaging money, causing Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., to admonish, "Let me remind you that you're under oath."
Good times.
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