Sen. McCain threatens legislation to curb drugs in baseball

[Pacman]

Sen. John McCain reportedly plans to introduce legislation for mandatory drug testing of athletes if MLB
players and owners don't enact tougher standards themselves by January.


I love that guy.



Here's a link:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/a ... _baseball/

[swarmee]

I think it's a solid idea. The gov't has been threatening it for a while, but they'd much prefer to get it written into the MLBPA contracts rather than have to carry the gavel themselves.
Maybe this will get the union and the owners at the table to talk it out and really attack the problem.

[TheYanks04]

You mean just so long as you want to throw the Constitution away. Let's see, why not mandatory drug testing for secretaries...for auto mechanics...for everyone period becuase the governemnt wants it? Baseball players do not work for the government or in jobs which could threathen the public safety like train operators or airline pilots. The government has no business mandating anything there. Baseball is a private business and McCain just a big blowhard looking to gain some political points.

[swarmee]

I know when I worked as a programmer for a pipeline, I was subject to a mandatory random drug screening. Same when I worked in IT for a natural gas supplier. Using steroids is illegal in the United States, and the government has a responsibility to crack down on it.
If the laws were amended and steroid use was no longer illegal, then they would have no reason to harrass the MLB about it, but it is.

Why else would there be a Grand Jury investigation into BALCO?

[wrveres]

You mean just so long as you want to throw the Constitution away. Let's see, why not mandatory drug testing for secretaries...for auto mechanics...for everyone period becuase the governemnt wants it? Baseball players do not work for the government or in jobs which could threathen the public safety like train operators or airline pilots. The government has no business mandating anything there. Baseball is a private business and McCain just a big blowhard looking to gain some political points.

Agreed ..
Congress' responsibilty is to make them Illegal, which it has done. Thats where their responsiblity ends.
Swarmee, to the best of my knowledge, Congress did not make you take those tests, the company you worked for did.
McCain is just getting face time on an extremly hot issue. Period!

[Viper8437]

yea
i heard McCain's running for re-election so it could help him

[LBJackal]

You mean just so long as you want to throw the Constitution away. Let's see, why not mandatory drug testing for secretaries...for auto mechanics...for everyone period becuase the governemnt wants it? Baseball players do not work for the government or in jobs which could threathen the public safety like train operators or airline pilots. The government has no business mandating anything there. Baseball is a private business and McCain just a big blowhard looking to gain some political points.

Agreed ..
Congress' responsibilty is to make them Illegal, which it has done. Thats where their responsiblity ends.
Swarmee, to the best of my knowledge, Congress did not make you take those tests, the company you worked for did.
McCain is just getting face time on an extremly hot issue. Period!

I agree. The government shouldn't have any bearing on MLB's drug screening policy. Give them financial incentives to do it properly, but to force them to be stricter, or even have a policy at all, is wrong IMO.

[SaintsOfTheDiamond]

You mean just so long as you want to throw the Constitution away. Let's see, why not mandatory drug testing for secretaries...for auto mechanics...for everyone period becuase the governemnt wants it? Baseball players do not work for the government or in jobs which could threathen the public safety like train operators or airline pilots. The government has no business mandating anything there. Baseball is a private business and McCain just a big blowhard looking to gain some political points.

Agreed ..
Congress' responsibilty is to make them Illegal, which it has done. Thats where their responsiblity ends.
Swarmee, to the best of my knowledge, Congress did not make you take those tests, the company you worked for did.
McCain is just getting face time on an extremly hot issue. Period!

I agree as well. This would involve Congress seriously overstepping its bounds IMO. If they want to issue mandatory drug tests for government employees, that's fine, but they shouldn't be able to tell other organizations how to run their business.

[Tavish]

I agree. The government shouldn't have any bearing on MLB's drug screening policy. Give them financial incentives to do it properly, but to force them to be stricter, or even have a policy at all, is wrong IMO.

That is exactly what will end up happening if baseball isn't able to fix the drug policy soon enough. Congress will do what they always do to guide the inept commissioners through bad times. They will dangle the anti-trust expemtion in front of the owners and the owners will conceed to whatever the Player's Union wants in return for the drug policy in order to keep Washington off their backs.