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Baseball owners discuss labor, steroids Posted: Wednesday May 29, 2002 7:36 PMUpdated: Wednesday May 29, 2002 9:56 PM
CHICAGO (AP) -- Baseball commissioner Bud Selig was questioned by team owners over what the sport gained from its failed attempt to eliminate teams as he gave an update Wednesday on labor talks. After Selig emerged from a four-hour meeting, baseball officials said they would like to have a program to deal with steroids and testing for steroids, and put the onus on the union, which has resisted drug testing. "We've made a comprehensive proposal to the players' association to deal with the issue of steroids and testing for steroids at the major league level, and we're hopeful that it's an issue that will be resolved in the bargaining process," said Rob Manfred, baseball's top labor lawyer. Baseball currently tests only those players on 40-man rosters who have had past drug problems. Minor leaguers not on 40-man rosters are tested because they aren't covered by the bargaining agreement. "The association regards the issue as a serious and complicated one and will treat those discussions accordingly," union spokesman Greg Bouris said. As for the labor talks, tentatively scheduled to resume June 7, Selig told owners many of the same things he's said publicly in recent weeks, according to a baseball official at the meeting who spoke on the condition he not be identified. "We need to make a deal," Selig said after the meeting at a hotel near O'Hare International Airport. "We need to get to the table to make a deal. We're not going to do it anywhere else." Selig called the meeting because owners hadn't gathered since January. It was a wide-ranging session covering umpiring, the length of games and the lawsuit by Minnesota Twins' landlord to keep baseball from folding the franchise. Baseball has agreed to a settlement that would ensure the Twins would play at the Metrodome at least through 2003, and Twins president Jerry Bell "gave a report to the clubs on the whole Minnesota situation," according to Selig. As Selig has in the past, he said contraction remains a 'very viable option.' But some owners questioned Selig about what baseball gained from the failed attempt to fold the Twins and Montreal Expos, according to the baseball official.
Baseball owners voted last Nov. 6 to eliminate two teams for 2002, but the sport was blocked when the Twins' landlord gained an injunction to enforce its lease.
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