JUPITER ? Thursday's marathon Congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball had an immediate impact on Marlins players, with several saying Friday they were embarrassed by what they saw and wanted a tougher testing policy.

 

"It really made us look bad," veteran outfielder Lenny Harris said.

 

"I think we have to do something. All the fans think everyone does it," Josh Beckett said. "For me, I want to clear my name.

 

"I want my buddies back home to know I don't do them."

 

The House Committee on Government Reform questioned players and executives for 11 hours, honing in on why baseball took so long to address the issue of steroids and attacking the new testing policy agreement, which allows players to fail four times before being suspended for a year.

 

Harris said questions about the new policy, with references to "five strikes" before a player is banned from baseball, made him squirm.

 

"That's too many. It didn't sound right at all," Harris said. That was compounded when Players' Union President Donald Fehr was asked whether he would support a tougher policy and gave no direct answer.

 

"Fehr choked up when they asked him that question. The [current] policy is pretty much saying we're going to get off," Harris said.

 

Beckett, the Marlins' union representative, also is for more testing if it would help erase the steroid stain.

 

"I don't care what kind of drug testing you have. Test for anything. We have to do it for our image," Beckett said.

 

Beckett said he also wouldn't object to having Congress regulate the testing.

 

Under the proposed testing policy, which has not yet been finalized, Major League Baseball would conduct the tests and issue the penalties.

 

"Everyone agrees that they want to have a 0 percent rate of use," third baseman Mike Lowell said. "I think all players are in favor of any type of testing. If you don't use steroids, you don't care what the testing policy is."

 

The players differed on whether the penalties needed to be strengthened, though all believed public disclosure of the names who fail will help stem usage.

 

"I truly believe, with the harsher penalties [now in place] and humiliation, it will make anyone stop," Lowell said.

 

"I don't know much about punishment. I think public scrutiny is enough," Beckett said.

 

"It's about the embarrassment," pitcher Al Leiter said. "Not only do you feel bad, but then you don't know if people are going to sign you. Are we getting a guy who is on steroids? We don't want you."

 

But Harris supports the suggestion that baseball adopt something similar to the one used by the Olympics, where a second positive test means a lifetime ban.

 

"I could go with two strikes. Mess with steroids, you should be gone," Harris said.

 

Harris also said he would give up his record for most career base hits if he ever tested positive. "I would accept that. If you get caught cheating, you should pay," he said.

 

 

- Sun Sentinel

If these high-profile marlins now feel comfortable enough to speak out about their desire to strengthen the steroid-testing policy, i can only imagine that players on most other teams are speaking out, too. I'm pleased to see it looks like those hearings will be having an effect, after all.

 

Harris also said he would give up his record for most career base hits if he ever tested positive. "I would accept that. If you get caught cheating, you should pay," he said.

 

hahahaha... i literally laughed out loud when i read that.

If these high-profile marlins now feel comfortable enough to speak out about their desire to strengthen the steroid-testing policy, i can only imagine that players on most other teams are speaking out, too. I'm pleased to see it looks like those hearings will be having an effect, after all.

 

Harris also said he would give up his record for most career base hits if he ever tested positive. "I would accept that. If you get caught cheating, you should pay," he said.

 

hahahaha... i literally laughed out loud when i read that.

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Harris is really willing to get tough on the abusers. Beckett and Lowell seem to be in favor of more rigorous testing as well. If anything, the Congressional Hearings are convincing more players it is time to get serious about cleaining up the game, and if more testing is required, then let's do it.

From the Palm Beach Post

 

Marlins welcome stiffer penalties

By Joe Capozzi

 

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

 

Saturday, March 19, 2005

 

JUPITER ? A day after Congress ripped baseball's proposed steroids policy, several Marlins players said they would favor tougher penalties, including banning players from the game for a second offense.

 

"You use steroids, you should be banned,'' veteran outfielder Lenny Harris said Friday after watching lawmakers ridicule the current proposal as lacking any teeth until a fifth violation.

 

"Five strikes? That's bad,'' Harris said. "The league didn't look too good. I was really embarrassed.''

 

Harris was one of several players who watched Thursday's hearing of the House Government Reform Committee, in which lawmakers questioned Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling and Frank Thomas.

 

"I was captivated by it,'' pitcher Al Leiter said. "You've got the stars of our game live on every major cable news network for eight hours being grilled and yelled at. It's not good.''

 

Many Marlins players took the tone of the hearing as a wake-up call that the proposed plan is not good enough. With that plan, endorsed in January, players would be suspended for 10 days for the first positive test for a performance-enhancing drug, 30 days for a second positive test, 60 days for a third and one year for a fourth. A fifth offense is subject to a penalty by Commissioner Bud Selig, who has said he would impose suspensions.

 

"I don't think (players) would have any problem with one strike and you're out,'' outfielder Jeff Conine said. "If you want to get tough, that's a good way to discourage it, a zero-tolerance policy.

 

"But there are false positives that could come up. So you definitely need more than one. Look at Brian Banks. No one on earth could possibly believe Brian Banks was on steroids.''

 

Banks, who played for the Marlins in 2003, failed a steroids test in the minor leagues last year. Banks, who is in law school in Arizona, said he doesn't take drugs or even drink alcohol because of his Mormon faith. He said a medicated inhaler he uses for asthma triggered the failed test.

 

Leiter said he believes players will welcome a two-strikes policy.

 

"I do think it is important that we as the Players Association and owners collectively get together and make sure we have a deal that suffices the masses or we will have government intervention, and that's not a good thing,'' he said.

 

"In a game that has everything to do with statistics, if there is some unfair playing field as a result of a player being on steroids, then it does have a major effect on the history of the game and it should be treated as severely as somebody gambling.''

 

Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett, the team's union representative, said he would talk to his teammates before suggesting changes to union chief Donald Fehr.

 

"What the penalties should be is not up to me but I am up for stricter drug testing,'' Beckett said.

 

"We have to do something. We have to do it for our image. The fans think 90 percent of us do steroids. For me, I want my buddies to know back home that I don't do them.''

 

Other players suggested the union might not resist a steroids policy drafted and imposed by the federal government.

 

"If they do, that's fine with me,'' third baseman Mike Lowell said. "If you don't use steroids, you shouldn't care what the testing policy is.''

 

Not all players were impressed by the hearings.

 

"I think yesterday was a waste of taxpayers' money,'' Cardinals reliever Ray King said. "We know that it's an issue. They could have taken the money that they spent yesterday and put it back into (education). There were a lot of (representatives) sitting in a room for 11 hours discussing a drug test policy that they only had a draft of.''

 

King was glad that at least one player, Palmeiro, categorically denied using steroids. Sosa also denied using them, saying he would never put anything dangerous in his body.

 

"I commend Palmeiro for saying that he didn't use it,'' King said. "I can't speak for the rest of them. Hopefully, Schilling and other guys that are in the game will come to the front and say, 'OK, I did' or 'I didn't.' Right now there's still that question mark, because yesterday we spent 11 hours getting nothing resolved.

 

"Our drug test was working, is working and will work. I wish they would sit back and let us run our program. I understand that Congress is looking out for the health of (the public), and we feel bad for the kids, but look at (Jose) Canseco. The guy admitted he did it, admitted he made a mistake. Attack him, don't attack everyone else in baseball, because the guys that are innocent are getting the brunt of it and we're spending more time talking about steroids than we are talking about preparing for the upcoming season.''

 

Link

"I was captivated by it,'' pitcher Al Leiter said. "You've got the stars of our game live on every major cable news network for eight hours being grilled and yelled at. It's not good.''

 

 

:lol

 

You'd expect that Senator Al would be the one watching the entire hearing.

Isn't Leiter a key member of the union? I know Glavine was the Mets' player rep and very outspoken on all labor issues, but I'm pretty sure Leiter was too.

 

Surprisingly, Beckett is the Marlins' player rep.

 

 

:lol at Lenny sacrificing such an important record.

Ah good ole Brian Banks

 

Lenny should be named president of something just for comical value

"I think yesterday was a waste of taxpayers' money,'' Cardinals reliever Ray King said. "We know that it's an issue. They could have taken the money that they spent yesterday and put it back into (education). There were a lot of (representatives) sitting in a room for 11 hours discussing a drug test policy that they only had a draft of.''

Sounds like (and looks like! :lol ) a steroid user to me.

i hope thats sarcasm... the only thing Ray King takes religiously is cheese burgers

i hope thats sarcasm... the only thing Ray King takes religiously is cheese burgers

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:thumbup

As I said on the MLB forum, I see postive things coming out of the Cong. hearing

wao....

 

Ray King is a complete moron.