Washington, DC – U.S. Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today introduced, and the Senate passed by voice vote, a resolution that calls on Major League Baseball and its players to immediately adopt a legitimate drug-testing policy. This resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that Major League Baseball’s current drug-testing policy stops short of what is necessary to protect the game, its players, and the children and teenagers who emulate them. Sen. McCain’s floor statement follows:
“Mr. President, I am joined today by Senators Biden, Fitzgerald, Allen, Breaux, Smith and Dorgan in introducing a resolution that would call on Major League Baseball and its players to adopt a legitimate drug-testing policy. This resolution would express the sense of the Senate that Major League Baseball’s current drug testing policy stops short of what is necessary to protect the game, its players, and the children and teenagers who emulate them.
“As Major League Baseball starts a new season – a time that ordinarily signals renewal and promise – a dark shadow of public suspicion looms over the game and its players. Sadly, the talk amongst baseball fans is less this year about which team will win the World Series and more about which athletes have cheated by using performance-enhancing substances. Action is clearly needed by Major League Baseball to address this problem and refocus its fans’ attention to what takes place on the fields of play.
“Mr. President, the sport of baseball is America’s pastime and an institution inextricably interwoven into the fabric of our culture. If Major League Baseball and its players fail to act to preserve and protect the sport by adopting a drug testing policy that effectively deters the players from using anabolic steroids or any other similar performance-enhancing substances, this important part of our culture will remain tarnished. The resolution we are introducing today would call on Major League Baseball and its players to restore legitimacy to professional baseball and make the welfare of the sport more important than the self-serving interests that have a choke hold on America’s game.
“As Chairman of the Commerce Committee, which has oversight authority over professional sports, and, more importantly, as a parent, let me be clear. There are real consequences to demanding anything less than clean professional sports. As discussed during a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing on steroid use in professional and amateur sports, the failure to insist on stringent drug testing policies damages the integrity of the games and calls into question records set by those suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs.
“No reasonable person would disagree that using any performance-enhancing substance for the sole purpose of gaining a competitive edge over an opponent is cheating. And, simply put, any sports organization that turns a blind eye to drug use among its athletes is as guilty of cheating as the players.
“This cheating and the negative effect it has on the integrity of any sport is shameful, and Major League Baseball and its players must cease treating the issue of drug testing as just another bargaining chip. But more worrisome still is the poor example set by professional athletes in the eyes of the kids who idolize them and are led by their example.
“Some may doubt the powerful effect that athletes have on the lives of kids. Let me remind them of the five-fold increase in the sales of the steroid-like substance androstenedione – better known as “andro” – that occurred after Mark McGwire admitted to using the substance in 1998 while chasing Roger Maris’s home run record. Since then, the problem of harmful supplement use among children and teenagers has reached epidemic proportions. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 12 percent of high school boys and three percent of high school girls use steroids. This is unacceptable.
“The adverse health consequences associated with such use are indisputable. Medical experts warn that the effects on children and teenagers include stunted growth, scarring acne, hormonal imbalances, liver and kidney damage, as well as an increased risk of heart disease and stroke later in life. Psychologically, steroids have been associated with increased aggression, suicide, and a higher propensity to commit serious crimes.
“Mr. President, today we call on Major League Baseball and its players to step up to the proverbial plate and implement a drug testing policy that will effectively deter players from using anabolic steroids and other similar performance-enhancing substances. We cannot, and will not, allow professional baseball to collectively bargain away the legitimacy and history of the sport. The current drug-testing regime is simply unacceptable, and without quick and significant change to the way the league tests for drugs among its athletes, the owners and players will continue to be viewed by the public as the knowing perpetrators of a shameful fraud.
“I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and to not allow the integrity of professional baseball to be choked by the foul ambition of those who cheat.”