Union vows fight over steroid ruling
December 29, 2006
Major League Baseball's players union will fight a federal appeals court's decision to give prosecutors access to the names and urine samples of about 100 players who tested positive for steroids in 2003.
If Wednesday's decision ''is allowed to stand, it will effectively repeal the Fourth Amendment for confidential electronic records,'' Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, wrote in a statement Thursday.
The court's 2-1 ruling could help authorities pinpoint the source of steroids in professional baseball. It also could bolster the perjury case against Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who is under investigation for telling a grand jury he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Michael Rains, Bonds' attorney, disagreed. ''It doesn't help their case against him,'' he said.
Fehr said he was consulting with union attorneys to ''determine what our next step should be in our fight to protect the constitutional rights, including the basic right to privacy, of our members.''
Options include asking the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case with the same three judges, petitioning the court to hear the case with 15 judges or appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Any appeal, even if unsuccessful, could delay the government from getting the records for months or more.
The samples were collected at MLB's direction as part of a survey to gauge the prevalence of steroid use. Players and owners agreed in their labor contract that the results would be confidential.
• • Former New York Yankees and Cubs player Bobby Murcer was recovering at a Houston hospital after surgery to remove a brain tumor.
The 60-year-old Murcer, now a Yankees broadcaster, was awake and resting comfortably at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, one of the top cancer facilities in the nation, hospital officials said in a statement.
• • An arrest warrant was issued for a former Florida Marlins first-round draft pick who failed to appear at a court hearing in Greensboro, N.C.
Jeff Allison, a right-handed pitcher from Peabody, Mass., was arrested in October and charged with felony possession of heroin and possession of a stolen vehicle.
