The players unior head spoke about diet supplement and steroid testing.
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – Baseball players union head Donald Fehr met with Boston Red Sox players on Friday, a day after toxicology reports indicated diet supplement ephedra was partly to blame for the heatsroke death of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler last month.
The agenda included ephedra and steroid testing, Red Sox pitcher John Burkett said afterward.
“He hit on a lot of different subjects … you try to tell guys to read labels, be aware of what you’re taking, that kind of thing, understand what’s going on out there,” said Burkett, who has said he does not take ephedra.
Fehr declined to discuss specifics of the meeting, a previously scheduled stop on his tour of team clubhouses during spring training, but said ephedra was a concern for players.
“The players understand this is a serious matter,” Fehr said after the meeting. “Any individual situation is obviously more complicated than simple analysis would suggest, but obviously this is a matter of concern. We’re going to continue to look at it.”
Commissioner Bud Selig has banned players with minor league contracts from taking ephedra, and Fehr has urged players not to take supplements containing the herb.
Fehr said the union was circulating a second memo to players on ephedra.
Fehr said the threat by 16 Chicago White Sox players this week to refuse a drug test and be counted as having tested positive for steroids in hopes it would lead to more extensive monitoring did not constitute a revolt by union rank-and-file against testing policy.
“Every time you start something new, from time to time you have confusion and you straighten out the confusion,” he said. “The agreement we reached was supported by the overwhelming majority of players last summer.”
AP-ES-03-14-03 1636EST
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