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American Morning

Caught Off Base

Aired November 14, 2003 - 07:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Major League baseball will begin mandatory steroid testing of its players next season. The expanded program is kicking in because more than 5 percent of the steroid tests from last season came back positive. Baseball players and owners agreed to the 5 percent threshold in their current labor deal.
And joining us this morning to talk about this development and much more, Roy S. Johnson. He's the assistant managing editor of "Sports Illustrated."

Nice to see you.

ROY S. JOHNSON, ASST. MANAGING EDITOR, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Good morning. How are you? Nice to see you.

O'BRIEN: I'm doing great.

Five percent. And this was a random testing on almost 1,500 players. Does that surprise you because it sounds like a lot? Or does it surprise you because it sounds like not as many as you would think?

JOHNSON: Well, actually it was 1,400, almost 1,500 tests. It was actually about 1,200 players, because some players' tests were retested. And I know you said you were surprised earlier, but I don't think anyone else was surprised that this number came back at 5 to 7 percent.

O'BRIEN: Do you think it's really higher than that across the board?

JOHNSON: Well, you have to remember one thing: THG, the latest designer steroid that everyone is talking about, was not part of this test. So, you can pretty much bet that the numbers are actually higher.

O'BRIEN: Right now, for these 1,400 -- or 1, 200 players you say were tested, nearly 1,500 tests, what would the penalty be right now for those players whose tests came back positive?

JOHNSON: Well, there's no penalty right now. What this did was kick in a phase where there will now be mandatory testing starting on March 2.

O'BRIEN: And here are the penalties staring March 2.

JOHNSON: Right. O'BRIEN: First offense: mandatory treatment. Second offense: 15-day suspension or a $10,000 fine. Third: 25 day. Four: 50-day suspension. Fifth offense: A full year suspension. Do you think this is lenient? It seems to be lenient.

JOHNSON: Well, Soledad, I don't know about you, but I wish I had five chances to defy my dad or to defy someone who has given me an -- I think this is much too lenient, certainly the first one. I mean, now everyone knows that this is illegal. So, the first time they're going to talk to you about it. I call it the bad boy punishment. Oh, bad boy, don't do that.

O'BRIEN: You're very disappointed.

JOHNSON: Very disappointed in you. And it really takes five times before someone is suspended for a season and penalized $100,000 with today's huge salaries. With the clear indication that this is illegal now by baseball standards, I think their penalties should be stronger. There should be more of a punitive effort made early on in the process for any failures of drug tests.

O'BRIEN: Is the fact that there are penalties, though, do you think that's going to be enough to sway some of the players from using the drugs? Because it seems like the culture was almost...

JOHNSON: Sure.

O'BRIEN: ... very open about steroid use.

JOHNSON: Well, this will sway some, and it will certainly cause others to find better masking agents, maybe find better designer steroids. This is a big opportunity for baseball and for all of sports. Certainly some players like Ken Caminiti before and Jose Canseco have said up to 85 percent of the players were using steroids. We see now that those numbers are probably inflated.

But the real opportunity here is for baseball to clean up its sport, to sit down and let the public know what the numbers are and to move towards a zero number in the very near future.

O'BRIEN: I think it's Caminiti who said he doesn't think the fans would care. He thought the fans basically would have no problem -- as long as the person can hit the ball really far, that's what fans care about. Do you agree or disagree with that?

JOHNSON: No, I don't really agree with that. I've heard too many fans lately almost presume that most of the players are juiced, and yet they'll still root for the home runs and root for their favorite teams when the playoffs come. But I think at the end of the day when, you know, their kids start to grow up and start to play the games, if they see that the stars that their children are emulating are using drugs, I think they'll certainly care about that.

O'BRIEN: It's like cheating basically.

JOHNSON: Absolutely. It is absolutely cheating. O'BRIEN: Roy Johnson, nice to have you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

JOHNSON: Thank you, Soledad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired November 14, 2003 - 07:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Major League baseball will begin mandatory steroid testing of its players next season. The expanded program is kicking in because more than 5 percent of the steroid tests from last season came back positive. Baseball players and owners agreed to the 5 percent threshold in their current labor deal.
And joining us this morning to talk about this development and much more, Roy S. Johnson. He's the assistant managing editor of "Sports Illustrated."

Nice to see you.

ROY S. JOHNSON, ASST. MANAGING EDITOR, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Good morning. How are you? Nice to see you.

O'BRIEN: I'm doing great.

Five percent. And this was a random testing on almost 1,500 players. Does that surprise you because it sounds like a lot? Or does it surprise you because it sounds like not as many as you would think?

JOHNSON: Well, actually it was 1,400, almost 1,500 tests. It was actually about 1,200 players, because some players' tests were retested. And I know you said you were surprised earlier, but I don't think anyone else was surprised that this number came back at 5 to 7 percent.

O'BRIEN: Do you think it's really higher than that across the board?

JOHNSON: Well, you have to remember one thing: THG, the latest designer steroid that everyone is talking about, was not part of this test. So, you can pretty much bet that the numbers are actually higher.

O'BRIEN: Right now, for these 1,400 -- or 1, 200 players you say were tested, nearly 1,500 tests, what would the penalty be right now for those players whose tests came back positive?

JOHNSON: Well, there's no penalty right now. What this did was kick in a phase where there will now be mandatory testing starting on March 2.

O'BRIEN: And here are the penalties staring March 2.

JOHNSON: Right. O'BRIEN: First offense: mandatory treatment. Second offense: 15-day suspension or a $10,000 fine. Third: 25 day. Four: 50-day suspension. Fifth offense: A full year suspension. Do you think this is lenient? It seems to be lenient.

JOHNSON: Well, Soledad, I don't know about you, but I wish I had five chances to defy my dad or to defy someone who has given me an -- I think this is much too lenient, certainly the first one. I mean, now everyone knows that this is illegal. So, the first time they're going to talk to you about it. I call it the bad boy punishment. Oh, bad boy, don't do that.

O'BRIEN: You're very disappointed.

JOHNSON: Very disappointed in you. And it really takes five times before someone is suspended for a season and penalized $100,000 with today's huge salaries. With the clear indication that this is illegal now by baseball standards, I think their penalties should be stronger. There should be more of a punitive effort made early on in the process for any failures of drug tests.

O'BRIEN: Is the fact that there are penalties, though, do you think that's going to be enough to sway some of the players from using the drugs? Because it seems like the culture was almost...

JOHNSON: Sure.

O'BRIEN: ... very open about steroid use.

JOHNSON: Well, this will sway some, and it will certainly cause others to find better masking agents, maybe find better designer steroids. This is a big opportunity for baseball and for all of sports. Certainly some players like Ken Caminiti before and Jose Canseco have said up to 85 percent of the players were using steroids. We see now that those numbers are probably inflated.

But the real opportunity here is for baseball to clean up its sport, to sit down and let the public know what the numbers are and to move towards a zero number in the very near future.

O'BRIEN: I think it's Caminiti who said he doesn't think the fans would care. He thought the fans basically would have no problem -- as long as the person can hit the ball really far, that's what fans care about. Do you agree or disagree with that?

JOHNSON: No, I don't really agree with that. I've heard too many fans lately almost presume that most of the players are juiced, and yet they'll still root for the home runs and root for their favorite teams when the playoffs come. But I think at the end of the day when, you know, their kids start to grow up and start to play the games, if they see that the stars that their children are emulating are using drugs, I think they'll certainly care about that.

O'BRIEN: It's like cheating basically.

JOHNSON: Absolutely. It is absolutely cheating. O'BRIEN: Roy Johnson, nice to have you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

JOHNSON: Thank you, Soledad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.