TOKYO (AP) -- The baseball players' union might agree to drug testing along Olympic guidelines for a World Cup, which could lead to an agreement within a week to start a tournament before the 2005 season.þþGene Orza, the union's chief operating officer, met Sunday with Rob Manfred, management's top labor lawyer. Orza has been critical in the past of Olympic drug-testing rules, repeatedly saying they were a byproduct of the athletes' lack of collective-bargaining rights.þþAldo Notari, the president of the International Baseball Federation, says his organization cannot endorse a tournament unless there is testing along Olympic guidelines. Some countries, such as Cuba, have said they won't participate without the IBAF's endorsement.þþ``I think we can accomplish something that is acceptable to the IBAF,'' Orza told The Associated Press on Sunday. ``There is a different level of voluntariness in participating in the World Cup over playing in the regular season. No one is forced to play in the World Cup. No one is forced to play in the Olympics.''þþCommissioner Bud Selig, speaking during a news conference before the New York Yankees played the Yomiuri Giants, said ``there's no latitude'' on the issue and was hopeful a deal could be struck soon between Major League Baseball and the union.þþ``You either have a policy that bans steroids or you don't. To have a World Cup, you need that policy in place,'' Selig said. ``To get a World Cup, we have to have the same drug policy that the Olympics has and everyone else, and that's step one.''þþBaseball hopes to hold the first World Cup next March, playing in North America with 8-to-16 national teams.þþOlympic guidelines call for more frequent drug testing and harsher penalties than the rules specified in baseball's labor contract. Selig has asked players to discuss strengthening the rules that were agreed to in August 2002, and union head Donald Fehr said last week he has not ruled that out.þþBecause drug-testing is covered by collective bargaining, Selig can't change the rules unilaterally.þþOrza planned to continue meetings with Manfred this week, when top baseball officials are in Japan for the season-opening series between the Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Asked whether an agreement could be reached before officials head home to the United States on Thursday, Orza responded: ``I think that's possible. It's unlikely, but it's possible.''þþManfred declined to discuss his talks with Orza.þþ
Source: NY Times
