Novakjr,
The reason testing wasn't implemented was because Bud Selig (and a couple of other owners) staged a palace coup and caused Fay Vincent to resign as Commissioner.
Vincent sent out a seven page letter stating that steroids were illegal in baseball. The problem was, baseball was in the middle of their agreement with the players and implementing rules against steroids and having a testing program would have meant opening up the collective bargaining agreement and putting the rules in. The owners didn't want to do that. They wanted to wait until the next bargaining session.
The problem with that was Selig and Reinsdorf got a no confidence vote against Vincent and Vincent resigned (with Selig taking over as acting Commissioner). So, the next time contract negotiations came up, Selig was in charge and he said NOTHING about steroids and testing. Therefor, a new contract was in place an no testing was implemented.
Selig COULD have stopped this mess before it started but he didn't. That is why I laugh at him for the mess baseball is currently in.
David
|