Chapter[ XI. Recommendations ]
Section[ A. 1. The Commissioner Should Establish a Department of Investigations ]
1. The Commissioner Should Establish a Department of Investigations
The principal responsibility of the labor relations department of the Commissioner’s Office is to oversee the collective bargaining relationship with the Players Association, particularly the periodic negotiation of the Basic Agreement. This responsibility carries with it enormous implications for the financial health of all of baseball. In recent years the labor relations department has performed that role well. Since 1994-95, there have been no work stoppages in Major League Baseball. This fact, perhaps more than any other, explains why Major League Baseball today is on much firmer economic ground than it was just a decade ago.
567 Richard Ings, Australia: Revolutionary Model Battles Doping on all Eight Fronts of
the Code, 1 Play True (World Anti-Doping Agency 2007), at 10.
568 Id.
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That primary responsibility, however, also complicates the ability of the labor
relations department to meet another of its responsibilities, to investigate allegations of player
wrongdoing. The department must maintain good relations with the Players Association; but
aggressive, thorough investigations of the alleged possession or use by players of performance
enhancing substances may be inconsistent with that objective. Many of the investigations
involving performance enhancing substances have not been aggressive or thorough. Before this
investigation, with few exceptions, the Commissioner’s Office had not conducted investigative
interviews of current major league players regarding alleged possession or use of performance
enhancing substances, by that player or by others.
The Commissioner’s Office security department has been responsible for parts of
some investigations into the use or distribution of performance enhancing substances. That
department’s primary function, however, is to provide security for the players and the playing
environment. That also places security officials in a difficult situation when they are asked to
investigate the very persons they are responsible for protecting.
The Commissioner should create a Department of Investigations, led by a senior
executive who reports directly to the president of Major League Baseball. Ideally, this senior
executive should have experience as a senior leader in law enforcement, with the highest
credibility among state and federal law enforcement officials; the success of this department will
depend in part upon how well it interacts with law enforcement authorities. The senior executive
should have sole authority over all investigations of alleged performance enhancing substance
violations and other threats to the integrity of the game, and should receive the resources and
other support needed to make the office effective.
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The Commissioner’s Office should establish policies to ensure the integrity and
independence of the department’s investigations, including the adoption of procedures analogous
to those employed by internal affairs departments of law enforcement agencies. The adoption of
and adherence to these policies can serve to ensure public confidence that the Commissioner’s
Office is responding vigorously to all serious allegations of performance enhancing substance
violations.
The Commissioner’s Office has never published a written policy describing who
should receive and act on evidence of possible performance enhancing substance use violations.
The Commissioner’s Office should adopt a written policy requiring that all information received
by club or Commissioner’s Office personnel about possible performance enhancing substance
use (other than through the drug testing program) must be reported immediately and directly to
the senior executive in charge of the Department of Investigations.
In turn, that senior executive should be required to report immediately all
significant allegations of player substance use directly to both the Commissioner and the
president of Major League Baseball; this has not always happened in the past. Additionally, the
Department of Investigations should make quarterly reports to the Commissioner and president
describing the Department’s investigatory efforts.
The administrator of the drug testing program should also receive any information
that, in the view of the senior executive in charge of investigations, might be helpful in tailoring
the procedures of the testing program and would not compromise ongoing investigations or,
where it is required, confidentiality. For an obvious example, should the Department of
Investigations obtain information about possible countermeasures players are taking to avoid
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detection on drug tests, such information should be reported immediately to the program
administrator.
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