Chapter[ III. The Governing Laws and Baseball Policies Regarding Possession or Use
of Performance Enhancing Substances ]
Section[ B. 3. Cocaine Suspensions of 1983-84 ]
3. Cocaine Suspensions of 1983-84
Several further incidents in the early 1980s involving the use, possession, and, in
one instance, assistance in distribution of cocaine led to a series of suspensions. While
Commissioner Kuhn’s discipline of players for these incidents generally was upheld, in some
cases arbitrators deemed the punishment too severe, and in one instance a suspension was
overturned based on the arbitrators’ lack of confidence in the legal system of another country.
In 1983, four players with the Kansas City Royals were arrested on cocaine-
related charges. Three of those players, Willie Aikens, Jerry Martin, and Willie Wilson, pleaded
guilty to misdemeanor possession charges and were each sentenced to a fine and one-year
100 Although the Players Association was formed in 1954, the first collective bargaining
agreement in Major League Baseball was not entered into until 1968. Baseball was not
recognized to be within the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board until 1969. See
American League of Prof’l Baseball Clubs, et al., 180 N.L.R.B. 190, 192 (1969); see generally
Rabuano, supra note 82, at 440-41. The grievance and arbitration procedures were changed
substantially in 1970, resulting in the basic tripartite arbitration panel that remains in effect
today. See Wong & Ensor, supra note 82, at 782; Doug Pappas, A Contentious History:
Baseball’s Labor Fights, espn.com, Sept. 5, 2002.
101 See, e.g., Press Release, Major League Baseball Office of the Commissioner,
Statement of Commissioner Allan H. Selig (dated Mar. 30, 2006). Jenkins later was convicted of
the charges in an Ontario court. The court expunged the charges immediately. Jenkins and
Commissioner Kuhn agreed to a resolution under which Jenkins issued a public apology, agreed
to participate in educational programs, and agreed to donate $10,000 to a “suitable program for
young people.” Joseph Durso, Jenkins, Kuhn Reach Accord in Drug Case, N.Y. Times, Feb. 7,
1981, at B29.
31
imprisonment (with all but three months of those sentences suspended).102 In December 1983,
Commissioner Kuhn suspended the three players for a year without pay, although he said that the
suspensions would be reviewed on May 15, 1984 “with a view to their reinstatement” if then
warranted in the Commissioner’s judgment. He also required the players to submit to drug
testing during their probations.103 Following a Players Association grievance filed on behalf of
Martin and Wilson, the arbitrators recognized that “[t]raditional notions of industrial discipline
support the conclusion that an employer may respond to drug-related misconduct with severe
measures,” and concluded that “just cause” existed for a suspension. However, the panel
concluded, any suspension beyond May 15, 1984 was “too severe to be squared with the just-
cause requirement.”104
A fourth Royals player, pitcher Vida Blue, also was convicted, imprisoned, and
fined in the Kansas City incident. Kuhn’s suspension of him for the 1984 season, followed by a
two-year probationary period that included mandatory drug testing, was later upheld in
102 See Arbitration between Comm’r of Baseball and Major League Baseball Players
Ass’n, Panel Decision No. 54 (Willie Wilson and Jerry Martin), at 1-2 (Apr. 3, 1984) (“Panel
Decision No. 54”); Arbitration between Major League Baseball Player Relations Comm., Inc.
and Major League Baseball Players Ass’n, Panel Decision No. 61 (Vida Blue), at 1-2 (July 24,
1984) (“Panel Decision No. 61”); see generally Memorandum from Barry Rona to Rep. Charles
B. Rangel Re: Major League Baseball’s Response to Drug-Related Misconduct by Players, dated
June 13, 1989 (“Rona Memo”), at 5; Wong & Ensor, supra note 82, at 785.
103 Panel Decision No. 54, at 2-3; see Wong & Ensor, supra note 82, at 785. Los Angeles
Dodgers pitcher Steve Howe received the same suspension. Howe was a repeat offender who
failed two separate drug tests for cocaine during the 1983 season which were administered by the
Dodgers under the club’s agreement with Howe following his treatment for cocaine abuse in a
rehabilitation program. Wong & Ensor, supra note 82, at 785.
104 See Panel Decision No. 54, at 5, 10-11. A grievance also was filed on behalf of
Howe, but that matter was settled before an arbitration decision. Wong & Ensor, supra note 82,
at 787.
32
arbitration, in part based on Blue’s alleged involvement in assisting other players to procure
drugs.105
In a separate arbitration decision issued in April 1984, the arbitrators overturned a
one-month suspension of Atlanta Braves pitcher Pascual Perez that had been imposed by
Commissioner Kuhn after Perez was released from a three-month imprisonment in the
Dominican Republic for possession of cocaine. The panel noted the gravity of the charge for
which Perez had been convicted, and recognized that drug involvement by a major league player
was “not only contrary to established rules and provisions of the Uniform Players Contract, but
also constitutes a ‘serious and immediate threat to the business that is promoted as our National
Pastime.’”106 However, the arbitrators questioned whether a conviction in the courts of the
Dominican Republic amounted to “persuasive” evidence of his guilt, based on a troubling
recitation of the facts surrounding his coercive interrogation by police officers at the time of his
arrest.107
These decisions make clear the authority of arbitrators to review and revise the
severity of discipline imposed by the Commissioner using his “just cause” powers for drug
violations. All of the decisions concerned drugs of abuse, principally cocaine, rather than
performance enhancing substances such as anabolic steroids. The use of the drugs at issue in
these decisions did not assist players to gain an unfair competitive advantage. Nevertheless,
these and other decisions have affected the decisions of the Commissioner’s Office and the
105 Panel Decision No. 61, at 3; see Wong & Ensor, supra note 82, at 789-90.
106 See Arbitration between Major League Baseball Players Ass’n and Comm’r of
Baseball, Panel Decision No. 58 (Pascual Perez), at 2 (Apr. 27, 1984) (quoting Panel Decision
No. 54, at 8).
107 Id. at 3-7; see Rona Memo. at 8.
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Players Association when reacting to more recent incidents concerning a player’s involvement
with performance enhancing substances.108
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