Chapter[ III. The Governing Laws and Baseball Policies Regarding Possession or Use
of Performance Enhancing Substances ]
Section[ B. 6. 1991: Fay Vincent Adds Steroids to Baseball’s Drug Policy ]
6. 1991: Fay Vincent Adds Steroids to Baseball’s Drug Policy
In September 1989, Francis T. (“Fay”) Vincent was elected to succeed A. Bartlett
Giamatti as Commissioner, after Giamatti’s sudden death. Vincent was the first Commissioner
to expressly include anabolic steroids among the substances prohibited under baseball’s drug
policy, which he did in the June 1991 version of the memorandum.130 Steroids were added to the
drug policy at that time, apparently as a result of the enactment of the Anabolic Steroids Control
Act of 1990. Under that statute, anabolic steroids had been reclassified as Schedule III
controlled substances, and the illegal use of them became subject to substantially increased
criminal penalties.131
In July 1992, Vincent suspended New York Yankees pitcher Steve Howe from
baseball for life based on his repeated use of cocaine in violation of baseball’s drug policy. The
Players Association successfully overturned this order in a grievance that was decided by the
arbitrators after Vincent resigned as Commissioner later that year. The arbitrators concluded that
the lifetime ban was without just cause and limited the suspension to the remainder of the 1992
season.132 In dissent, management’s representative on the panel, Vincent’s deputy Stephen
130 See Memorandum from Francis T. Vincent, Jr. to All Major League Clubs Re:
Baseball’s Drug Policy and Prevention Program, dated June 7, 1991, at 2.
131 Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-647, 104 Stat. 4789 (1990).
Although the 1991 drug policy expressly mentioned anabolic steroids as prohibited substances
for the first time, the Commissioner’s Office viewed steroids to be covered by baseball’s drug
policy before then because of the policy’s prohibition on the use of prescription drugs without a
prescription. See Ken Rodriguez and Jorge Ortiz, Canseco Denies Using Steroids, Miami
Herald, Sept. 30, 1988, at D1 (quoting spokesman Jim Small that “[a]nabolic steroids and other
performance-enhancing drugs are prohibited by Major League Baseball.”).
132 See Arbitration between Major League Baseball Players Ass’n and Comm’r of Major
League Baseball, Panel Decision No. 95 (Steven Howe) (Nov. 19, 1992).
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Greenberg, called the majority’s decision an example of why “baseball desperately need[ed] a
collectively bargained drug agreement between the clubs and the players.”133
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