Missouri lawmaker takes on Major League Baseball

Missouri lawmaker takes on Major League Baseball   JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – As Major League Baseball and its Player's Association discuss a new drug testing policy, Missouri State Representative Jeff Roorda has filed legislation to let the MLB know what he thinks the new standards should be.   He filed legislation today that would prohibit state tax credits from going to professional sports teams in a league that does not place at least a one-year ban on athletes who test positive for anabolic steroids.   MLB's current policy calls for such a ban only after the fourth failed test.  Roorda's legislation would call on professional sports league to place such a ban on a player after the first violation.   "Since when in baseball is it four strikes and you're out?" Roorda, D-Barnhart, said.  "What major league baseball and all professional sports leagues need are for their executives to step forward and take a strong stand to end the scandal of the steroid era.  What we need is a modern-day Kenesaw Mountain Landis," Roorda added, referring to the legendary baseball commissioner who exiled the Chicago Black Sox in 1920 and sent a powerful message to all of Major League Baseball that gambling would not be tolerated.    Roorda, a rabid Cardinal fan, says he has been discouraged by some of the bruises recent scandals have left on the game.  "Baseball is the most purely American game in all of sports.  This is the game that, as a child, I would listen to on the radio and read about in books and play with friends on the corner lot.  It is a sport that has produced countless heroes but today produces one scandal after another.  Don't our kids deserve heroes too?"     Roorda says the time for action is now.  "As a lawmaker, one of our most effective tools for righting wrongs is the use of economic incentives and disincentives," Roorda said.  "As a state lawmaker, this sort of legislation is the only way I can send a message to the national sports leagues that have allowed steroids to become such a problem."   The bill, HB2502, was filed the same day as the St. Louis Cardinals' season opener, which Roorda will be attending this afternoon.   ###   Bret Bender Legislative Aide to Rep. Jeff Roorda 102nd District -- http://www.bransonedge.com http://www.bransonmissouri.blogspot.com