American Notes Sports

While Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth has promised to crack down on drug abuse in the major leagues, he has also maintained that his intention was to "get rid of drugs, not players." Last week Ueberroth achieved his goal with deftly wrought penalties against 21 admitted or suspected drug users. The commissioner ordered the conditional one-year suspension of seven admitted abusers, stipulating that they would be allowed to compete if they donated 10% of their salaries to drug-prevention programs, worked 100 hours in drug- related community-service projects over each of the next two years, and submitted to random drug testing for the rest of their careers. Among those affected were Stars Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets and Dave Parker of the Cincinnati Reds. For Hernandez, the highest paid of the group, the penalty will cost as much as $165,000.

The commissioner's crackdown came just three days after the National Basketball Association dealt with a drug problem of its own. The New Jersey Nets' talented point guard, Micheal ("Sugar") Ray Richardson, who tested positive for cocaine use for the third time, was banned from playing in the N.B.A.