PLAYERS' UNION FAILING TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE.

Byline: MATT McHALE Baseball

Mark McGwire took a big step this week when he announced on the eve of hitting his 500th home run that he was no longer taking the performance-enhancing supplement Androstenedione.

Now it is the Major League Players Association's turn to agree to a policy in an effort to monitor the widespread use of such drugs in its sport.

All these home runs are not just the result of bad pitching and juiced baseballs. Supplements have become a part of everyday life. Most of the time they are done in conjunction with diet and extensive year-round weight lifting programs.

But the long-term effects are still largely unknown. Until they are, there is a need for the union, which has bullied baseball to keep drug testing out of the big leagues, to take the lead in protecting its own.

The union's solidarity during negotiations with owners is legendary. When they talk about money issues such as salary arbitration, they point to the impact it will have on generations to come.

Now they represent players who take supplements as if they were candy, and the future doesn't seem quite so important.

If McGwire hits only 60 home runs this year, it could be interpreted that Andro helped get him to 70 last year. Those 10 home runs, in the mind of a kid battling for a job with hundreds of other minor leaguers, is enough to make him want more.

Last season, McGwire spoke to Cardinals minor leaguers during spring training and was surprised when the questions sounded more like they were coming from pharmacists than 19-year-olds.

He knows he is a role model. That is why even though he doesn't see anything wrong with Andro and Creatine in moderation, he knows players striving to make the big time could go overboard.

``If one scoop can get you this far then they think, wow, 10 scoops could do even more,'' McGwire said at the time. ``That's what you have to guard against. They have to realize just how much you have to thrash your body in the weight room. There are no shortcuts.''

But the union has attempted to make drugs a non-issue. Andro is banned in the NFL, NCAA and the Olympics, but the Players Association, through the collective bargaining agreement, has been able to keep any drug-testing policy off the books.

There are always bigger issues. Revenue sharing, small-market/big-market discrepancies, arbitration eligibility. The current agreement expires after the 2001 season and the drug issue is expected to be ignored again.

The financial strength of the game is too important to dabble in trivia like health.

In the minor leagues, where players have no leverage, random drug testing is done. But without the big leagues showing the way, there is no urgency. High-profile drug suspensions from the 1980s are long past. Even when the Angels' Tony Phillips was arrested several years ago for using cocaine during the height of a pennant race, the club was powerless to punish him.

Is Andro as serious as cocaine?

No, but not enough is known about how serious it can be long-term. Even a supplement such as Creatine, which no one considers to be in the same league with Andro, carries a haunting image. The players who use it constantly carry water to guard against dehydration. What happens when there is no Evian around?

Trainers are worried about kidney damage but have no control over the way high-priced players are bulking up. Chicks dig the long ball. So does Madison Avenue. Who's going to win that battle?

The players' union has a chance to recognize the problem and be part of the solution. You've made everyone wealthy. Make sure they stay healthy.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO THREE FOR 3000: THE WEEK IN REVIEW

(1) Cal Ripken Jr. - 2,968

Injured

(2) Wade Boggs - 3,000

8 hits, .297 avg.

(3) Tony Gwynn - 3,000

9 hits, .321 avg.