MLB: SUPS 'R' US

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer

TAMPA, Fla. Mar 6, 2006 (AP)— Major league baseball teams will start selling approved supplements to players in an effort to prevent positive drug tests.

Management and the players' association are having NSF International, a company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., certify that products are clean. Once a supplement is certified, teams will buy the products and make them available for resale to players in the 30 major league clubhouses.

"They do all of the auditing and testifying of the products and certify they are clean," management lawyer Frank Coonelly said Monday.

After meeting with New York Yankees players for nearly two hours Monday, union head Donald Fehr discussed the certification process.

Fehr and Michael Weiner, the union's general counsel, briefed Yankees players Monday as part of their tour of the 30 camps. Weiner said the allowable substances are likely to be posted on the union's Web site.