Major League Baseball

Anderson new drug administator

Published Jun. 11, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

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Major League Baseball and the players' union have appointed a new independent administrator for the sport's drug prevention and treatment program.

The hiring of Dr. Jeffrey Anderson was announced Monday. He has been the director of sports medicine and head team physician at the University of Connecticut since 1994.

Anderson also is the chair of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.

Dr. Bryan Smith had held the baseball spot since 2006. In his final annual report issued last December, he said the number of drug tests conducted by MLB rose 3 percent over the past year.

Baseball rules allowed either MLB or the union to not renew Smith after his term expired. The union decided not to bring him back.

''Dr. Smith did a great service to Major League Baseball and the Joint Drug Program during a very difficult period in its history. We think he's an excellent medical professional,'' Rob Manfred, MLB's executive vice president of economics and league affairs, said in a statement.

Last month, MLB management fired Shyam Das, the arbitrator who overturned Ryan Braun's drug suspension in February. Das had been baseball's permanent arbitrator since 1999.

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