Baseball players would accept a stiffer penalty for first-time steroid offenders – 20 games instead of 10 days – and agree to amphetamine tests, but the union’s offer yesterday still fell short of what commissioner Bud Selig wanted.

In an April 25 letter to the union, Selig called for a 50-game suspension for an initial positive test, a 100-game ban for second-time offenders, and a lifetime ban for a third violation.

Union head Donald Fehr’s response said Selig’s proposal was meant to quiet criticisms of baseball’s current policy, not deter steroid use.

“We share your concern about the criticism our program has received, and, in response, the players have demonstrated, several times now, their willingness to take all reasonable measures in response,” Fehr wrote.

“Doubling it is good,” Orioles player representative Jay Gibbons said before last night’s game against the Yankees, which was delayed by rain. I think 10 is a little light. You can do without a guy for 10 days, but 20, you’re kind of hurting your ballclub, too.”

Fehr’s letter came ahead of Wednesday’s congressional hearings on steroids in sports, the latest in a series of sessions on Capitol Hill. Selig and Fehr are expected to join the commissioners and union heads of the NFL, NBA, and NHL in testifying about legislation to standardize testing and punishment policies.

“Twenty games are not enough,” baseball spokesman Rich Levin said. “Also, the union’s proposal is not three strikes and you’re out. It is three strikes and maybe you’re out.”

Baseball began testing for steroids in 2003, but players were not identified by name. Because more than 5% of tests were positive, penalties began in 2004 under rules that were scheduled to run through 2006.

Fehr said that during recent negotiations with management, the union agreed to have:

* every player tested at the start of spring training and at least one additional time.

* the possibility that a first-time offender’s suspension could rise up to 30 games if there were aggravating factors, or be lowered to as few as 10 games if an arbitrator finds mitigating factors.

* the penalty for a second positive steroid test increase from 30 days to 75 games, with the possibility an arbitrator could increase it to as many as 100 games or lower it to as few as 50 games.

* the commissioner impose “such discipline as you believe appropriate, including a permanent ban” for a third positive test “provided that it is consistent with just cause and subject to arbitral review.”

* first-time offenders for amphetamine use receive treatment, with discipline starting with a second offense.

* much of the drug program’s administration moved to a “jointly selected independent expert” from the current management-union joint committee.