Players union should advocate voluntary drug testing to repair damage already done.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

PHILADELPHIA _ Ever since the evil strike of 1994, the Major League Baseball Players Association has been in need of a public-relations makeover.

Thanks to Ken Caminiti, the union now has a chance to get one.

In light of Caminiti's public disclosure that he used steroids during his playing days, and that those steroids helped build the muscle he used to cheat his way to the 1996 National League MVP award, the players association needs to do something _ quickly _ to erase the cloud of suspicion that Caminiti cast on many of his former big-league brethren, especially those who give chase to home-run records every year.

The players should not wait for the commissioner's office to devise a plan for mandatory testing. They should raise their hands and volunteer for testing.

They should make it the first order of business when the new work week starts Monday. Union head Don Fehr, who works for the players, should be ordered to call commissioner Bud Selig and say, "My constituents want to be tested, for the good of the game."

This would be a terrific PR move by a union that could use one, just three weeks after getting its name dragged through the mud (again) by simply saying it may set a strike date for later this summer if it does not soon get a new labor agreement.

Beyond PR, volunteering for testing would get to the heart of athletics, the notion that competition is supposed to be fair.