"Labor peace is not perfect. The measure of baseball's new collective bargaining agreement is that both sides hurt a little in the compromise.

But in reaching a deal that will mark 21 years without a work stoppage, the parties made adjustments dripped in common sense. Other than the anvil dropped on amateur players in draft bonus slotting. More on that later.

After watching the NFL haggle for months and the NBA remain deadlocked, the MLB players and owners again show they've learned lessons from cancellation of the 1994 World Series? and from the steroids era.

They operated more as partners than adversaries. The headline change is that baseball will become the first sports league to conduct blood tests for HGH. The tests will begin next spring and are designed to eliminate a loophole in the previous policy. Clearly, the teeth will come from random offseason testing, and that won't occur until after the upcoming season. Still, it is an important next step in efforts to limit cheating."