(AP) Career home run leader Hank Aaron and four other baseball Hall of Famers told Congress on Wednesday they support commissioner Bud Selig's proposals to toughen the sport's drug-testing policy.

Invited by Selig to appear at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on steroids in sports, former star players Aaron, Ryne Sandberg, Phil Niekro, Robin Roberts and Lou Brock were not on the witness list. But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who ran the hearing, asked them to speak before the testimony of Selig and the commissioners and union leaders of four major professional sports leagues.

"I want to applaud the commissioner, and I also just want to make sure that whatever we do, we make sure that we clean up baseball," said Aaron, whose record of 755 homers is being approached by San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds.

Sandberg, who addressed steroids during his Hall of Fame induction speech in July, told the Senators: "We here today owe America's pastime a strict policy."

Responding to pressure from Sen. John McCain, Major League Baseball union head Donald Fehr told Congress on Wednesday he thinks a new steroids agreement with harsher penalties could happen in a month.

Fehr, baseball commissioner Bud Selig and officials from the National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League were called before the Senate Commerce Committee to discuss two proposed Senate bills that would standardize drug policies across sports. Three similar bills have been introduced in the House.

The focus during the two-hour hearing, though, was on baseball, much as has been the case since the House Government Reform Committee grilled Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Selig, Fehr and others about steroids on March 17. Palmeiro, who emphatically told Congress that day he had never used steroids, was suspended Aug. 1 after failing a drug test.

McCain wanted to know why the process has moved so slowly, asking Fehr repeatedly: "Don't you get it?"

"We're at the end here, and I don't want to do it, but we need an agreement soon. It's not complicated. It's not complicated. All sports fans understand it," McCain said. "I suggest you act and you act soon."

Pressed for a deadline for an agreement, Fehr said: "Can I give you a precise date? No. Would I expect it to be by the end of the World Series? I would certainly hope so."

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