Carew calls for drug testing ? Hall of Famer Rod Carew has called for random steroid testing of baseball players, the touchy subject of Senate hearings that is also weighing heavily in major league contract negotiations.

“If you want the fans to respect what’s left of the game’s pureness, you’re going to have to start testing,” Carew told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, weeks after former stars Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti admitted using the muscle-building substances.

Carew said he first suspected anabolic steroid use in the early 1990s when he was batting instructor for the Anaheim Angels.

“I started seeing more and more guys looking like bodybuilders and not baseball players,” he said.

Carew said current high salaries drive players to break the rules.

“No one wants to be left behind,” he said. “Especially when steroids will give an average player with no power an opportunity to easily hit 25-30 home runs. As for the superstar, well, they will hit 50 to 70.”

During his 19-year career in the majors, Carew won seven American League batting titles and had 3,053 hits but only 92 home runs.

“Just my forearms were big, because I wanted to be able to fight off pitches inside and hit them for hits,” said Carew, who ended his playing career in 1985 with the Angels.

“But during my day with the Angels, we had guys like Reggie Jackson and Brian Downing who were somewhat big, but they did it the right way and didn’t take steroids.”

Former major league MVPs Canseco and Caminiti admitted weeks ago to taking steroids. The resulting controversy prompted Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to hold Senate subcommittee hearings and slowed labor negotiations between the players association and owners.

Carew said he doubts year-round, random testing will become a reality because of the strength of the union, which argues that such testing would violate player privacy.