When it comes to performance-enchancing drugs baseball is a joke, a sport with zero accountability. A-Roid admits to drug use and he gets no penalties. Oh, sure he apologized and he seemed sad, but he didn't pay back one penny and he won't get suspended one game.
No accountability.
Here are some suggestions Bud Selig could take if he wants to get tough.
1. If a guy tests positive during the season his team gets docked two wins. This would generate peer pressure and would get players where it hurts. (This idea came to me from Santa Rosa doc Gary Furness, also a doctor for the California State Athletic Commission. He also points out if a cheater in T&F gets caught and he/she ran on a relay, all relay members forfeit medals.)
2. If you test positive, even in retrospect, your numbers don't count -- this would apply to batting champs, home run and RBI champs. Their records simply get expunged for cheating. This would follow the lead of track and field where cheater and phony Marion Jones had to give back all the Olympic medals she won in Sydney.
3. Selig should try to get the Hall of Fame onboard. Any player who twice tests positive is banned from the Hall.
I would be eager to hear some of your ideas on this subject. To read my column on whether Bud Selig is a weenie click here.
Jeff Fletcher wrote a fascinating blog disagreeing with my position on drug testing and posting an SI article from 40 years ago detailing drug use in baseball. To read Fletch's blog click here.
I agree that baseball needs to finally get serious about steroid use moving forward or do the exact oppossite, just legalize the things. A half-a$$ed cover up policy like we've had recently doesn't work.
As far as the steroid users of the past, I don't see how we don't just move on. Unless we can get definitive, objective tests for everyone in the league at the time, it is unfair to pluck names or use names from the "random" testing of years past which is illegally being leaked. (Some the media isn't upset with these leaks, which are each felonies and very serious if you value the US legal system. But I digress...)
Everyone needs to move on, especially the media.
As far as Bud Selig being a piece of the answer to the problem, I don't see it. Remember, this is the same guy who sat by idly during this whole thing. The spirit of hands off "leadership" is probably more to blame for this whole mess than anything.
Maybe the title of your story should be...What should the media do ?
In reality we should all move on & move forward. I still believe that baseball is America's pastime & it certainly has been damaged by wide spread drug use, whether it was legal at the time, or not (as it is now)
I really get suspicious of players that try to exercise damage control. A-Rod's story is less believable as he continus to open his mouth. I really don't believe what David Ortiz is saying, at this point in time he is looking guilty by association.
I my mind the game as evolved into this era, even without the issue of steroids. Just look at how the current player is built today. Closely compare Aaron Rowand to say...Paul Blair. Both are & were good center fielders. If I am not mistaken, Blair played at around 170 lbs. He was an outstanding defensive CF & he could really run a ball down. But, by today's standards, Blair would barely qualify to be the bat boy. We have several factors playing into this equation...year-round training, weight lifting, & better equipment just to name a few. Players from the 60's worked in regular jobs during the offseason, and then they actually went to spring training to get into shape. Now days the player is already in shape, before spring training ever starts.
Now back to the steroid issue...I am personally just as sick & tired of this issue, as anybody in the media is. I believe Bonds gets picked on, primarily because he never got along with the media until it was too late. Other players are also easy targets for the obvious reasons. If it was just as simple as having your cousin applying the syringe to your butt, then steriods should have worked for all players. Can anyone explain why Marvin Bernard, Armando Rios, & Bobby Estalella could not hit a lick. Steroids obviously didn't help these bums. What about body armour, & what ever happened to pitchers throwing on the inside of the plate. I know it's hard to compare generations of the game, but I wonder how Bonds & McGwire would have done with Gibson, Koufax, & Drysdale ???
By the way, I'd have no problem with a lifetime ban of a hall of fame ban (the former would be more of a deterrent) for people who fail steroid tests from now on. My issue is with people who want to issue retroactive punishments and erase history.
Considering there were no penalties in baseball for steroid use in 01-03, I think anyone who has ever watched an episode of The Practice could tell you that you can't go back and impose a penalty now.
Yes, steroid use was illegal then. If a DA can find enough proof of ARods steroid use he could charge him (although k think the statute of limitations is 5 years).
You know, if baseball starts throwing out records based on who did or did not get caught I'll stop watching.
Oh wait. I already stopped watching.
Steroid use is cheating but hardly a major sin in the great scheme of things. The sanctity of the game comes in a distant second in a race with the chance to be a major leaguer or a dominant player for many guys and I can sympathize. You've spent most of your life working toward the show and steroids might make the difference between the majors and minors or between scuffling all your life or being rich as sin (you believe). What's the harm, you think - especially when there was no punishment for so many years. Let's not be so self-righteous.