As expected, the Mitchell Report has created a buzz in the sports world after it identified 86 players who were accused of being users of performance-enhancing drugs.
For those who consider themselves to be diehard baseball fans, George Mitchell’s report hardly comes as a shock. In fact, in all likelihood, those 86 players are just a small sampling of the dopers infecting Major League Baseball.
Some will say that baseball is now at a crossroads when it comes to protecting the game’s integrity. But unfortunately, they would be wrong. Baseball is already about 18 stops past protecting the game’s integrity, and most people have known that for a long time.
Statistics compiled over the past decade are an inflated sham. World Series outcomes have been altered. Record books have been forever changed, and honest record-holders have been cheated.
So now the sport is no longer in the position of protecting the game’s integrity. What baseball has to do now is restore its integrity. To do that, here’s what needs to happen going forward:
1. Bud Selig needs to be fired.
This is so obvious it hardly needs to be mentioned. The rampant steroid use in baseball happened on his watch as commissioner, and he turned a blind eye to it. He liked the game’s popularity, and he liked the eye-popping offense, so he conveniently managed to ignore what was happening in every clubhouse in baseball.
There’s certainly enough blame to go around, to be shared by owners, trainers, players and other team officials alike, but Selig has failed the game so miserably that he needs to go. It’s time to find a commissioner in the spirit of Kennesaw Mountain Landis with the courage to stand up and do the right thing.
2. Cheaters need to be disciplined more harshly.
Hand out lifetime suspensions for those who have been confirmed as users of performance-enhancing drugs. It won’t take many lifetime bans for players to get the idea that if they juice up, they’re going to be shipped out permanently.
3. Erase the statistics of the users.
The names of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and every other confirmed user should be forever wiped from the record books, as if they’d never played the game.
Harsh? Maybe so. But not nearly as harsh as the damage they’ve done to their predecessors who played the sport with a fire in their belly, and not a needle in their butt.
4. Test more extensively.
Do it randomly. Do it unannounced. Do it to everyone. Do it repeatedly.
If players want the privilege of playing baseball for a living, they’ll know that heavy drug testing comes with it. If they don’t like that, then they can go to medical school, or business school, or hairdressing school, or whatever. If they want to do steroids, then they can try out for professional wrestling.
The answers to the steroid issue in baseball are not elusive. It is not a hopeless task to clean up the game. All it takes is a leader with the guts to do what’s necessary, and owners who will support him in that endeavor.
