by CHRIS LYNCH , American Digest Sports Editor
TO OVERCOME THE STEROIDS-TESTING IMPASSE in baseball, I suggest that baseball adopt the following rules:
1. All players on playoff bound teams - both Division winners and Wild Card teams - will be tested for steroids as soon as they clinch their playoff spot. Any player who fails the test will be barred from post season play and will have to pass a drug test in spring training in order to be reinstated. Plus the team will not be able to replace that roster spot for the duration of the playoffs.
2. Any player who fails a second test is banned from baseball for life and whatever contract he may have signed with the team becomes null and void.
I think these two changes would help take away the team's incentive to turn a blind eye to players they think might be juicing. It would also offer enough public shame and monetary punishments to make the player think twice about juicing.
Many people (like myself) really aren't concerned with the impact steroids has had on records and stats. I always find it curious that the people most upset about the records would also be the first people to say that baseball is a team game. What upsets me is that feeling that without Jason Giambi's steroid powered two home runs -- then the Red Sox win game 7 against the Yankees in 2003 and maybe this past year would have been back-to-back championships.
St. Louis fans have no beef with this year's Red Sox but what about their 2002 team? That team was kept from the World Series in large part because of Barry Bonds' 6 RBI in 5 games in the League Championship Series. The Cardinals would have matched up very well against the Angels that year. Did Bonds' steroid use keep a World Series win out of St. Louis?
I don't profess to be an expert on steroids and the possibility exists that players could cycle off steroids in time to pass any post season drug test. Nevertheless, I think the punishment would be enough to make the player think twice about using them in the first place. Remember that the drug test last year was an announced test and between 5-10% of players still failed.
These new rules would also add in the factor of peer pressure. Today if a player juices most players view that as a personal choice. With these new rules the player who juices could have a big, and negative, impact on the other players on his team who want a championship more than anything. This introduces significant peer pressure. Do you think the Yankees, who only value championships, would be more or less tolerant of a Giambi or Gary Sheffield if they knew the player might not be able to play in the playoffs and might even cost them a roster spot in the process?
Clean players suddenly become the priority for the Yankees and their big money contracts would become maybe the biggest incentive for players not to do steroids in the first place.
I think these changes could work if given the chance.
make the team owners financially liable for any health problems due to steroid use and there won't be a player in the league on the stuff.
Posted by: cjm at March 17, 2005 7:56 AMI do find the term "lifetime ban" always amusing when used in baseball (see Howe, Steve and Strawberry, Darryl)
Posted by: Chrees at March 17, 2005 8:56 AMcjm - I bet some player develops a cancer and sues both his team and baseball somewhere down the line.
Chrees - I don't like the cocaine comparison because steroids actually directly affected the outcome on the field.
Of course it makes sense & of course it will never be done.
Posted by: jeff at March 17, 2005 9:57 AMChris, point well taken.
However, my reference wasn't about performance on the field but rather the lack of backbone by baseball's front office. A lifetime ban means nothing when you're unwilling to enforce it.
Pete Rose has been the only exception I can think of, but that is because he refused to follow the unwritten rules like the other examples.
Posted by: Chrees at March 17, 2005 10:59 AMWhy a second chance? It's not as if the players don't know what they're doing the first time. Immediate ban for all players who use steroids or any other performance enhancing substance stronger than coffee.
Okay, there has to be some guidelines for drugs used to treat injury or help a player play hurt, but that's under a doctor's prescription and can be monitored.
Posted by: mark butterworth at March 17, 2005 1:14 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.