Baseball Chiefs Get Tough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manker

MLB has introduced new 'zero tolerance' rules on steroid abuse. A player will get banned for 10 games if he tests positive.

This sounds good but as I understand it, the baseball season is something like 180 games long so the guy would be banned for a little over 2 weeks if he gets caught red handed taking drugs. Furthermore the ban is only increased slightly until he gets caught a fourth time, and then he is banned for a year. What!

What do the US members make of this debacle. For someone, who admittedly doesn't understand the dynamics behind the MLB, it seems inconceivable that someone can get caught 4 times before he gets a substantial penalty. Do the public not care that in all probability the winning team had the best drugs rather than the most talent. With no testing, as I understand it, previous to this year the MLB is more comparable to the WWE than the IAAF.

This is in stark contrast to a recent case in Soccer where Rio Ferdinand was banned for 8 months because he forgot to take a urine test, no matter that he offered to take it the next day. Having the mental capacity of a grapefruit wasn't an excuse either and his club had to pay his wages with no recompense for the duration of the ban.

I think the American baseball fans deserve better. These measures are a farce.

I'm sorry I don't have a source, it was 45 second summation I watched on Sky Sports News last night. It was reported as a panacea to drug abuse in Baseball :dry:

I think I got the gist of it but apologies for any inaccuracies.

Thanks for starting this thread Manker cause I've got a few opinions.

Baseball's new steriod policy is a freakin joke. "Zero Tolerance"? Is that what they're calling it? A ten game suspension is a joke to the public, so it will most certainly be a joke to one of the richest players in baseball (Bonds stands to make approx. $18 million this year). The drug debate in baseball is evidently still not a very big issue to the MLB 'big-wigs'. Players like Bonds and Giambi who have admitted to taking human growth hormones along with steriods will still see no signifigant change in the rules as human growth hormones are still allowed. Even if a player is caught will cocaine or marijuana, they are only given a substance abuse program for a matter of weeks. Only if further infractions occur, there is a possibilty for suspension.

IMO, one of the worst things that a fan could see happen due to this abuse is seeing records like Hank Aaron's all-time HR record be broken by someone who has admittedly taken these drugs for years. (Bonds growth timeline) I have little hope that Bonds won't break the record, in all likelyhood it will happen in the coming year since he only needs 40 something and he spanked 73 of them previously. This will be a sad day in baseball.

http://bottleofblog.typepad.com/bottleofblog/Bonds.jpeg