PED’S in Baseball
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By Spencer Kersh
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The ever-growing problem in Major League
Baseball has been the use of Performance
Enhancing Drugs. Despite the leagues efforts to
eliminate the use, tests are still coming back
positive on some of the biggest names in the
game past or present. Is there really no way to
clean up the game? Or are the right measures
just not being taken?
INTRO
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Allow teams to conduct their own tests aside
from those administered by the league
Up the consequences both for individual
players and the team
Conduct random testing monthly
Proposal
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The penalty for a positive test discovered by the
league would be as follows: The player receives an
immediate one year suspension and his contract is
void. Following his suspension, if he is a minor
leaguer or still under five years of experience, the
team he was on has the option to resign him if they
choose. If the player has over five years, he returns
as a free agent following the suspension. A second
positive test is penalized with a lifetime ban. Once a
player is caught, they immediately lose any and all
consideration for awards for the duration of their
careers and receive lifetime bans from Hall of Fame
eligibility.
Increased Penalties
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Along with those individual penalties, new
team penalties will be enforced. Not only will
the player who gets caught contract be voided,
but the team that player is employed by will be
required to pay the full remaining amount of
that contract back to the league to be
distributed equally to the players who test
clean. Along with that payback requirement,
the team will also be deprived of their first
round draft pick protected or not in the
following year.
Increased Penalties cont…
Allow individual teams to conduct their own
testing, separate from official MLB through a
similarly licensed and vetted third party
endorsed by the MLB and Commissioner's Office.
By giving the teams the luxury of testing their
own players, the teams are given the opportunity
to save themselves money and valuables.
Team testing
If a team turns in a positive drug test from one of
their own players from a test they conducted
independently, they are exempt from all of the
team penalties mentioned before. Meaning they
save the money from the voided contract and
keep their draft pick. By giving this option, Teams
will take the steroid scandal a bit more serious
because they too have a lot to lose along with the
individual choosing to illegally use.
Team Testing cont…
Right now in the current Joint Drug Prevention and
Treatment Program enforced by the MLB and players
union, players are subject to a urine test in training camp
and once randomly throughout the span of the season. If
the MLB conducted random tests on a monthly basis the
number of users would go down for a few reasons. Most
of the illegal substances linger in the body for spans
longer than 3-4 weeks. There would be little chance of
using and having it clear your system in time for the
random monthly test. By increasing the drug tests
enforced by the league, team testing will be a top priority
because they don’t want those penalties the league will
enforce if they catch a player. In essence the players are
tested multiple times a month, and the threat of being
caught is much higher.
Increase Random Testing
To completely eliminate something that has become
such a big part of the game is almost seemingly
impossible partly because it is an individual decision.
By increasing the consequences to the extreme lengths
I suggested, there is a legitimate chance. I know that
the two sides (MLB and Players Union) will never
agree to this and a lot of people will disagree, but in
order to completely clean the game up like the fans
have wanted, drastic measures must be taken. Yes,
players are burdened with these suggestions but really
it’s a small price to pay for someone that is being paid
greatly to play a sport that they love in front of cities
that love them back.
In Closing
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Anabolic Steroids - A Threat to Mind and Body. NIDA
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Associated Press. "The Big Story." The Big Story. The
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Assael, Shawn. "ESPN The Magazine." Ways around
Drug Rules in MLB -. ESPN, 20 Feb. 2012. Web. 21 Oct.
2013.
WaldronThin, Travis. "Steroids And Major League
Baseball: Is More Testing The Answer?" ThinkProgress
RSS. ., 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
Flanagan, Kelly. "United States Sports Academy
America's Sports University®." Can Sports Management
Stop Steroid Use? Thesportdigest, 01 Nov. 2010. Web. 23
Oct. 2013.
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