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Selig
needs to make stand against steroids
SPORTS
COLUMN
Saeed
Rezai
The issue of steroids has created a dark
cloud over Major League Baseball. According
to a national USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll,
63 percent of fans think steroids are a
serious problem and 23 percent believe they
are hurting the game. How did the problem
become so big and why hasn’t baseball
done anything to clean it up?
In order to answer these questions, we must
first analyze where the problem lies. The
issue of steroids squarely falls on the
shoulders of MLB ball and its players union.
The National Football League, National Basketball
Association and International Olympic Committee
all test their athletes for steroids while
MLB has no such testing program.
When MLB and the MLB Players Association
negotiated the current collective bargaining
agreement, which went into effect Sept.
30, 2002, they agreed to adopt mandatory
testing if the percentage of positive results
exceeded 5 percent.
Furthermore, MLB doesn’t test in the
off-season. That’s when the training
goes on and the majority of players try
to get themselves in stronger shape regardless
of the injuries they have suffered during
the season.
Because of the MLB players union, players
are only tested twice each year and it’s
really easy for any players who are using
steroids to get “around” the
testing.
For
many years, fans and even the media have
voiced their concerns over the steroids
policies of MLB and each time, Commissioner
Bud Selig and Players Association leader
Donald Fehr say that they have a policy
at hand that works well for both the players
and MLB.
Besides lacking a tough steroids policy,
a major problem that seems to block the
solution to the problem is the Major League
Baseballs Players Association. The Players
Association has refused to include steroid
testing in past collective bargaining agreements
and believe the policy at hand works well.
Fans and media have argued the topic of
steroids in retrospect to the baseball records
being shattered left and right.
The fans believe that the owners, the union,
the commissioner and the players don’t
care about the issue of steroids or simply
don’t get the ramification of it.
I, like many angry baseball fans, feel the
owners and players won’t clean up
the game unless the fans demand it.
How far do you go back in time to find out
if players have used steroids to break records
and who gets the special attention of having
an asterisk right by their name? You don’t
even have to be a baseball fan to know that
there is problem.
Babe Ruth’s record 60 home runs, set
in 1927, stood for nearly four decades before
Roger Maris broke it in 1961. Maris’s
record stood for over 40 years before McGwire
shattered it with 70 in 1998, the same year
Sammy Sosa hit 66 home runs.
The 60 home run mark, which was only reached
twice in a century, was accomplished four
more times, including Barry Bonds single
season home run record of 73 set in 2001.
Recently at a Congressional Hearing at Washington,
D.C. MLB was heavily criticized for their
lack of stricter drug testing policies.
The issue at a hand was whether MLB is willing
to adopt a comprehensive drug-testing policy
like the one in the NFL, and once again
the Donald Fehr rejected the idea.
With pressure mounting from Congress, Bud
Selig’s recommendation of tougher
drug testing policies took a step in the
right direction.
First offense gets a 10-day suspension,
with the penalty increasing to 30 days for
a second positive test, 60 days for a third
and one year for a fourth.
As a fan I applaud him for making a conscious
effort in cleaning up the game. He even
took the process further by announcing his
tougher and stricter testing policy.
He asked the players to agree to a 50-game
suspension for first-time steroid offenders,
a 100-game ban for a second offense and
a lifetime ban for a third violation under
the “three strikes and you’re
out approach.”
Who knew Bud Selig had the guts to stand
up to the Players Association? And we the
fans say it’s about time.
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