Persistence of a Steroid Bedevils Baseball

I couldn't help noticing that the reasons for players using these drugs that are given in the article are the excuse that Andy Pettitte gave for his using PEDS. How could anyone consider him less culpable than any of the other players who have used them?

Maybe MLB should make a requirement of reinstatement be that the player, to the best of his ability, provide information on the source of the PED. No one believes any of these guys' statements that they have no idea of how the drug got into their systems. Finding out where they got it from would help in shutting down the pipeline. And if anyone feels this is an invasion of the players' legal rights remember that any of us can go to Las Vegas and legally bet on games while players can not.

No one really is paying attention or cares much about the baseball, basketball, football business. Any third grader long ago realized the circus performers are (for the most part) functionally illiterate, oftentimes violent, primitive types driven by instinct, who inhabit the vast, ever growing American subculture. It's best to organize this charade, let it expire, fade to oblivion..

"While no major leaguers had failed a test for stanozolol in about seven years..." So?? I read media hysteria. I read slow news day.

"Persistence of a Steroid Bedevils Baseball"?

After years of nudge-nudge, wink-winking at steroids while the money was pouring in from fans wanting to see all the (bogus) "new records" being set amidst unending promo hoopla, major League Baseball now pretends that it's "bedeviled" by the same drugs, lying, and cheating it allowed and even tacitly encouraged?

Baseball (like many other aspects of our nation) has created a climate of cheating and blatant hypocrisy, all in service to almighty $mega-millions! It now wants to pretend it's "shocked, simply shocked" by what was obviously going on for years, but this is yet another hypocritical pose. All they really care about is trying to keep the money pipeline open, now that the public seems disgusted by cheating and drug abuse to this end.

But will baseball EVER address all the obviously bogus records and careers built on this drug-cheating? THAT would be real action! But somehow I won't hold my breath...

We can not unring the bell.
These medications should not be banned. They should be taken under a doctor's supervision, with regular monitoring as to dosage, and side effects.
As to "records" we need to merely acknowledge the reality of a pre-and post PED 'era'; the standards are forever changed, whether we like it or not.
I for one do not, but it is what it is....

I disagree with the draconian positions stated below. "One strike and banned for life" if applied to other areas of society would be a disaster. I wonder if these posters have ever made a mistake, a moral misjudgment, faced losing a multi-million dollar career? Players get short suspensions for violent behavior that threatens the health of other players, one-three games maybe. The penalties are harsh enough. Compassionate teaching -- exactly what MLB seems to be using -- shows it does care, and is the right path, in my opinion.

Contrary to what some other people have said, these players are not pioneers. Winstrol has been around since the 1960s. As one of the milder steroids it is probably used by athletes in all professional sports, and not just professional team sports, but I'm certain that its use is probably also rampant within the yuppie darlings of cycling and running too. Winstrol and other steroid products like it could never be offered to the public legally for mass consumption because no manufacturer could ever withstand the deluge of lawsuits that they would be subjected to if they were - steroids effectively improve muscle mass and athletic performance, but they also carry a host of side effects, and some of them can be very serious. Even the more mild stanozolol is still highly toxic to the liver. Attempting to ban steroids from sports is about more than protecting player health, it's a public health issue. The use of these drugs by some players creates a strong incentive for the rest of the players and potential players to use them too. And if professional athletes are allowed or encouraged to take them then why not the rest of the public? Because we don't trust people to use them responsibly, and the misuse of these drugs would impose significant costs to society. Therefore, even though the MLB probably doesn't actually care about steroid use by its players, we'd still like them to appear to care, if only for the sake of public health.

Bedevils Baseball? Why? The job, the pay, the fame are all performance based and driven. Enforce a no-exception lifetime ban for the first offense or Baseball will always be bedeviled.

It's hard for me to believe that guys would knowingly pop a stanozolol pill. particularly at the major league level, without more to the story. I suspect that more will come out about this; e.g., better detection, the drug adulterating an otherwise permissible supplement.

Want to end PED use in MLB? Suspend the offender's team from the playoffs like the NCAA deals with cheaters.

Lifetime bans are too much, in my opinion. Kids from the DR and other places trying to get a better life should not be punished so much for an error of judgement, and anyway, it's an extreme and completely intolerant solution to what is ultimately a minor transgression - let's not forget that it's a game! The kids doing it are looking for an edge, but they are already talented athletes: whatever you think of A-Rod as a person, he is a fantastic baseball player, and would be (probably) even without the steroids. Righteous intolerance may be appropriate when aimed at politicians or corrupt business leaders, not towards sports people or entertainers.

So, if Barry Bonds and A-Rod won't be allowed in the Hall of Fame, how about ALL those players throughout baseball history who have EVER used any PEDs including stanozolol, steroids, Ritalin/Adderall , nicotine, caffeine etc .......?
And those already in the Hall should be removed and disgraced, right? Those of you who boo Alex and would shun Bonds--look at your own glass houses.
Or, not. But MLB must be consistent at last. I say, make the issue irrelevant to the Hall eligability, but suspend and fine as appropriate.

It's obvious from some of the comments posted here that despite all the information and research available, some people still do not understand why using steroids and human growth hormone is so bad. Putting aside the many ethical reasons against gaining an unfair advantage over both contemporary rivals and all the athletes who came before let alone the example it sets for children and adolescents, steroid and HgH use is DANGEROUS to your health! The inherent risk of either developing cancer or fanning its flames into a systemic wildfire is enormous.

Some people are either oblivious cave-dwellers or they choose to ignore the facts.

why do players cheat? Because it pays. Penalties clearly need to be increased. Failure to do so will turn people off from the game.

Steroids are NOT persistent! The USE of steroids is persistent! Baseball players are no different from the rest of society: if it will help me make money I will do it! The easiest way to stop steroid use, in MLB and all the other sports where they are used, is to ban somebody for life for even one-time use. The problem will go away. But, I fear with so much obscene money involved, the players will be able to find and use some other, more undetectable, product.

When Members of Congress are tested for alcohol and other drugs, as they vote to send us to war, raise taxes, authorize a bridge to nowhere, or send letters to the Iranian government then, perhaps I will care whether entertainers, including athletes, use drugs.

I suppose a little sense of proportion is too much to ask for.

“I really view this as aberrational,” Halem said. “Hopefully, there is a reason for it that’s explainable.”

This gem of a quote is from baseball's "drug czar"?

Baseball needs this generation's Kenesaw Moutain Landis, or it's going to die a slow, very visible death as it morphs into World Wrestling Federation Baseball. If Halem thinks the cheaters are aberrations, and not the clean players, he ain't the right guy for the job. "Hope" isn't going to get the job done.

A good topic for sabermetricians would be: how much of the famous rise of Dominican ballplayers was due to steroids being available over the counter in the DR?

Of course, sabermetricians such as Bill James, Nate Silver, and Michael Lewis had been extremely leery about noticing the elephant in the living room: steroids.

Longer penalties are mandatory
Or else we risk our Baseball story,
Risking our precious Game
Would be a sad shame,
A tragic turn of our History.

For the sake of the historical record, I wish the NYT would include a paragraph in all of these 'doping' stories reminding us why we are supposed to care about athletes improving their technique and health this way. [Other than because it is against 'the rules', obviously.] Especially given the surgical and nutritional interventions prevalent in today's sport. Otherwise, these stories are (or will soon be) as puzzling as old newspaper clippings wherein it is understood why Americans are so worried about 'reds' or the Irish or 'demon drink'.

Pete Rose is banned for life but ARod and Ryan Braun get to play? What a joke (I say this as a Brewers fan by the way). Not that I think Pete Rose should be let back, actually I think it should be a 1 strike and you're out policy with steroids. Players might complain about false positives, but I'm willing to bet a positive urine test could be verified with a hair test. Mike Tyson used the Wizzinator, urine tests are a joke. I think MLB wants to make it look like they care, when they probably don't.

In 50 years they will be calling these guys pioneers. It's the state of the art. Especially when it comes to healing injuries. Fifty years ago if a pitcher blew out his elbow chances were good his career was over. Then along came Tommy John surgery and they could keep playing. Now the state of the art is to heal injuries at the molecular level. What's the difference?

Look, nothing could be more plainly apparent: doping is cheating.
If you cheat, you must be banned for life, and all of your records must get expunged.
Period.
Moreover, to rid baseball of this deadly scourge, everyone complicit, manager, trainer, whoever, must likewise be banned for life.
No exceptions.
Pussyfooting around this moral issue is contemptible and intolerable.
Make no corrupt quibble or cowardly mistake: MONEY is at the base of this, and that toxic taint must not destroy the very game itself.
So, I repeat and assert: if you dope, you're done.
The lack of moral guts now rampant is damnably disgusting.
Clean house and be clear: there's virtue and value in fair play!
So, make it so, and forever deny those who would have it otherwise.

Banning them for life would work. Banning them for a full season for the first offense and for life for the second would be less effective but acceptable. The best way, however, would be to incentivize players and management to police their own organizations by forfeiting games and championships and playoff bonuses won while a player caught doping was playing.

Whatever. Technology will continue on unabated, creating new and better PEDs that could be undetectable. As a private organization, MLB can ban any substance it chooses to ban, but it is a loosing battle. Let players ingest whatever they want. I simply want to see a good game played withing the rules of THE GAME, not the artificial rules made by moralists in big offices.

Francis Dodoo is absolutely correct: it's completely unfair to allow drug-cheats back in the game. First-time, lifetime bans would certainly make the incidence of PEDs use all but disappear. But, of course, MLB will never rock their billion-dollar boat. If they really took drug-testing and enforcement seriously we'd be watching single and double-A ballplayers for the next 20 years.

Is it any surprise that those desperate to escape the poverty of the Dominican Republic for the riches of Major League Baseball cheat by taking steroids? They also often lie about their ages. Of course, plenty of American players have cheated, too.

It is interesting that the media, which loves holding CEOs responsible for wrongdoing by employees, has never suggested that those managers who reached the Hall of Fame on the basis of their deep insight into their players--Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre--should be held accountable for so many of their players taking steroids.