Just scratching the surface

Today's game is riddle with drug abusers, HGH users and other anabolic steroid users. The recent Mitchell Report only has scratched the surface of what is no doubt the most damning part of the game. The report by the owner and senator, however, was unclear in its determinations, weak in citing sources and lacking in actual cold hard facts and straight forward answers. It neither gave real reasons for the cause of the many problems in today's game, nor did it give real solutions. In the end, more questions were raised and left unanswered than ever before.

My approach to cleaning the game is four-fold.

First and foremost, the commissioner of the Major Leagues must be removed from his position. His tenure as both an owner of a club and as the head honcho of the Major Leagues leads to inevitable bias and one-sidedness in his approach to problems such as steroids. No matter what he says, bias is existent. He treats the game as a business and rightfully so. While his approach to raising money and improving fanfare of the game is working, the national pastime should not only be treated as a company that raises revenue, but as a special business. It is a game Americans cherish. If the fans lose their trust in such a sacred part of American history, not only is it bad for business, it is bad for American culture. His approach to removing steroids from the game and implementation of stricter testing policies have been insufficient. It took him way too long to place a ban on HGH, and while I applaud him for doing so and realize that nothing can be done for a past mistake, testing is still not strict enough.

Secondly, the US government should not be standing as idly as they have recently. Though this Mitchell report is a start, too much money was spent inefficiently in this report. The report failed to produce results or solutions. The game is cherished by fans and it has taken its place in American culture, embedded forever as our sport. The government should be more proactive, telling baseball to clean up the game, placing pressure on Bud Selig and his crew. The approach that needs to be taken by the senate and house should be along the lines of, "clean up your game, or we'll come over there and clean it up for you." American culture is being eroded by illegal usage of steroids.

Furthermore, testing policies need to be much stricter. A long 162-game season is plenty of time for players to juice and avoid being caught several times throughout the season. Monthly testing should be arranged for teams, by teams. Surprise off-season testing should be much more applied. The game has raised enough money through fan revenues that they have the power to implement such a system. Next, punishments should be stronger. Following the three-strike system of baseball, each offense should account for more. The first time around, a half-season ban, 81 games should be placed on the player. A following offense should account for an entire season ban, and lastly a third offense should be a permanent ban from baseball.

Lastly, I feel more research should be placed into determining whether or not a player is illegally enhancing his game. A huge amount of money is going to study of sports medicine and enhancing the body, but it is unequal to counter efforts. This is a key to ending steroid cheating. More and more, players are turning to improved systems of hiding the fact that they are enhancing their game. Those who keep track of cheaters need to be on the same page, and not enough money is being poured into counter-research. Baseball has a lot on its plate to clean. With the system they have in place currently, players will continue to cheat and the steroid era will never end.