Baseball Stew: Getting tougher on cheaters, Part one

While Major League Baseball pats itself on the back for its policy on users of PEDs, there are many who wish baseball could get even tougher on those who cheat by using drugs. If I had the power, and if I couldn’t be obstructed by the actions of, say, the players’ union or courts of law, I would establish a rule which would mandate PED users being banned from the game forever. In this case, one strike and you’re out.

While it may be noble to forgive and forget, I can’t find it in my heart to allow any player who has tarnished the game I love to sit out for any given period of time only to return to the major leagues in any capacity. Baseball is a game rich in its lore, and our love for it is largely based upon our fascination with its statistics, records, and history. Those who distort that deserve a lifetime ban.

Harsh? Well, I’ve heard quite a few retired and active players, men who have a clean record, argue the same thing. Repeat offenders, they contend, prove things need to get tougher. And have we ever gone more than a short period of time between disclosures that a minor or yet another major leaguer has been caught taking some PEDs?

Obviously, the current rules aren’t as much of a deterrent as an eternal ouster from the game would be. Consider Ryan Braun— even after he was seemingly caught once for cheating, he didn’t avoid PEDs, and he risked being caught. He did get caught and he was, in fact, suspended. He sullied the game, but is now back in baseball relatively unscathed.

Why should a guy like Jhonny Peralta serve a relatively brief sentence after having been able to pad his statistics illegally, then sign a new contract, based largely on inflated stats, and thus benefit from cheating? Under existing rules, anyone willing to take a chance on getting caught once for taking PEDs has the opportunity to put up big numbers, reap the benefits of those artificially-acquired stats, and either not get caught or take a one-shot punishment, sit out, then bounce back to open arms and huge paychecks.

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For some players the thinking must be, “Hey, why not take PEDs? It’s worth taking a chance. Even if I do get caught, the rewards ultimately outweigh the risk.” It’s almost like what the fictional character Joe Hardy of the movie Damn Yankees faced when he succumbed to temptation and immorally obtained his performance enhancement thanks to his making a pact with Satan.

Certainly Alex Rodriguez went quite some time before his two periods of taking drugs were exposed. Under my banned for life edict, he would have been out of the game after his initial violation, and his remaining salary would have been forfeited.

The welcoming-back, open arms often come in the form of many fans who either have short memories, very generous natures, or who are willing to ignore cheating as long as the cheater is playing for his favorite team. Cleveland fans and management extolled the value of Jason Giambi over the past two seasons, praising his leadership qualities and treating him like aging baseball royalty. They almost seem to have forgotten that he was a part of the biggest scandal that ever rocked baseball, or certainly the biggest one since the 1919 Black Sox scandal. I’m sorry, but even if Giambi is the nicest guy around, what he did to baseball should not be minimized nor dismissed.

In my next article, Part Two, we pick up the argument about banning cheaters for life (even though I realize I’m very likely being a dreamer concerning this topic). We’ll explore the logic behind the lifetime ban as it relates to both active and retired players, and we’ll focus on some more big names such as Mark McGwire, Manny Ramirez, and, of course, Barry Bonds.