Thread: Baseball and Steroids

At public whipping, baseball shrugs off the sting

Fri Mar 18, 6:08 AM ET

After more than 30 years of delays, denials and dissembling about steroid abuse in its ranks, Major League Baseball was hauled before Congress Thursday for a well-deserved public flogging.

But the barons of baseball instead acted as if they'd earned high-fives.

Commissioner Bud Selig and union chief Don Fehr again congratulated themselves for the inadequate drug-testing and disciplinary program they belatedly proclaimed in January - even as disclosure of fine print in the still-unsigned and incomplete agreement exposed further shortcomings.

Baseball and its players union fought for weeks to avoid having their evasions and inadequacies exposed in a daylong, star-studded event. Baseball's apologists derided the hearing in advance as political grandstanding - and it was. But it was grandstanding that helped call attention to a deadly serious issue: the surging use of dangerous performance-enhancing substances by athletes down to the eighth-grade, inspired, no doubt, by high-profile athletes.

As far back as 1973, a congressional investigation concluded that the prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs in big-time sports was "alarming." Commissioners of the major sports promised that the problem would be addressed.

Yet it wasn't until 2003 that baseball even got around to administering anonymous tests to a token sample of players. The results gave credence to suspicions that the eye-popping muscle growth of some of the game's stars had been fueled by illegal chemistry. In a USA TODAY survey of players, 79% said they believe steroids played some role in recent record-breaking performances.

The use of steroids is cheating, even if retired slugger Mark ("I'm not here to talk about the past") McGwire was reluctant to say so in his evasive responses Thursday. More critically, steroids have been linked to heart attacks, liver problems, sexual dysfunction, depression and suicide. The parents of two young athletes who killed themselves after using steroids gave heart-rending testimony that should frighten every other parent - and every young athlete tempted to dabble in such potions.

Too many young people are aping their big-league role models. In 2003, one in 16 high school students reported having used steroids, according to a government survey.

After years of rumors and accusations, baseball finally announced that random, unannounced tests for performance-enhancing drugs would start this year. For the first time, a positive drug test will mean suspension without pay, 10 days for a first offense.

Selig calls the plan "as good as any in professional sports." But first-time offenders are suspended for at least four games in the NFL (25% of the season). And in most Olympic sports, the penalty is a two-year ban from competition; a second offense can bring a lifetime ban. An independent agency runs the program, removing the conflict of interest when those policing the games also have a stake in minimizing scandal.

That's the gold standard for curbing abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. It's not perfect. A cottage industry of drug hustlers is generating new substances that may be undetectable. But until baseball shows it takes steroid abuse seriously enough to adopt Olympic-class safeguards, it should not expect to win a free pass from Congress or to win back the confidence of fans.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ugsoffthesting