Is baseball's new steroid policy tough enough?
NICK CAFARDO
If sports owners and commissioners feel steroids are a big problem, then you need the toughest penalties possible to deter players from artificially enhancing themselves. The MLB policy is now even tougher than the NFL policy, which I think in time will spur the NFL to come up with an even tougher policy. Unfortunately, there are scientists in laboratories mixing concoctions of new designer steroids that will allow some players to always be one step ahead of the system. This is where MLB and the NFL must come up with a method to stay at least in lockstep with the mad scientists.
GORDON EDES
The severity of the penalties gives the appearance of a sport determined to rid itself of steroid use, but the even harsher penalties administered in the Olympics hardly seem to have worked as a deterrent to those athletes bound to win at any cost, and it remains to be seen whether cheating will be actually reduced or just channeled into other more insidious, undetectable forms, e.g. blood doping.
BOB RYAN
Baseball needed to come up with something that will get the full attention of all concerned, and this new policy will surely do that. A first-time offender will miss nearly one-third of a season. Whoa. You go down for 100 games for a second offense, and if anyone is now stupid enough to be a third-time offender, and thus face a lifetime ban, that person is probably too flat-out stupid to be of much use to a team, anyway. Funny how the wrath of Capitol Hill can spur someone into action, isn't it? Targeting amphetamines was a bonus. Now if only someone could figure out what to do with human growth hormones.
DAN SHAUGHNESSY
Good job by Major League Baseball on this one. The most stunning aspect of the new agreement is the fact that Donald Fehr and the Players Association agreed to reopen the basic agreement for the second time in a year. Uncle Bud looks good this time, but be assured the union will want something back when the current agreement expires. Meanwhile, we are rid of the joke of the former system, and this new one has teeth. And don't underestimate the amphetamines factor. For the first time, there'll be risk for players who pop greenies.
CHRIS SNOW
Yes, baseball's new steroid policy is tough enough. The bet here: Those 12 positive tests last season fall to one or two total over the next four or five seasons. The average to below-average major league player will no longer risk getting caught. The reason: His team, and baseball, will quickly leave him behind. The assumption here: The rare failed test will befall a player accustomed to considerable success. He will struggle. He won't be able to identify with the struggle. His ego will outweigh his better judgment, and he'll roll the dice. But those will be few and far between.
