EDITORIAL – It’s rough when Congress is your daddy

It’s one, two, three strikes and you’re out at the old ball game. Well, at least that’s how it… It’s one, two, three strikes and you’re out at the old ball game. Well, at least that’s how it is when you’re actually at bat. The way it works if you are a player taking performance-enhancing drugs has been going through some changes.

Baseball’s previous agreement, drafted in 2002 but never finalized, had called for a 10-day suspension or up to a $10,000 fine for a first positive test. A second positive test resulted in a 30-day suspension or up to a $25,000 fine. On that third strike, you weren’t out, but only suspended for 60 days or hit with up to $50,000 in fines. For a fourth positive test, players were to receive a one-year suspension or up to a $100,000 fine. After that, the disciplinary action was to be determined by the commissioner.

After getting some criticism from Congress, baseball players and owners agreed to drop the possibility of fines for steroid use, leaving suspension as the only discipline.

Clearly, the entire commission was called because Congress felt baseball wasn’t tough enough on its wrongdoing players. And it wasn’t. Suspensions are worse than fines — even though they are day and not game suspensions — because players would much rather be playing than not. But is this enough? Pete Rose gambles and he’s banned from baseball. Another player gets caught taking steroids, and he is removed from the game for 10 days. The possibility of getting caught and suspended for 10 days is just not enough of an incentive to stay away from drugs.

Baseball, like any other professional sport, is a public trust. If everyone involved is doing something illegal, guess what that is? It’s organized crime. At that point, players can be subpoenaed, time and time again, taking away from the sport and making it too difficult and inconvenient to keep baseball alive.

It could be reminiscent of America’s quiz-show craze in the 1950s. Contestants were given the answers. The government had to intervene, calling people to court to testify or defend themselves. It just wasn’t worth it to keep the shows going because the audiences knew they were watching a bunch of cheaters.

Perhaps baseball should take a look at how well football is run. There is a lot less reason to believe people are on drugs because on a first offense, a player is suspended for a quarter of the season. Plus, the NFL tests as often as the Red Sox and Yankees appear on primetime television. The stakes are higher.

While suspensions are a necessary first step, there is obviously more that baseball will have to do to make their daddy happy. Who’s baseball’s daddy? Congress.