Oh dear - poor Manny - makes it even easier to love having Jason Bay instead. (Along with another three run shot tonight...) Manny though - what the hell? I mean, it is one thing to hear about A-Rod or whoever, juicing up back in the day - but anyone getting caught now, friends, is begging for it...
On the other hand - articles like this, saying baseball should ban juicers - no... Unless you want to see 3-4 players a year banned forever. Because there is no way this is going to stop. It's not a good thing - I'm glad they're trying, and hope it brings things back under control - but this is a fact of the game now. Look at the Olympics, look at bicycle racing - it keeps going, no matter what they do - it's a technological battle, drugs vs. enforcement...
I don't know how to stop it. There is too much money on the table for players not to try to find an edge; you can't just accept it, you certainly can't encourage players to do it (and accepting it is demanding it, really) - and the option is always going to be there. It's a technological fact of life now - it won't go away. So - who knows what will happen? This is just going to be part of baseball from now on.
Though still - hard to feel much sympathy for anyone caught using now. I take it as given that more players than not were using from the late 90s - but now? they're going to do it, but if they do, they deserve what they get.
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I'm not really that invested in the steroids issue, although I' probably begin to feel pretty betrayed if a star from the Braves (other than Sheffield who was an obvious, if possibly naive, juicer) was caught using.
But I'm not convinced that a lifetime ban is a problem. It's not like it would prevent players from seeking alternative modes of employment, and my sense is that there are probably 40-50 players on any major league roster who are interchangeable with the best players at AA or AAA. We wouldn't miss the juicers after a week or so. And they'd regret gambling their careers on a small boost in athletic ability.
The problem is, I don't think it would be marginal players - and I don't think players will stop. I think the existence of steroids will mean people will keep using them - at least keep trying to beat the system. It hasn't stopped in other sports - I don't see it stopping in baseball. It might be possible to keep it minimized - but 50 games probably works as well as lifetime bans for that... Mostly, I think the broader technological issues - better drugs, more control over their effects - as well as better surgeries and other treatments - will just keep the process going. I don't know how to stop that - I think lifetime bans will just mean that a couple players a year will be banned... and probably coming from the same pool you see now - a JC Romero here - a Manny Ramirez there...
:-)
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