If MLB fined players a huge amount for failing a drug test, instead of just suspending them, baseball could solve their biggest problem

SCOTT JACOBS

Today Manny Ramirez was suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball for failing a drug test.  Shocking!

Did I suspect that Manny was using performance enhancers?  No, not really.  Did I think that a grown man would use a drug that women use during pregnancy?  Ha, another no.  But is it all that surprising that another big name baseball player bit the performance enhancing dust?  Not in the least.

You would think a guy that signed a two year $45 million deal would be a little more careful, but hey “Manny’s just being Manny.”  The Dodgers slugger claims he wasn’t taking steroids, but reports are already surfacing that he failed the test because of hCG, a women’s fertility drug, which is considered a close relative to steroids.

Two things have already come out of this story: 1) Wow, Manny is being suspended for 50 games, this policy really must be working.  and 2) It happened this year.  First, no player is immune from the steroids/PED’s discussion at this point.  Players great, mediocre, and crappy have all been  exposed, and any player who plays baseball should expect to be under suspicion.  Once upon a time it was innocent until proven guilty, but with the slew of steroid/PED users being exposed over the years, it has now become guilty until proven innocent.

People will disuss this issue and say that this means the drug testing policy baseball has in place is working.  But I wholeheartedly disagree!  You know when a system works?  When people are so afraid of the system that they don’t even dare test it.  Suspending Manny 50 games is merely a slap on the wrist.

You know what MLB should do, if they really wanted to get rid of this issue in their game?

Take away their money.  There should be a clause in every baseball player’s contract that if he fails a drug test, the team he plays on can void 1/10 of the contract he originally signed– no matter how far along in the contract he is.  In other words with Manny, not only would he be suspended 50 games under this policy, but he would be docked a remarkable $4.5 million!  Fail the drug test a second time, and you’re suspended a season, and 1/3 of your contract.  Fail the drug test a third time, and you’re suspended for life, and you’re contract is completely voided.

I guarantee you baseball players would respond differently.  I personally believe that MLB players don’t take the policy seriously enough still.  Cause in the realm of things, what’s 50 games?  In college if you plagerize a paper, even a few lines without giving that source credit, you get expelled from the school.  Your grade doesn’t get reduced a few letter grades, the university says “bye bye, see you later, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”  IF you cheat in a regular job and get caught, you get canned.  But in the green pastures of MLB if you get caught, you get slapped… on the wrist.

You always hear players say that they didn’t know that what they were taking was wrong, or they don’t think they were taking something illegal, but that in my estimation is because the system is too soft.  Watch how many players use that line if you docked them millions of dollars for their stupidity/arrogance.  Probably none.  You know why?  Because they’d be mortified of losing tons of money!

You make the policy so stern that players become scared to even test it.

Imagine a player who signed a seven year contract with a team worth say $100 million, and is in the last year of tht deal.  Imagine said player failing a drug test in his final year of the contract.  He’d lose $10 million!  And if the team didn’t owe him that much, they could simply demand that he pays them that.

Steroids in baseball would be gone faster then you could say HGH.  Because whether they love the game, or not, baseball players play baseball for the money.  They say they’d play for free, well I’d like to see them do that for a year.  If you really take a chunk out of their exploding bank accounts, maybe others would think twice.

Players know what they put into their bodies.  These guys are machines and their bodies are their temples, and anyone who thinks that players just sort of go with the flow when it comes to what goes in their body is a fool.  An athlete can be naive, but he’s aware of what goes in his body.  You don’t kill yourself for years just to get to the majors and then go, “ya just put in me whatever you like, I trust you.”  No, it doesn’t work like that.

Now the problem with this proposal is that the Players Union would never in a million years go for it.  But it’s fun to dream.  They say it’s tough to get rid of drugs in baseball?  I beg to differ.  If you really lay down the law, and hit these pampered athletes were it hurts most– their wallet– I think things would change swiftly and drastically.

Baseball can clean their sport of drugs, but they’re just not willing to go to the extreme to do it.  Because of that, more stories like this will continue to come out, and steroids and PED’s will continue to be an issue in the national pastime.

Photo: Reuters

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