This may be the most talked about theme in baseball over the past few seasons. A lot of individuals don't fully grasp that the amount of drugs which are being tested for under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. Players have a lot of information at their disposal to find out whether or otherwise not what they are putting into their health is acceptable. There should be no excuses for failing a test and claiming that they thought whatever they were taking was okay.
Baseball happens to be very severe in their punishments for a positive test and probably will grow those punishments as time goes on. A fifty game suspension without pay for a first offense must be enough, but when you can come out of that suspension and still make millions then something should definitely be changed. Players are searching during the potential pot of gold inside the form of a huge contract and seem more than prepared to take their chances. Certainly this doesn't apply to all players but there continue to be a percentage that have never seen the risk as a reason to stop. Again, ignorance is not an excuse.
Baseball players are creatures of habit, maybe more than any other sport, and taking this away can affect them mentally as well as physically. It is widely believed that performance enhancing drugs are as much a mental edge as they are a physical advantage. Baseball is a game of focus and attention to detail, anything that helps your focus is an advantage over someone who is simply using the talents they were given at birth.
Players that are spotless and have nothing to hide are growing more and more frustrated with those that decide to cheat. After all, we have to assume they know they are cheating. With each positive test the game is tarnished a little more and that causes the game of baseball to move in the wrong direction. I don't think there is much doubt that the game is cleaner than it was just a few years ago and that can be nothing but positive; however, there is still a long ways to go. The game will never be completely clean, like any segment of the population there will always be some individuals that try to take shortcuts. With that said, when the punishments increase the number of violators will go down.
Unfortunately there is no one solution that will make this go away. The penalties for an optimistic test in baseball will become much more severe within the near future. If baseball makes the first positive test a ban for a full calendar year and the second offense a lifetime ban, you certainly will see a colossal drop in positive tests. Over the top of this, if baseball allowed teams to include a clause that allowed for a contract to be voided following the first test players would definitely think twice before putting a banned substance in their bodies.
There is a long tips to go in this process and fans will need to be patient. I do think that they game ten years within the future will likely to be much cleaner than it is today, in large part because of increased penalties and player awareness. On the top of that, the culture that has been developed in the past going all the way right down to the twelfth grade level will have to change as well; this is certainly going to take time. Baseball still is a great sport and the rich history is worth preserving. I expect every year will likely to be a little cleaner than the previous year until the the wide range of cheaters becomes something close to zero.
Baseball happens to be very severe in their punishments for a positive test and probably will grow those punishments as time goes on. A fifty game suspension without pay for a first offense must be enough, but when you can come out of that suspension and still make millions then something should definitely be changed. Players are searching during the potential pot of gold inside the form of a huge contract and seem more than prepared to take their chances. Certainly this doesn't apply to all players but there continue to be a percentage that have never seen the risk as a reason to stop. Again, ignorance is not an excuse.
Baseball players are creatures of habit, maybe more than any other sport, and taking this away can affect them mentally as well as physically. It is widely believed that performance enhancing drugs are as much a mental edge as they are a physical advantage. Baseball is a game of focus and attention to detail, anything that helps your focus is an advantage over someone who is simply using the talents they were given at birth.
Players that are spotless and have nothing to hide are growing more and more frustrated with those that decide to cheat. After all, we have to assume they know they are cheating. With each positive test the game is tarnished a little more and that causes the game of baseball to move in the wrong direction. I don't think there is much doubt that the game is cleaner than it was just a few years ago and that can be nothing but positive; however, there is still a long ways to go. The game will never be completely clean, like any segment of the population there will always be some individuals that try to take shortcuts. With that said, when the punishments increase the number of violators will go down.
Unfortunately there is no one solution that will make this go away. The penalties for an optimistic test in baseball will become much more severe within the near future. If baseball makes the first positive test a ban for a full calendar year and the second offense a lifetime ban, you certainly will see a colossal drop in positive tests. Over the top of this, if baseball allowed teams to include a clause that allowed for a contract to be voided following the first test players would definitely think twice before putting a banned substance in their bodies.
There is a long tips to go in this process and fans will need to be patient. I do think that they game ten years within the future will likely to be much cleaner than it is today, in large part because of increased penalties and player awareness. On the top of that, the culture that has been developed in the past going all the way right down to the twelfth grade level will have to change as well; this is certainly going to take time. Baseball still is a great sport and the rich history is worth preserving. I expect every year will likely to be a little cleaner than the previous year until the the wide range of cheaters becomes something close to zero.
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