Of Selig and Steroids Policies

I found this story on espn.com. It discusses the MLB steroid policy and quotes commissioner Bud Selig as saying the policy is working. I beg to differ.

One major leaguer and 38 minor leaguers have been suspended as a result of testing. This shows, perhaps, that the testing is working but that has nothing to do with how the policy is working. The idea of a policy in which penalties are levied against offenders is to dissuade possible offenders from engaging in the activity that is being penalized. Technically speaking, the system is not working. In fact, these suspensions show that the system has failed 39 times because if the policy was truly working then these 39 players would not have been using the banned supplements.

I know that this is a very cynical view but I only bring it up to illustrate that no matter how you try to paint the picture right now it’s still too early to tell if the policy is working. There is also continued debate over administration of the testing. Are they testing for enough substances? Are the tests administered in a strict enough context? I read somewhere that players are allowed to leave the room during testing. How could a test like that be called conclusive?

I think it’ll be a while until we truly see if the current policy is working but even then we will not see if baseball is steroid free. We will only see if it is less plagued by the current substances included in the program. Until the testing gets tougher (like covering substances that are covered by the minor league policy, for example) the abuse players induce on their bodies by taking substances like this will not lessen. It will only adapt to use of other, non-banned substances.

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