Time for Selig, players to stop hiding behind excuses

	Just when you thought you were safe from baseball's steroid saga, another name such as Jerry Hairston Jr. surfaces. Al Messerschmidt/WireImage.com
	Gary Matthews Jr. was linked to an HGH delivery from a busted drug lab. AP
	RELATED • MLB has questions for Angels' Matthews • Holyfield, Matthews linked to busted drug labs • SI: Angels' Matthews ordered HGH • SI reporters witness steroid raid

Much as we might like baseball's steroids scandal to just shrivel up and blow away -- Run for the hills, everybody! Another steroids story! -- we ought to know by now that it's just not going to happen.

Every time we think that Major League Baseball is finally getting a handle on the use of performance-enhancers in the game, every time we start to believe that all the sordid stories and seedy characters have come and gone, there's another raid involving the seizure of some exotic sounding drug and the name of another player surfaces.

Barry Bonds. Jason Grimsley. Gary Matthews Jr. Jerry Hairston Jr. ... Next!

Will MLB ever get on top of its problem? Are we destined to be subjected to this for another 10 years? How do we get out without getting pulled back in again?

A solution won't come without a lot of pain and a good deal of sacrifice. Nothing's ever been easy in this sad, seemingly never-ending story. But here's one three-step plan to clean up The Scandal That Just Won't Die.

1. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig should come down hard on Bonds and anybody else strongly linked to illegal performance-enhancers.

In 1947, commissioner Happy Chandler suspended Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher simply for associating with gamblers and suspected mob members. The commissioner didn't wait for Durocher to get arrested or indicted or convicted. Just hanging around bad guys was enough to get The Lip booted for a year.

In 1979, Bowie Kuhn suspended Willie Mays and, later, Mickey Mantle, two retired players who had both taken hand-shaking jobs at an Atlantic City casino. Suspended simply for being around a gambling hall.

These are different times, of course. The commissioner is not the powerful figure he once was. The mighty Players Association will appeal any suspension. The legal waters are trickier than they've ever been.

Still, if any situation cries for a firm hand from the commissioner, this is it. Bonds has consorted with -- in his own words, he's best friends with -- an acknowledged drug dealer. (His personal trainer, Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to distributing steroids to ballplayers.) Bonds is under investigation by a federal grand jury. Bonds reportedly has tested positive for amphetamines use, in violation of baseball's drug policy. A well-researched and highly regarded book, Game of Shadows, has been written detailing Bonds' use of performance-enhancing drugs. Isn't that enough?

Suspending Bonds under the "best interests" clause of the game's constitution -- the same instrument used to suspend Durocher, Mays, Mantle, Steve Howe, George Steinbrenner and many others -- would show fans that the commissioner of baseball is serious about this issue and, more than that, it would show players the same.

The union would appeal. That's a given. A bitter battle in front of an arbitrator would follow, and the suspension very likely would be overturned. If that happens, the commissioner's standing ultimately could be weakened. It's tricky. In the end, it could turn out to be little more than papers shuffling and lawyers braying.

But the time for this fight is now. The commissioner needs to demonstrate that any hint of impropriety in regards to the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs is unacceptable. He needs to show players that they are responsible for the company that they keep and the people with whom they do business. This applies not only to Bonds, but to any player who has a direct connection to anyone who uses, sells, promotes or distributes these drugs illegally.