| Just say no
Nomar Garciaparra: "It's this and that, and then the next thing you know, we're the USOC where you can't take an aspirin. That's the thing you worry about." Al Bello/Getty Images
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By David Vecsey, CNNSI.com
Someday you, too, may need the help of an ACLU lawyer, so I propose you join me on this side of the page.
For those of us who have ever expressed concern over mandatory drug testing within our own places of employment, it would be nothing short of hypocritcal to suddenly be in favor of it simply based on how much money baseball players make or on their alleged social responsibilities. If you have somebody else's life in your hands, say, as a pilot or a nuclear power plant engineer, you probably have a moral and legal responsibility to be able to prove that you are not under the influence of drugs.
Otherwise, what's inside your body isn't anybody else's business. And testing for steroids goes beyond a simple urine test. You're talking about drawing blood ... and that could cause big trouble for athletes who need to perform every day.
Morally and legally? Yes, baseball should do what it can to clean up. But pro sports rarely let morality get in the way of a business decision.
It's not whether baseball SHOULD test. It's why baseball WON'T test.
Baseball WON'T test because the owners have just been handed a most valuable bargaining chip. My guess is that owners are now going to sit down at the next session of talks with two proposals in hand. One proposal will have mandatory testing, but no salary cap. The other proposal will have a salary cap, but no mandatory testing. And the next words out of Donald Fehr's mouth will be, "Got a pen?"
By that thinking, baseball players will still be doping ... but they'll still be playing. And isn't that what we really want?
| Time to test
Frank Thomas: "I don't know who's on and who's not on. There is definitely more activity in the weight room nowadays. …I really think it's time for testing." Jed Jacobsohn/Allsport
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By John Donovan, CNNSI.com
It's time. Even a lot of baseball players -- the clean ones, for sure -- will tell you. It's time for drug testing in baseball.
Give 'em the cups, have 'em go about their business and, if they test positive for steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, slam 'em. It's time to clean up America's pastime.
The fact is, baseball players have skated for far too long. The NBA tests for illegal drugs. The NFL does, too. Millions of American employees, in both the private and public sectors, are tested every year. Baseball has been able to avoid drug testing because of its pumped-up players' union, which has argued that it's an invasion of privacy.
Sure, it's an invasion of privacy. But what a small, small price to pay.
With everything baseball offers the lucky few who play, it doesn't seem to be asking much to ask that they steer clear of these illegal drugs. It's not asking too much that players give up a little privacy so that the millions of fans who watch the game know they're watching the real thing, not some souped-up version of the sport.
Steroids enable mediocre players to become great ones and great ones to become practically Ruthian. They destroy the credibility of the game. Who among us doesn't wonder now every time someone crushes a homer out of the park?
Give 'em the cups. Test 'em. Keep testing 'em. Slam 'em if they're using.
Then, soon enough, we won't have to wonder.
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