Why doesn't baseball want stricter rules for Steroids,etc?
 

I'm just wondering what all the controversy is about when it comes to the MLB banned substance policy. Why don't the commissioner and the MLBPA bosses want to make it tougher on the athletes? They do urine testing in the NFL, and none of the records set by football players have come into question lately. At the senate committee hearing, these guys were dodging questions left and right. I think that with all the recent steroid controversy, there hasn't been a better time to come up with new rules. I can't figure it out, what does everyone else think?

MLBPA like to flex their muscle... I have absolutely no idea why.

I guess they think it's not fair that high paid professionals be banned for life, for effectively lying and cheating of the worst kind.

It isn't a simple argument over steriods for these guys, especially the union.

It goes back to the fact that the union has never lost a battle they fought with the owners, so they have all the power in the sport. The people who run the union don't want testing because of a fear of what they will find, and the players in general go along because they can't go against their union.

The union is also scared, because they know that if the owners successfully get Congress to assist on this issue, then it sets a precident in the future disputes.

Major League Baseball honestly wants a testing policy, because they see how bad of a hit they are taking and want to cut the PR nightmare off as much as they can. They are also motivated, however, by a desire to defeat the union to try and regain some lost power.

It is all a political power struggle, and steroids is only the latest battlefield.

Just my opinion... No steriods = no one hitting 70 home run seasons = less fanfare = less $$$.

Right, and the Union is so corrupt they want to destroy they game. All unions suck, and this is a perfect example why.

I agree, minimum wages.. what a ludicrous concept |:~

Thank you for that pointless and uninformed statement.

I think you have hit the central nerve. If they implement a no steroids policy this year or next, this would give the public and media a baseline to compare non-regulated seasons vs. regulated seasons. Baseball would be quite worried in my opinion, if the performances of the leagues hitting stars did decline, everyone would assume it was due to steroids, even if it was just a down year. Let us assume they did implement a drug policy this year, and it was in place by opening day, they would be under even more scrutiny than they are now b/c everyone would be analyzing player statistics. I think they are in the position now where they cannot implement a drug policy that is fast and effective. They have avoided the problem to long that an immediate policy would expose the league for what it really is, what they do not want the casual fan to see, a bunch of juiced athletes. Therefore, they will more than likely drag their feet as long as they can, implement nominal regulations. This arduous process saves face, and allows a slower transition that is not as noticeable. This is just my two cents.

Chicks dig the long ball.

selig is chickenshit - he's afraid of the muscle the union has - look at the '94 strike...
a while back in a SI issue, there was a caricature of selig being pelted by baseballs...
funniest thing i've ever seen in SI, i have it hanging in my shop...
tried to find a copy on the net but no luck

No drug tests, no salary cap, the union vetos trades... why would anyone want to be an owner in this environment?

Stole my thunder there...

That is EXACTLY why they dont want to get rid of roids. The game wont be as exciting... pretty ridiculous huh...

As nice as it would be if it were that simple, it isn't. Besides, steroids will end up hurting the game much more then the "positive" effects help it. People like to see home runs, sure, but they don't like to see cheaters do it.

Selig has NO BALLS and the Union OWNS his ASS!!

The players (that juice up) have no respect for the game, it's fans, or the history.

Reggie Jackson just about sums it up:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1756472


TAMPA, Fla. -- Reggie Jackson challenged baseball's whopping home run totals, and claimed that some are the result of players taking steroids.





"Somebody definitely is guilty of taking steroids," the Hall of Fame slugger told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for Thursday's editions.



"You can't be breaking records hitting 200 home runs in three or four seasons. The greatest hitters in the history of the game didn't do that," said Jackson, who hit 563 home runs.



San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds is just two home runs shy of tying his godfather Willie Mays for third place on the career home run list with 660. Babe Ruth is second with 714 and Hank Aaron first with 755.



"Henry Aaron never hit 50 in a season, so you're going to tell me that you're a greater hitter than Henry Aaron?" Jackson said. "Bonds hit 73 [in 2001], and he would have hit 100 if they would have pitched to him. I mean, come on, now. There is no way you can outperform Aaron and Ruth and Mays at that level.



"There is a reason why the greatest players of all time have 500. Then there is that group that is above 550. There is a reason for that. Guys played 19, 20, 25 years. They had 9,000 to 10,000 at-bats, and it was the same for everybody.



"Now, all of a sudden, you're hitting 50 when you're 40."



Jackson also said he wants to join fellow Hall of Famers in meeting with baseball commissioner Bud Selig to discuss baseball's steroid-testing rules, which he does not believe are stringent enough.



"Why wouldn't you ask me or Aaron or somebody like that to give you some insight? Bud is a nice guy, but he doesn't know what's happening here," Jackson said.



He added that any time any baseball veterans "speak the truth and show our concern, it's like, `Oh, they're just whining.' "



Jackson also criticized the baseball players' association for not accepting a more stringent drug-testing policy.



"The last I heard, (the illegal distribution of steroids and other drugs) was against the laws of the land," Jackson said. "The players' association talks about 'my rights.' My rights? Do you have the right not to pay taxes? You do something wrong, you pay the penalty."

I saw Bud Selig on a show and they asked what happens to McGuire's record now that congress has outlawed Andro. SElig said "nothing he isn't guilty of anything. Noone has been found guilty of anything in court."

I sat and smiled to myself, because 84 years ago a man sat down with 8 Chicago White Sox and told them they were banned for life. They were found innocent in court. BUT in Judge Kenesaw Landis' eyes those men were responsible for people losing faith in the game.

What Selig and the union are doing today is far worse than what those 8 men did to the game. Far worse than what Pete Rose ever did to the game.

For Selig and the union have made a mockery out of the records that baseball has built itself upon.

Selig and the union have thumbed their respective noses to the fans and allowed their own greed and power trips to affect the very fabric of the game. They have destroyed the integrity and the beauty of the game. They are guilty of the highest crime that a sport can commit and that is allowing its players to use substances illegal to the general public.

Hell even the WWE is stricter on drug use and that should tell the MLB and union something.