How can MLB be fixed post-Mitchell?

A wise person once told me not to complain about something unless you had a good idea about making it better.

That said, I think it is pretty obvious that baseball, along with a few other sports, needs fixed in regards to performance enhancing drugs.

So how can it be fixed? There are people on this board who know a heck of a lot more than I do on this subject, so I am sure a few of these suggestions will be idiotic. But I do hope upon with discussion they can be built upon.

1. It can't be fixed. Stop complaining. Nuff said.

2. The private labs are so far ahead of what MLB, NFL, NHL, Olympics and all the others have in place trying to police the players, that you will always be fighting an uphill battle. Partner with the Federal Government to use the Feds to test for these performance enhancing drugs. That or subcontract (for millions upon millions of dollars) a private company to do the testing. This will cost a fortune, but I think it is necessary.

3. Partner with the Players Union on some penalties for players shown purchasing/using performance enhancing drugs. Guilty players would not be eligible for the HOF and their pension/benefits would be erased. They would also not be able to attend any MLB functions or represent MLB in any way shape or form. This would include being banned from all baseball parks during MLB games and practices. So their career and life in baseball would be over.

4. Make the player responsible for 50 percent of their contract back to the team if they are caught buying/selling/using performance enhancing drugs. The team would then send the money to an established charity or to the ongoing drug program. For instance, if a player signed a 5yr/20 mil contract with a 5 mil signing bonus, but he was busted after his first year playing. Said player would be forced to repay the team or MLB 2.5 mil (50 percent of the signing bonus) and 2 mil of his first year salary.

These are just a few thoughts. If MLB and the Players Union was serious about eliminating the problem, I do not think they are that outlandish.

 

Forget PEDs, Baseball needs a salary cap.

 

That's a different, much longer, thread. [/piratefan]

 

Bud should spend another $20 million on finding a reliable HGH test because he the price of not finding one is higher.

 

I have a feeling that 20 million might be a low number.

 

No. 1.

Many years from now, sports fans will look back on all the fuss about this and get a good chuckle.

 

I second the thought of spnited; MLB's biggest problem is a lack of competition from all clubs. Until the amount teams spend on salaries is more balanced from top to bottom, half the teams have no reason to be optimistic after Mother's Day. A large part of the problem is that the players union runs the show and it has no incentive to change things.

 

I would have no problem with a salary cap. But, there had better be a minimum payroll as well. Teams like the Pirates and Marlins are just as big a joke when it comes to their payrolls as teams like the Yankees and Red Sox.

 

Geeez, I didn't think I needed the blue font there.

BYH and I are the most adamant anti-cap people you'll ever find.

 

You forgot me, spnited, and I won't use the blue font. I am dead set against a salary cap, but I agree something has to be done to stop teams like the Florida Marlins from flouting the system. When people point out next spring that Florida has a $15 million payroll, I'll say "Yes... and it's the idiotic ownership that put it there!"

On the issue of fixing MLB, I think the Mitchell Report is a start. There are likely others out there who were using, but at least we have the names and the dark cloud has hit with all the thunder and lightning. Now the immediate storm has passed and MLB has to think long-term. It should order tests for HGH as soon as one becomes available. (By that time, the next designer drug of choice will probably be out there.)

Scouting the papers last night, a lot of the fans are still going back to parks in the spring, so MLB appears to have dodged that bullet. I only read one or two posts out of several hundred that said "I'm through with the game".

 

Why are you assuming MLB is broken? It's not.

 

Another idea long overdue: Shorten the season and take better care of the athletes. Working at a strenuous job 162 days out of 180 (not including spring training and postseason) is part of what drives PED use.