Someone brought up the idea of creating a list of approved substances… I like that idea… actually, baseball could take it one step further and completely govern the supply of drugs and supplements. They could make money by supplying teams with MLB approved substances as requested from a list of approved substances… if anyone is caught taking a substance that is not on the list, they have no excuses. If they want to have something added to the list, it has to go through a rigorous testing/approval process. That’s a bold statement… baseball saying, “we’re taking full control of what is going into our players’ bodies.” No need to step foot in GNC…

sidenote: How odd does Pat look in that digitially affixed Rays hat (and turtleneck)

Um, just wondering, since most of you are guys, would you take something called 60-OXO-E-X-Treme? I’m curious…

And Congress would love that – Selig and Fehr would never hear from Capitol Hill again and people would start trusting MLB more than they do now. The image of Selig’s bumbling, sweating congressional testimony would forever be replaced with that of a no-nonsense commissioner whose strict, swift justice was very much along the lines of the NFL’s Roger Goodell. And then everyone would forget that this man would sell a Pinto to a bumper cart track. Am I making sense?

If it were a normal players union, I’d see it, but Selig and Fehr have been such cowards that rather than risk looking bad but also doing the right thing, they throw Romero under the bus without a fair warning. If he’d been warned and still took it, yeah, his fault. But this is the “more than meets the eye” thing – a desperate attempt at PR by Selig and Fehr. They make me sick.

You’d just think the MLBPA would be saying we’re not say ‘drug use’ should be tollerated but if your going to suspend a player make sure the boundries are clearly marked.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3802719

From the article: “Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Tom Davis, R-Va., leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent letters in June to…Selig and Fehr, saying information in the Mitchell Report raised questions about their statements during a March 2005 hearing. In the June letters, Waxman and Davis wrote about ‘two pieces of new information about the MLB testing program that was in effect in 2004′: ‘that the random testing program was suspended for a large part of the 2004 baseball season” and ‘that players may have been told of upcoming tests.’

‘Baseball and the players’ union provided additional information that clarified the record, and I am satisfied with their response,’ Waxman said this week in a statement. ‘The game has made important progress in its efforts to end the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and I hope that the league and the players will continue those efforts,’ he said.”]

Tim, I know you wrote “Romero was merely the fall guy in a complete collapse of communication between the league and the MLB Players Association,” but doesn’t it seem suspicious to anyone else that this lapse in communication happened just about one month after Ferh and Selig received those letters from Congressmen Waxman and Davis? In those June letters, Waxman and Davis objected to evidence which pointed to players being warned about drug tests. Well, this was quite the opposite – the players weren’t even warned about the banning of this supplement until after the fact, but no one could say that there was no warning system because of the hot-line. What better way to demonstrate that MLB has reversed course by showing them to be doing the exact opposite of what they allegedly did in 2004? And this is perfect because then the MLB brass can say it was the players’ responsibility to find out officially, because after all, MLB and the MLBPA have no control and absolutely have abhorred the use of performance enhancing drugs. It’s always the players responsibility to take care of their bodies – if they don’t, the brass will argue, they can pay the price.

Does anyone else find it most fascinating that they were satisfied with this “additional information” and “clarification”? Anyone else want to wager that the additional information was Romero’s suspension? This congressional intervention angle, it all makes sense. The arbitrator apparently had a change of heart and ruled Romero’s guilt in December – given that this meeting between Bud, Fehr and the congressmen took place on the last day of December, it’s not a stretch to think that this “sudden change of heart” came with this upcoming follow-up session to answer Waxman’s and Davis’s questions in mind from above.

So Tim, in a way, you were right. Romero WAS a fall guy. But he only had to pay the price to demonstrate that MLB is doing the right thing now.

Mike- I say he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar as he’s been suspended and isn’t appealing, after reading his statements though he was on thin ice under the circumstances he hasn’t intentionally broken the rules to get an edge. Major League Baseball has to define a line between what is acceptable to get through the day-to-day grind and what is doping and Romero falls under the first catagory.

Sounds like the same goes for Mitre, when a player on any team gets suspended you want to know the reasons are clear and concrete. If Major League Baseball wants to be aggressive with drugs it has to be clear with its plan of action and let everyone know where they stand the minute a decision is made.

How hard is it to madate that an updated banned substance list is sent to the clubs as soon as a ‘suppliment’ is classified. If the clubs have the information and responsibility to inform the players its black and white what happens from that point.