Harsher Penalties Needed for Baseball's Drug Policy Violators

Some may have naively thought that the worst of Major League Baseball's scandalous era of chemical chicanery was behind us.

The sport, of course, was notoriously slow, in relation to the Olympic movement and even the National Football League, to begin testing for performance-enhancing drugs. But it did start testing, with penalties attached, in 2004. And nearly 30 players have been suspended as a result. It is probably no coincidence that since 5,451 home runs were struck in 2004, the total has been lower every year since, falling to 4,878 in 2008.

And even when distasteful revelations inevitably have come, as with the February disclosure that Yankees' superstar Alex Rodriguez tested dirty in 2003, when no penalties were imposed for positive tests, they dated to the bad old days of doping, the mid-1990s and early 2000s.

The baseball establishment for too long looked the other way as once-lithe ballplayers turned into hulking mashers, swatting homers and thrilling fans who had grown disillusioned by the labor bickering that led to the midyear cancellation of the 1994 season. The 1998 race between the now drug-disgraced Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to set a single-season home run record was the key to finally erasing fans' lingering resentment over the labor strife.

Still, however belatedly and begrudgingly, with congressional intervention looming, baseball got serious about cleaning itself up in 2004.

But any notion that testing, medical record reviews and suspensions had put an end to players gaming the system was dashed by news that Los Angeles Dodgers' slugger Manny Ramirez, one of the game's most luminous stars, had violated the league's drug policy.

Ramirez was suspended for 50 games, which will cost him nearly $8 million in salary, for using a banned substance typically associated with a steroid regimen. That is a significant penalty. But it was one known to Ramirez and all major leaguers. And it was not enough to deter him from cheating.

Major League Baseball deserves credit for finally putting an effective drug-testing program in place. But Ramirez's use of human chorionic gonadotropin, which experts say is evidence of a sophisticated doping regimen, shows that baseball must remain vigilant to stay ahead of those willing to use scientific skill to cheat the game, the players who play clean and the fans.

More important, baseball must increase the penalties for those who violate its policies. Ramirez has proved that 50 games for a first offense and 100 games for a second are not enough. Make it a full season for the first offense and a lifetime ban for the second.

REPRINTED FROM THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE.

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