Baseball and Steroids

Baseball has had about as bad a public relations week as the United Nations has. Both are going to have to do something to restore their credibility, it seems.

In the case of baseball, nothing less than the integrity of the game is at stake. Performance-enhancing, muscle-rippling (and ultimately, life-threatening) drugs are, to my thinking, as great a threat to the game as gambling by its players or managers. These drugs distort players' true abilities and cheapen the game.

It seems to me that events of this past week demand that baseball institute some sort of drug-testing policy similar to that of the National Football League (NFL). By all accounts, that league's policies have effectively eliminated steroid use by its players.

Furthermore, if firm determinations are made that players were using banned substances in past seasons, all personal statistics compiled while using should be erased. And yes, if Barry Bonds, is among the number of those in this category, his home runs since becoming "buff" should be eliminated from the record books. Hank Aaron worked hard to compile his lifetime home run record. Nobody should be allowed to surpass it on the cheap, if that's what Bonds has been about.

Baseball is my favorite sport, a great game. I hope that everyone--the commissioner's office, owners, players union, and the players---can get together on this. Baseball has been under a cloud too long. It's time to fix this situation.

[One other thing: Wouldn't you like to know who leaked the secret Grand Jury testimony in this case? And what their motives were?]