Ortiz: 1 Year ban for Offenders from Baseball

At Fort Myers, Florida, during spring training for the Boston Red Sox; David Ortiz was asked on the issue of substance abuse in the MLB. Ortiz wants players who used and who got caught using performance enhancing drugs to be suspended for the entire baseball season, not just the 50 game suspensions that the MLB has implemented now. “I would suggest everybody get tested, not random, everybody,” he said. “You go team by team. You test everybody three, four times a year and that's about it.” The current system in the MLB has a 50-game suspension for a player who tests positive the first time. If he gets tested a second time and it’s positive, it’s 100 games and finally a lifetime ban for a third positive test, but then a player can seek to return after two years.

I like Ortiz’s stance on this issue. Others have spoken about this issue like White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen and Astros Pitcher Roy Oswalt. In my last blog about this issue, I felt like the people were cheated on with A-Rod’s use of PED’s. It was a slap to the face to every fan who looked up to the guy and who inspired to be like him. He was a role model to kids, but now he has tainted himself.

A-Rod wasn’t the first guy to use drugs in the MLB. Others have used and will continue to use unless MLB draws up stricter guidelines for offenders. Why just have a 50 game suspension? Install a one season ban from the sport without pay for first time offenders. That will hit them hard. Players will think through their mistakes when they don’t see the paychecks coming to their front doors. Also that off-season they were training for, would be wasted on by their dumb mistakes. Those long days in the winter working out and busting your chops would be for nothing. If they abuse the rules a second time, suspend them another time with no pay for an entire season and reduce their salary for the next season, if the team chooses to keep the offender. If and I really mean if, the offender abuses the rules again then ban him from the sport entirely. Take him away. If you can’t learn from your mistakes the before the third time around, then you have no comprehension of what the MLB is trying to convey to you.

The question now lies…what if someone does test for s substance, but they weren’t aware of what they were taking? There will always be some gray areas in my opinion.