"Juice" is loose...again! (A slight rant)

First some good news, MU 62-ku 60, and I was there! Ricky your prediction was correct and "they who shall not be named" did not beat us at home now hopefully we can take it to them in Lawrence.
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Secondly, I'm really tired about these "professionals" and their drug problem. It's about time to end all of this. For those of you who have been living in a sports "cave" for the past 4 days, Yankees slugger A-Rod has admitted to using performance enhancing drugs (PED) during his days as a Texas Ranger, and recently Miguel Tejada will be charged with not speaking truthfully to a federal agent about his dealings with PED's. While I do not condone their behavior or any steroid use at all, with the exception of a clinically diagnosed medical condition and with the express intent of physical recovery and utmost necessity, not vanity, I'm about done with baseball's leadership and baseball's union and their constant inactivity to clean up the game.

On St. Patrick's day in 2005 Congress decided to step in an question Major League players on their use and knowledge on the "culture of steroids" in "the bigs," yet they have failed to make any significant strides to relieve the problem as well. While my view is slighted on the "headliner" Mark McGwire's testimony, I must agree with him on one thing...LET'S MOVE FORWARD. (Whether he himself used illegal, at the time, drugs or not may never be known and is a different discussion.)

From there baseball has tried to implement a more stringent policy on banned substances which more or less has worked. However, in my opinion, the testing needs to be more stringent and better handled. I'm tired of these "professionals" sullying the game that I love. Get back to the game, make steroids a dark period of baseball's past and return to the joyfull innocence if its intent.

Both the owners and the union are WRONG!

The owners are wrong by protecting their wallets and not being more stringent on a testing policy. They care more about higher revenue then cleaning up the game. Well the writing on the wall that the owners need to see is that it is the integrity of the game, that they are selling. They are not selling the hot dogs, the players, the run tallies, or the suites to corporate entities. They are selling bond between fathers and sons, the unifying force of the team, the intricate strategy, the "smell of the glove", that is why people come. "For it's peace they like and money they have." Once the genuine goodness of the game is gone so too will the fans, and their income, leave.

The union is wrong because they must know that the care for their member must be priority number one. Steroids, time and time again, have been proven to be detrimental and deadly to anyone using them illegally or improperly. The chasing of individual compensation and heroism is contradictory to the essence of the game, it is a team sport and should be view as such. When a teammate falls all should fall with them to pick them up and when a teammate pays the ultimate price serious introspection and reflection should be given to why they have fallen at what can be done to make sure it never happens again.

I'm not naive enough to believe that there is any way of testing completely the use of steroids. If someone wants to cheat they will find a way, but in could be much harder to cheat and the culture of baseball can change. The players, the owners, and even the fans must remember "what once was good, and could be again." When will the leadership (owners and union) of this paramount league "step up to the plate" as a team and test for substances, decry the use of steroids and get back to the game we have grown to love?