Through all of this, people have been talking about the purity of the game.  When will people start worrying about what really matters…the purity and essence of our natural fluids.

I had this long comment, complete with quotation from Freakonomics, but it can be summed up thus: what Craig said.

Craig:I am absolutely serious.  The original commissioner (Judge Landis) was given the authority by the owners to do whatever was necessary “in the best interests of the game”.  How is it in the best interest of the game to allow this lethal (see Ken Caminiti) behavior to continue.  One or two lifetime banishments of note should do the trick (how many spring training camps still have a March Madness pool?).
As a point of reference for you, my 15 year old HS freshman son is the proud owner of an 85+MPH fastball with which he can hit a Coke can at 60’6” with alarming regularity.  He can do the same thing with his 60MPH curveball, and he can go 7+innings every time.  I don’t want him pressured in to TAKING any of the crap that’s floating around, just so he can help out with college costs or make a living.  I also don’t want him to have to play against anyone that’s so juiced that a comebacker could be fatal, or the frequent longball could end his career, or a little high heat could trigger a disfiguring display of roid rage. 
What I’m suggesting, is that regardless of the CBA, the commissioner has the authority to do whatever is in the best interest of the game.  Although I disagree with what he did to Pete Rose, Bart Giamatti had the kind of stones it took to be commissioner.  Bud Selig (I was AT the 2002 All-Star Game with my son) does not.  What I’m suggesting, is that the next commissioner have a personality, and that personality includes a strong distaste for the bad guys.  I understand there’s a big baseball fan that’s recently retired to Dallas that could use a little something to do so he doesn’t drive Laura nuts!  And HIS record of dealing with the bad guys, although a little extreme for this case, is quite effective.

Scatterbrain:Please go back and read my answer to Craig.  Then put yourself in my place, and the place of countless parents that have unwittingly raised potential future victims of the pressure to use steroids.  I do not confuse what has been introduced to the PLAYERS of the game with the game itself.  I do not advocate reducing the game to 6 innings for TV purposes.  I do not believe that it would be a good thing to add an extra out per inning to allow for ridiculously high scoring games.  I do not believe that the mound should be lowered (or raised), or that fences should be brought in.  I DO BELIEVE that chemically-altered humans should NOT be allowed to sully the record books and force others into partaking of their destructive (but short term performance enhancing) mixtures.  The rules are that these poisons are not allowed, and if there are those who wish to test the rule, they need to be sent packing.  If they disrespect the gifts God gave them, they should have that avenue closed to them.  And if they were not given those gifts, that avenue is not theirs to travel in the first place.

The only things the ex-preznit was effective at was ruining companies and utterly disregarding the law. Al Qaeda didn’t use lawyers—the MLBPA can and does and will.

If one does not want another “weak” commissioner, avoid this person for the office.

James: Thank you for the kind words and encouragement.  I appreciate it, and my son does, too.
Whatever raising there is to be done with a kid is done with mine at this point.  Very little, if anything can be done to change his propensities at this point, and I DO hope that I’ve done it right.

As my name indicates, I live in the North Dallas metroplex.  The Rangers (those of steroid storm center) are my home team.  Pudge Rodriguez, Juan Gonzales, Raphael Palmiero, Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa, John Rocker, Gary Matthews, Jr. and now, the great A-Roid.  And yes, Ken Caminiti.  All now known to have been steroid users to varying degrees (Just a note about Caminiti-while his official cause of death was a cocaine/heroine OD, his deterioration due to steroid abuse was listed as a contributing factor).
My son and I have made frequent visits to our beautiful park to watch Major League Baseball, sometimes bad, sometimes not too bad, and sometimes even pretty good.  I find it an excellent opportunity to teach life lessons.  Today, the one that stands out most to me happened about 4 years ago.  We were in the Grand Slam gift shop, looking at autographed baseballs.  An Alex Rodriguez ball in a lucite cube was, understandably, priced at $295.  A plain, unsigned ball in a cardboard box was priced at $14.  A Ken Caminiti autographed ball, in the same lucite cube as A-rod’s ball, was priced at $10.  No, I didn’t forget a zero.  My son knew that Caminiti was dead, but he didn’t know why or how.  He also knew that he had been an MVP.  Why, he wanted to know, was his ball so cheap?  Didn’t prices on something like that go up when a really good player died?  Like the Teddy Baseball baseball we lusted after in the local card shop.  And why was Alex’s ball worth so much? 

Well, if ever there was an open door to a GREAT lesson to teach a kid, here it was, and I gladly ran through it (into a burning building, as it turns out).  Ken had disgraced himself by cheating, using steroids.  He died using other bad drugs.  He shamed himself before the baseball world and was considered an outcast.  Alex, on the other hand…...oops, same hand   :(

Anyway, and I know it’s not in their job description, these guys have GOT to realize that they are role models to our kids.  They are the keepers of the greatest game in the history of the New World.  If they are not going to forgo the greed that a jaded society exposes them to and keep the game as “pure” as it deserves to be, they need to be jettisoned.  They, and we, need to understand that after Barney is done, baseball is a very common second stop on the enertainment trail for American children.  If they are lucky, as was I, it will remain a central player in their amusement world for the rest of their lives.  And whoever is occupying the rosters of MLB need to become responsible for making sure it is still there for the next generation of ballplayers, which could include THEIR children, too….

Sara:  As with James, thank you for the kind words. 
  I agree you can’t just end a career based on rumor and inuendo.  Random tests (at least 6 per year per player) need to be the rule.  If we must allow leeway for everybody making A mistake, fine.  First offense, a suspension of one full season, plus the remainder of the season during which a positive test result was recorded.  Upn reinstatement, WEEKLY tests given on a random day of the week, 52 weeks a year at the palyer’s expense.  If someone is stupid enough to fail a second time, lifetime banishment. 
  I’m not worried so much about my son succuming (sp?) to the temptation as I am about him having to compete against the idiots that do.  All I want to see is a level (except for the mound) playing field.

Heroes, no.  But, unfortunately, role models…
AND, if you’re lucky, in some cases, mentors.

I don’t think I “get it” because I’m not an American.  What baseball means to America, the purity of the game, the national pastime etc.  Olney asked a question this week that has been posed many times; why do we get so upset about roids in baseball and not in football?  You don’t hear or read the same bleating about the shame brought on the game, yada yada.  It’s a good question.

I’ve read that baseball represents the American myth and football represents the American reality, or somethin like that….is that it?  I think we see that represented in American pop culture, no?

Also, and this is gonna come off real smug coming from somebody from outside the US but….are we less upset about it in football because it is a blacker game? (DUCK!)

The reason is, though some people like to pretend it isn’t, is that baseball is connected to America’s culture, history and values through tradition and literature in ways that football and other sports are not. There is no “Field of Dreams” or “The Natural” about the NFL.

It has zero to do with race.