The Commissioner suspends the entire National League for 50 Games!

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By Bill Smith

Just kidding, but if things keep going they way they have been it could happen. Baseball thought it finally had a handle on the steroid problem—not so much. What it does have is the very short end of a very long stick.

Manny Ramirez of the LA Dodgers is the latest one to be caught. He was taking female fertility drug HGC. He reportedly was prescribed the drug by a doctor in Florida. HGC was added to the no-no list in 2002. He has been suspended for 50 games—the first failed drug test by a player in the program. According to team mates, Manny brings leadership any locker room west of the Massachusetts boarder. Baseball can only hope he isn’t leading players to massive suspensions. To the further frustration of baseball, Jose Canseco said that Manny was using in his first book Juiced. Maybe Canseco is a member of the psychic network.

The reason that Baseballs stick is so long for the most part is the fault of the sport’s leadership. Baseball really didn’t want to even admit there was a rock called steroids let alone look under it. Sammy Sosa went from looking like a full size Pee Wee Herman doll to having the muscles of a weight lifter in one off season. Baseball was struggling to recover from the worst “Burress” a sport can inflict on itself—the cancellation of their championship. When the home run chase started bringing people back to the ballparks around the league, Baseball league management and the players union looked the other way. Not one of them on either side of the labor/management divide wanted to know the truth. Now both are paying the price for their blindness.

This scandal is worse than any in the history of the game not only because it taints the game worse than any other but that it involves every team and many more players. 18 of 38 MVP awards over the last few years have gone to proven substance abusers according to ESPN.

This is the death by 10,000 cuts. Every time another big name is sucked into the bottomless pit of steroids, Baseball thinks things couldn’t get worse. But they always do as yet another player is disclosed.

It’s not like Baseball can afford to lose regular customers either. Even in two of the brand spanking new facilities, the attendance is lousy. The Yankees cut the price of the better seats in half. But those seats still run $500-1500 a game. Thanks to your friends in Washington, there are no rich. There were some but thanks to the downturn the stock market tanked and the 401’s have become 101’s. Washington D.C. is the only city in the US that hasn’t lost thousands of jobs. But because of the no win policy in DC, no one is showing up for games.

There is no effective test for the most used substance HGH. While dozens of testing companies are working feverishly to find one, thousands of drug enthusiasts are working just as hard to find the new drug that athletes will turn to when an HGH test is adopted. This is one war on drugs that the good guys are certain to lose.

Meanwhile, back in the Capital, the Congress is looking for anything that will increase their popularity. Right now, their approval rating on polls ranks just above that of swine flu. Baseball is an easy target that will look to Joe the Plumber like the Congress is looking out for them. As the approval rating of the Congress continues to fall faster than Skylab, attacking Baseball again for steroids will look more and more like a quick avenue for improvement.

So Baseball has a problem that it is totally unable and unwilling to solve. But it had better find a way because time is running out. So is the patents of the fans that pay the bills for those over compensated druggies.

My headline is fiction now. Let’s hope it stays that way.

That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for and edits https://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on and edits .

My email is [email protected].

Technorati Tags: Ramirez,Dodgers,Baseball,MLB,HGC,Canseco,Juiced,Red Sox,Sosa,Burress,Congress,Washington,Yankees,drugs
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2 thoughts on “The Commissioner suspends the entire National League for 50 Games!”

  1. At least this is a new case and not some case that happened in 2003 and is now being leaked.

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  2. I can’t stand the way these players lie when they get caught. They’re like school kids getting caught doing something by their teacher.

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