The biggest embarrassment in Major League Baseball right now is the revelation the last couple of years that steroid use was much more pervasive than most people had thought. It wouldn’t be any better if the people getting caught taking steroids were utility infielders or middle relievers, but when they are superstars the problem is more serious. As the commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig has the responsibility to deal with this problem.
There is a lot of blame which can be passed out over who is to blame for this problem. Bud Selig has taken a lot of heat for allowing the problem to get out of control. Selig, in turn, passes a lot of the blame onto the players union accusing them of obstructing efforts to do adequate testing. Although there are ample reasons to take either side in that argument, the ultimate responsibility falls on the shoulders of the players themselves. Neither Bud Selig nor Donald Fehr, the head of the players union, forced any of the players to use the steroids.
A lot more cooperation between the players union and the owners on this issue is needed. Some people believe there certainly will be more cooperation between the two over future testing, but that won’t go far enough. Large fines and punishments for known offenders should be imposed, but it’s a given that lawyers and courts would get any meaningful punishment overturned. He may be forced to resign at some point because of it, some say Selig should remove some of the tainted records from the books and suspend some players for very long periods of time to send a message that steroid use will not be tolerated.
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