First let me say that this problem is not just a player problem. I do NOT think that we can trust major league baseball to police themselves. We cannot trust the owners to police their own teams. The congressional hearings on steroids have received a lot of flack for being “not important” and a “waste of time.” I am here to say that they are very important and a better use of time than a lot of things done by our representatives.

McGwire’s constant remarks, “That’s not for me to decide,” “I am retired so it doesn’t matter,” “I can’t answer that,” and the like are egregious dodges. His desire to “be a spokesman against steroids” yet still refuse to acknowledge that he even knew of their existence further shows that he is just as dishonest about it now as he was when he was hulking up to break the homerun record. In my opinion, he is slime and his records should be erased completely.

When the suggestion to use the Olympic standard of drug testing was proposed, (1st offense – 2yr ban, 2nd offense – lifetime ban) McGwire, Sosa & Schilling dodged. They were asked point blank if they thought that it was a good idea… the responses were “I’m retired,” and “We should work hard on the current system…” Nobody other than Canseco would come out and say “Yeah – we should implement a strict system.” Palmiero did however state that he would play under any testing system.

The use of steroids is cheating – the use of steroids is illegal – the use of steroids is despicable. For these players to back peddle and doubletalk while suggesting that Jose Canseco is the only player to use steroids is just wrong. They are not heroes – they are not good role models – they are greedy, slimy cheaters.

You be the judge – look at a normal Mark McGwire – next to the steroid monkey McGwire. And if you are already formulating your “he works out a lot” defense, save it and get your head out of the sand. He has cheated to get ahead. He has cheated the clean players currently in the game. He has cheated the history of the game. He has cheated those whose records he has broken.

The MLB policy is horrible… the players can walk out in the middle of the test… they can pay $10K to wipe out their results and keep it out of the public… the test doesn’t test for everything… it is a joke. It is definitely time to adopt an Olympic style drug policy on a national basis. It needs to be across the board for all sports and all levels of play.