What Do YOU Plan On Getting Out Of This?

Tomorrow is most certainly going to be an interesting day in the sporting world. An issue that has been running around baseball at an unbelievable pace is going to come to a head tomorrow when George Mitchell's report on steroids will be released.

Apparently, there are to be somewhere between 60-80 names of players both retired and still playing who have violated Major League Baseball's steroid policy. It was learned that in March of '06 that Bud Selig asked the former Democratic Senate Majority Leader and then Chairman of Walt Disney to head up an investigation to uproot all of the information concerning the steroid problems that had been plaguing baseball for an extended period of time.

What exactly is going to come from this report? I'm going to tell you why that is the question at hand.

First of all let me state that I don't agree with the usage of steroids in baseball. I think it's wrong and if you want to read the best piece about it, it clearly comes from Ryne Sandberg's acceptance speech to the Hall of Fame. However, let me throw this card at your.

There is a "new" policy on the punishment for steroid users and it is the following:

"A first positive test resulted in a suspension of 10 games, a second positive test resulted in a suspension of 30 games, the third positive test resulted in a suspension of 60 games, the fourth positive test resulted in a suspension of one full year, and a fifth positive test resulted in a penalty at the commissioner’s discretion. Players were tested at least once per year, with the chance that several players could be tested many times per year. "

Note, "new" policy. The "old" policy was established in 2002. Let me reemphasize, old. 2002 was the first year that baseball started testing for performance enhancing drugs.

Do you drive over the speed limit? An honest question, don't you think? Let me ask it another way...if you pass a police officer running radar running five MPH over the speed limit, are you going to get pulled over? No? Then why would you slow down if nothing is going to happen to you?

In the 80's and 90's, no players were at risk, professionally, for taking steroids or any other performance enhancing drugs. So like you knowingly driving past that cop at 45 in a 40, these guys weren't going to get in trouble. Throw out the theory that officials in '98 turned their backs for the good of baseball. They weren't doing anything to begin with. Talk to any player in the AL and they will tell you that something was going on with the Oakland A's that wasn't normal. I don't think there is a coincidence that Tony LaRussa was involved with both the A's and McGwire's Cardinals. But, until 2002, the MLB was doing nothing to stop usage. Why would these guys stop?

Don't blame the players about this. Yes, they knowingly broke the rules, but they knew that that knowingly wouldn't get caught. So, why aren't fingers being pointed at those who weren't doing anything about this when the problem became more and more escalated? I understand the public's need for the blame to go to players, but really that isn't the problem.

First of all, let's start blaming people for things they did five years ago. Technically, that is when testing started, much of it was anonymous. Now, there is rumor that some of those names are going to come out, which I don't think can be legal. So, what if in a blood test, Elmer Dessens tested positive for cocaine usage? Is Elmer going to be in as big of trouble as Adrian Beltre?

Here's the other thing. Everyone talks about Sammy and McGwire and Bonds as being the figureheads of steroid usage. Their names may be on this list tomorrow. They are not the figureheads of the steroid era. One man is the figurehead and his name is Bret Boone. If his name is not on this list, then it's hogwash. If they don't have Bret Boone's name on this list, it is pointless. I have a source that in '01 was close to trainers in the MLB as well as the Chicago White Sox staff. I can name one name of a White Sox player and two Cubs who he knows for a fact were juicing. If they aren't on this list, what does this list mean?

You can't fix the past. You can prepare for the future. If you want to point fingers about the steroid usage in baseball over the past 30 years, look to the MLB, not to the players. It's the MLB's fault for not taking a stand against usage. What were their reasons? We probably will never know because officials can hide behind names like McGwire, Sosa and Bonds. But what really is knowing these names going to do? Provide closure? That we now know who these guys were? I've got news for you, if you watch baseball, you know who these guys are. I've been against this report since the start. It's not going to prove anything that is relevant to making the game better tomorrow. It's just going to give ESPN a reason to report on a number of specific people, and you will watch it. I bet you won't watch the Orioles play the Rays on Wednesday night baseball in June though. You probably won't see Jay Gibbons either.