Alecsmom Take a look at the Tour de France for an inkling of where baseball is heading if it DOESN'T take a hard line against doping.

Baseball has not seen the levels of success it has now since the introduction of TV. Even after the recent witch hunts the ratings are holding and the seats are being filled in record numbers and at higher average ticket prices. The Tour's problem is all of the name athletes are banned because of teetotalers and very few people like to watch the minor leagues.

iloveamerica Um, they are, actually. That's why they're called "performance enhancing" drugs. Comparing segregation to drug use is like comparing bicycles to jello.

How witty. And you are right you can't compare the two but not in the way you think you are. With segregation you water down the talent pool by allowing players on the field that are not as good as the black players. While those "clean" players are playing against the "dirty" players that are willing to put in more time in the gym. Hope you know that steroids are not magic and the term performance enhancing is a misnomer. If you use steroids it allows you to work out more meaning it is the athlete that does the work and the steroids aid in that work and not some magic pill that allows a person to play playstation all day and just get magically stronger.

GW in Ohio As a long-time sports fan (and I mean loooooooooong time), who grew up with the likes of Ernie Banks, Jerry West and Y. A. Tittle, I just don't take men's professional sports seriously any more

I don't like these younger wipper snappers using drugs that where not available back in my day either. I prefer them all on speed too.

I [i]would[/i] like to see salary caps imposed on professional athletes. I mean, it's always been kind of obscene to hear about a shortstop making more money than the GDP of many small countries.

Instead you would like the owners to make the money off the labor of the players. That way instead of the player getting an extra house they can get a spare G5.

Oh and here is a little secret for you, ticket prices have almost nothing at all to do with the players salaries. If baseball capped the salaries at 35,000 a year next year the BoSox would still not lower the ticket prices a dollar because they sell out every game and it is the supply and demand of the seats that set the price.

Renegade Iconoclast If doping was legal, it would be a requirement to compete, meaning you'd be forcing every player to use steroids just to be in the game. This is obviously not fair or desirable, and plenty of people have pointed this out, many times.

It's not a matter of letting boys be boys, it's a matter of leveling playing field for the athletes that don't want to use dangerous drugs. I find it completely disingenuous of you to repeatedly ignore this line of reasoning, in favor of throwing up our hands.

NFL players have a life expectancy of 55 years and line men 52 years. Recent studies show that the NFL players that died young and donated brain tissue have brains that look like 70 year old dementia patients and these players are in their 40's and 50's. What I am getting at boo fucking hoo on the "clean" players. They choose to take up a profession that is harder than hell on their bodies and is more than likely going to cripple them in some way and they are paid handsomely for this. You don't have a "right" to these jobs and if the cost is too much for you to bare than choose another line of work.

NFL players tend to get punchy, and that's somehow a valid reason that all athletes should be allowed to use steroids?

How about cyclists, swimmers, runners, baseball players, basketball players, soccer players, etc? They should all be forced by the competition to use steroids because NFL players get punchy over time?

Did that argument make sense to you when you wrote it? You sound a little punchy yourself, amigo.

Glad that my point went right over your head. What I am saying in simple terms is that when you choose to be an athlete you take some risk to your body. So boo fucking hoo that the "clean" athlete might not be able to compete.

Should we ban calorie overloading too in the NFL for linemen? That has actually shown to be a long term health problem and no one is "naturally" 330lbs and can run a sub 5 40 times. Lets ban steaks because its not fair to the vegans out there. Lets also ban leysik since that is a performance enhancer and screws over those that have "naturally" good eye sight. I mean no one should be forced to put their health at risk to "compete".