Saw this article last week. Not sure if it made on to Letsargue or not, but here it is. I don't agree with some of his conclusions. For instancce, if a two-year and then lifetime ban are going to solve the problem baseball, then T+F and cycling wouldn't have problems now. Also, this attitude that baseball is the worst offender seems kind of silly. Hasn't the NFL just done a better job at looking the other way?
Go John Ruiz.
Steroids fight takes on muscle
First published: Thursday, November 3, 2005
Bud Selig and Donald Fehr are still stalling, and Congress is still posturing.
Who would think John Ruiz would be the one actually doing something about steroids?
The WBA heavyweight champion isn't speaking on Capitol Hill, or lobbying baseball to reach a new agreement.
Ruiz is heading to court. He wants his last opponent, James Toney, to pay him $10 million because Toney tested positive for the steroid Nandrolone after beating him for the WBA title April 30 at Madison Square Garden.
Even though he got his title back after Toney's failed test, Ruiz believes his marketability and stature as a fighter were damaged by losing.
Think of the legal precedents this could set -- every pitcher who ever dished up a home run ball to Jason Giambi or Rafael Palmeiro could soon be shopping for an attorney. Any sprinter ever denied a gold medal by Kelli White could sue.
Who needs Congress when you have the courts? Who needs suspensions when you can hit an athlete where it really hurts -- in the pocketbook?
"John is very serious about this," his attorney, Aaron Marks said. "It's not merely to gain what he thinks is rightfully his but to make a statement that this kind of conduct is unacceptable."
On the same day Ruiz filed his lawsuit in federal court in New York, Congress began sending signals that it might finally be fed up with the attempts by America's top sports leagues to police themselves.
Fehr, baseball's union chief, told senators last month he hoped a new steroids agreement could be reached by the end of the World Series. Maybe he was hoping for a really long series, but in case he hasn't noticed, the Chicago White Sox are already world champs.
Sens. Jim Bunning and John McCain did notice. And they seem to be running out of patience with the kind of hardball tactics Fehr has used with so much success against baseball itself.
It's one thing to stand up to Selig, another to thumb your nose at Congress.
On Tuesday, the senators said they would reintroduce legislation that will make every player think twice before injecting themselves with performance-enhancing drugs.
The legislation makes the current baseball steroids program look like a 98-pound weakling by comparison. And the beauty of it is that it's so simple. Get caught taking steroids and you get a two-year suspension. Get caught again and you're banned for life.
It won't just cover baseball, either. It's already the model used in the Olympics and the legislation would also apply to the NFL, NBA and NHL.
Assuming Congress is finally serious, one simple bill would go a long way toward wiping out the steroids problem in sports.
Baseball, though, needs it the worst. While Selig fiddled, Fehr stalled and Congress fumed, the sport spent the entire season beset by the steroid issue. From Mark McGwire to Rafael Palmeiro to the BALCO sentencings, steroids loomed over the sport.
This week's offering: Matt Lawton, a former All-Star outfielder, who became the 12th player penalized by baseball for steroids Wednesday. At least Lawton admitted it
Don't think Americans haven't been paying attention. If you doubt that, just look at the World Series television ratings. This year fewer than one in five households tuned in, the lowest rating ever.
Only about one in three Americans now identify themselves as baseball fans, and the fans who are left say steroids is second only to player salaries as the game's biggest problem.
Unlike Ruiz, they can't sue anybody to make it better.
Tim Dahlberg writes for The Associated Press.