Players, owners reach deal; suspensions rescinded

[dickay]

Well... have fun railing about it.
*shrug*

I do have to admit though that I'm fundamentally opposed to the illegaility of PED's. Their dangerous if used improperly (and sometimes if used properly, depending), but their only dangerous to individuals. Drug use by itself does not lead to the downfall of civilization... and indeed a good agument could be made that criminalizing drug use does more harm to a society than the drug use itself.
That's not to say that I condone drug use in any form. I know as long as I'm able to do so that I'm going to keep my kids out of that. More importantly, I'm going to ensure that their educated about the reasons not to use. I don't need the law to tell me that drug use is a problem though, and criminalizing it obviously isn't doing any good.

Criminalization without enforcement is useless. I also agree that this topic isn't about the legalization of drugs, you and I would go on about that forever and I don't have the time to begin. I completely disagree with your sentiments however, and know there is plenty of historic fact that shows legalization obviously doesn't improve anything.

[Reade]

and know there is plenty of historic fact that shows legalization obviously doesn't improve anything.

Hog wash, there's plenty of countries that have legalized some softer drugs and they have seen a decline in the usage of hard core drugs and crime.

[ohms_law]

Just to keep the discussion on point, let's draw a real work comparison. Say you work Acme, Inc., and for the sake of argument the company doesn't have a policy against drinking on the job (a slight bit of suspension of disbelief is required here... we are ultimately talking about baseball though, so it's not that outlandish). One day, Joe Schmoe goes out and has a "liquid lunch", then comes back to work and injures himself. Well, now the company management figures out what happened and goes on a crusade. The first obvious move it to make a policy saying that drinking at lunch or before work, and being drunk at work is not allowed. That's a perfectly reasonable and expected response. However, they then go about launching a huge investigation to determine if anyone else has ever drank at lunch, and by interviewing employees and looking at certain records (business lunch receipts, etc...) they find say a dozen or so employees who have drank at lunch in the past. In response to that information, they fire all of those employees who they've identified "broke the rules".

No matter which way you cut it, the above is basically exactly what MLB is doing. The legality of the behavior has nothing at all to do with the company's response to the problem, and it shouldn't. MLB didn't have a policy for a long, long time, and that's just as boneheaded as Acme, Inc. not having a no drinking policy in the scenario above. The same holds true with the response to the problem after the fact, as outlined in the scenario above. The players use is questionable at best, regardless, but the MLB's response is hardly good. Two wrongs do not make a right.

[HoustonGM]

Finally....why the 'agreement' not to discipline those who were found guilty of roid use? Who lobbied for that? How can that be rationalized? "No, we're not signing this new half-a$$ agreement unless you agree not to penalize those found guilty earlier." Thats like negotiating with a terrorist, I just don't get it.

Because you can't punish players for doing something which, at the time they did it, had no written code against it. You cannot retroactively apply punishment to something that, at the time committed, had no punishment.

And more to the point, it's completely hypocritical to go back in time and search for players who did something which MLB KNEW was going on and DID NOTHING ABOUT. People need to get off their high horses on this issue. Everybody involved in baseball was in part responsible for the steroid problem. The players, the dealers, the front offices, the commissioner, the media, the fans. Everybody knew and nobody cared until Congress made them. It is completely illogical to punish the players that took the drugs, while letting those that fostered the environment and turned a blind eye to the issue off the hook.