Performance Enhancing Drugs

Over the past several years, baseball has proven with multiple reports and documents that it still has further to go in order to rid the sport of performance enhancing drugs. 

First time offenders in baseball currently receive a 50-game suspension, second-time offenders receive a 100-game suspension, and a third-time offender is banished from baseball. 

Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez will find himself among the greats at Cooperstown some day. Although it is a dark time for Major League Baseball, we need to learn to accept that the Steroid Era happened, and the only thing we can do about it is to prevent it from happening again.

To the surprise of no one, the recent Barry Bonds perjury trial ended with a result that satisfied neither party and only really succeeded in stirring up another round of PED-related articles. 

One of the most common type article to enter the fray is how the Hall of Fame will view such candidates; after all, Bonds (and others guilty/suspected of usage) put up some impressive numbers during his career. 

Major League Baseball all-time home run leader and former San Diego Giants left fielder Barry Bonds has been found guilty of obstructing justice, while the jury could not agree on three other charges in a verdict announced Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco.

Since the extent of obstruction of justice ranges so widely, Bonds' penalty could be anything from a simple fine to a 10-year prison sentence.

The biggest issue in baseball is the usage of steroids. Bud Selig and the rest of the league have become more wish-washy and flip-floppy than any politician on the face of the planet. Implementing a ban on performance enhancing drugs is only a fraction of what the league needs to do to keep PEDs out of Major League Baseball.

After hearing that Tampa Bay Rays slugger Manny Ramirez tested positive for performance enhancing drugs for the second time in three years, I started to wonder...

"Should we let steroid users into the Hall of Fame?"

Okay, now you can boo him.

And throw some dirt on the Rays season while you’re at it.

Manny Ramirez was one step ahead of the law Friday when he abruptly quit retired from baseball, which appeared ready to slap him with a second suspension. This slap was for 100 games, after he again violated the sport’s drug policy.

Manny, 38, bailed.

In a surprise announcement Friday afternoon, Manny Ramirez shocked the baseball world by announcing his decision to retire from MLB, effective immediately.

The retirement was announced by MLB via the following statement (courtesy of ESPN.com news services)::

Barry Bonds awaits his fate in a federal courthouse in San Francisco for allegedly lying about knowingly using steroids.