Rule 21: "...Not in the Best Interest of Baseball"

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is on the precipice of game changing decision...

How will the "Steroid Era" and the Mitchell Report impact future HOF stars Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds?

Normally, this question is answered with a bevy of options from suspensions to rehab. Those aren't going to be enough this time around. Yes, people have admitted they made mistakes and people have said they are sorry.

But this is where the "Pete Rose" rule steps in a body slams those apologies. When "Charlie Hustle" signed the Dowd report in 1989, then big-league commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti handed out judgment:

A lifetime ban from all things baseball.

Then, in 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame voted and passed a resolution that anyone who receives a lifetime will never get a plaque in Cooperstown.

Selig is obviously busy, making statements that he and every trainer, player, coach, Tom, Dick, and Harry are just as responsible for looking the other way for so long. But the commish and everyone else weren't on TV chasing Willie Mays or Nolan Ryan.

But they weren't the ones making weak "didn't know" excuses to the little leaguers from here to Canada to Chile. They weren't using the media to justify their cheating. Clemens and Bonds single handily disenfranchised Major League Baseball from those who love it the most—the fans.

Rule 21 is posted in every MLB clubhouse to prevent players from corruption and cheating. That is why Rose and Shoeless Joe don't have a plaque.

When Giamatti issued the ban on Rose, he said that it was a "sad day" such a great player had to be permanently banned. He also said it was necessary to protect baseball.

Selig, no doubt, has his own ideas about what will happen to all the juicers in the MLB. Unfortunately, cheating comes with serious consequences. It is time to rejuvenate the purity and love of our National Pastime.

 "...and any and all other acts, transactions, practices or conduct not to be in the best interests of Baseball are prohibited and shall be subject to such penalties, including permanent ineligibility."