Should MLB Bite The Bullet and Allow Players to Use steroids?

So Alex Rodriguez tested positive for the use of steroids in 2003... I can’t say it’s a huge surprise that A-Rod felt the need to turn to supplements. His numbers weren’t that great back then and it was pretty obvious to baseball players, if not the rest of us, that the use of anabolic steroids was rampant in professional sports. Okay, we suspected, but there wasn’t proof. To compete against the other guys who were using various substances, and become the dominating player that fans demand, did he have any choice? Against a stacked playing field, natural ability can only get you so far. So A-Rod joins an illustrious gang of MLB players including Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and poster child Jose Cansenco; all players who brought excitement and records to the game, and all either directly implicated in steroid use or under suspicion of having used them. Now we collectively boo these guys after cheering them on for years, while we happily wore our “there’s no concrete proof” blinders.

Are we certain that there’s even such a thing as a clean player any more? One position MLB (and other professional sports leagues) can take is to ban steroids and test players regularly, with a zero tolerance policy. You buy steroids and you’re out. Hmmm. That whole testing thing hasn’t panned out too well so far. Another possibility is to acknowledge supplements as legitimate and allow players to use legal steroids. At least this would level the playing field, so to speak and allow for formal medical regulation of the products to ensure that they’re used safely. Let the players openly juice if they want, instead of forcing them to arrange clandestine deals with shady guys in back alleys.

The counter argument to the open use policy is that the escalation will still continue. The playing field is level for a bit, then someone tries to sneak in something else that gives him an edge and we’re back to square one. And if everyone in MLB is openly supplementing, what happens to the guy who refuses? Is he off the roster? And if their role models are all officially using supplements, does this mean that high school athletes will all be buying steroids online? It’s a thorny issue that defies an easy answer.