Drugs and sports

Yet another high-profile Major League Baseball player was exposed last week as a user of performance-enhancing drugs.

Ryan Braun, the former National League MVP and star with the Milwaukee Brewers, was issued a 65-game suspension without pay after an investigation into his dealings with Biogenesis, a clinic exposed to be dealing drugs to professional athletes under the table.

Braun is one of many reported to be connected with Biogenesis; so was former American League MVP Alex Rodriguez, who is in the middle of a 10-year, $275 million contract.

For those who follow sports, and particularly baseball, this is nothing new. Baseball has been trying to clean up its game since revelations of steroid use became public several years ago after many offensive records were broken in the 1990s and early 2000s. Names of steroid users include Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds.

The handling of these revelations by most athletes is off-putting and disgraceful. When caught with a positive test two years ago, Braun won an appeal after smearing the reputation of a test collector who stored Braun's urine sample in a refrigerator in his home until a drop-off center was open. In the case of Bonds, he allowed a friend and colleague to go to jail rather than own up to his use; and cyclist Lance Armstrong successfully won lawsuits against those who alleged he had taken PEDs en route to seven Tour de France titles.

As with so many other drugs, PEDs harm more than those who take them. In the sports arena, clean players are placed at a disadvantage -- and earn lesser contracts -- when they don't measure up to the dopers. It's even worse when the users throw other people under the bus to protect their selfish interests.

As for Major League Baseball, it should be commended for aggressively investigating allegations [the most recent coming from newspaper reports]. But it's safe to say the problem will persist as long as there are hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in protected contracts. It would make sense that in the next collective bargaining arrangement, teams should be allowed to sever a contract in its entirety if a player is found to have used performance-enhancing drugs. As things exist, players care more about their money than their reputations, and the risk of exposure is worth taking if there are still tens of millions of dollars left on their contracts.

Our hope is that one day performance-enhancing drugs are removed from the competitive equation.