MLB Substance Policy

In this blog I will discuss what my group talked about in the MLB substance abuse case given to us in class. The given objective was to rid the MLB of performance enhancing substance while education current and future players about the effects these drugs have. I took that statement straight from the group blog we did. I think that this is a large goal to try to strive for but it is a good one. The most realistic part of the objective to is educate the current and future players about the effects they have and why they should not take them but to say that we will rid the game of all the drug abuse is not realistic. This ties right into the current culture of the MLB, the MLB is more focused on pushing the problem aside then dealing with it straight on. They seem to look away when a player has a history of drug use or is using. In most cases, if the player is a high profile player it looks like the MLB is trying to help the player push the issue aside. The MLB would not want to see more of its players getting ripped by the media and fans for the drug abuse. It looks bad on the resume for the player and the league. The culture is trying to change to be more willing to bring the heat on players about the abuse and they are trying to become more preventative in nature then just dealing with it when it comes around. To help create an answer for the issues here are some of the ideas that we gave as a group where to bring more rules to the clubhouse for the teams. A great example of the rules in the clubhouse would be like the NBA. In the NBA there are rules on the dress code, technology use like Twitter, what people can say to the media and generally just good conduct rules while in the clubhouse and in the team grounds. As for the actual drug policy, the MLB should have testing like they do for the World Anti Doping Agency. Those rules and policies are much better than those used by the MLB today. Another potential fix would be to create a plus minus system with the players, managers and owners, where a significant financial reward is at stack. The players, who do not have issues with the drug policy, failing a test, test issues, or use, will receive a bonus to their salary. This could be in proportion to the salary they make so the bonus would be large enough for even the biggest names. For the managers and owners, the system would reward them for having the least number of players on the team in all aspects of the organization not using drugs. By adding systems like this one to the stricture drug policies, this could help the MLB become more respected in the sporting community for the accomplishments that the athletes make.