MLB Celebrates Hilarious Hall of Fame Voting by Expanding Drug Testing

Baseball and the players who play the baseball have reached an agreement on human growth hormone testing, which is great news I think.

Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

It’s interesting when you look at drugs in baseball as a health and fairness issue, and not as a threshold for whether someone is a good person or not.  And then congratulate yourself for thinking that out loud.

Nobody wants performance enhancing drugs in baseball, but that doesn’t change that they are in it.  Using them as a reason to keep someone from being featured in a museum is self-aggrandizing, but finding a way that makes everyone happy to try and get them out of the game is probably a step in the right direction.

The fact that the players are okay with this new testing make it fine by me.  When a player’s name is mentioned in a report, and then winds up cleared of the charges, it’s not the test whose career is forever marked with a cheater’s asterisk.  Expanding the testing to last all year, rather than just through the preseason, does indicate that baseball is not ready to submit to the concept of the game being so riddled with drugs that it won’t exist without them.

Which is nice; while there’s no denying they are in the game and that there is a debate as to how they affect the Hall of Fame status, baseball would be a cleaner game without them.  However, as history has taught us, the game will always be a little dirty.

Regardless!  This is the state of the game at the moment.  And MLB is trying to deal with it, which is a refreshing take from the commissioner’s office, which so often decides that everything is fine the way it is.  “Human element” and all that.

But Bud Selig and MLBPA rep Michael Weiner both seem to be happy with each other.  It’s not common, as Selig has that old man sparse-with-the-approval thing down.  The sad part is that nobody wants it anyway; if you’ve got Bud Selig’s approval, then you are probably an archaic, glacially paced thing.

"“Michael Weiner and the union deserve credit.  Way back when they were having a lot of problems I didn’t give them credit, but they do.”–Bud Selig"

D’aaawwwwwww.

Back in Philadelphia, or wherever he is, Carlos Ruiz has that fuck-ass 25-game suspension for Adderall to get through.  And while he shouldn’t have done it, it still just sucks.  I mean, it’s Chooch.  And young kindling for the future Freddy Galvis was also suspended in the past year, subtracted from a lineup that was pretty god awful to begin with.

My point is, the Phillies have their share of issues with drug enforcement policies.  I can sit here and rationalize them all I want to make myself feel better (and I will), but in an age where everybody–even freaking Chooch–is doing some form of MLB-sanctioned no-no’s, it is a bit depressurizing to know the best, most accurate and well developed testing is in place.

Not that I am at all aware of the science involved.  Like I said, just having the approval of the MLBPA, those being victimized by the miscues of a flawed system, is enough for me.

And as we all know, as a guy with an internet blog, my opinion is critical for the advancement of the game.

Thank you.  And good night.