The difficulty here is that you cannot begin to haphazardly start suspending players - much of the Mitchell Report is still hearsay, remaining largely uncorroborated beyond a 'he said she said' affair. While I am quite sure that most of the players implicated are guilty of the crime I am also sure that there are a few falsifications therein - I'm still unwilling to take many of those people turning players over on their word.
Suspensions are also unfair on the whole. Penalties have been adjudicated and re-adjudicated several times over the past decade... you cannot suspend a player via 2008 standards for an infraction in 2001. If a player is said to have purchased steroids three times do you consider that the third strike - out of baseball for life?
In the end, public opinion is what matters the most. A player retiring in shame is as much a penalty as a suspension. Clemens and Bonds will likely not sniff Cooperstown immediately, if at all - plus, you can't suspend players that are already retired. True, you can bar them from the Hall... but what does that do to Chuck Knoblauch or Tim Laker - nothing.
|