Friday, January 8, 2010

Yanks must do more to fight drug use


Although star players from other teams such as Manny Ramirez have been caught using banned substances, the New York Yankees as a team have come to represent the drug problem that has tainted the sport and the ongoing difficulties Major League Baseball still faces in curtailing drug use despite its stricter policy. Yankee stars such as Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte and Alex Rodriguez have all either admitted to or been named as players using performance-enhancing drugs. Unfortunately, that trend continues today.

Yankees minor league Rony Bautista was one of three players suspended for 50 games today for testing positive for substances banned under the improved drug policy. This comes a year after pitcher Sergio Mitre also got a 50-game ban for violating the drug policy after using a nutritional substance he bought from GNC.

I hope this latest suspension opens the eyes of Yankee officials to the fact that they need to do more to deal with this problem. Make the players understand the consequences of being wrong about the products they choose to put in their bodies and insist that they check with their trainers and MLB to be sure that the products they want to use are allowed under the drug policy. It seems simple, but the fact that the Yankees keep getting busted for using banned substances is a real concern and continues to cast an unfortunate shadow on the team.

Thanks to Googie man via en.Wikipedia for the photo.

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