The recent interview with Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Ryan Madson sheds a new light on an issue that just continuing to cast a shadow over MLB, performance enhancing drugs.  In an interview with MLB.com, Madsen weighs the options of human growth hormone to help the healing process, but HGH is a known PED that is tested for in the MLB.  Guys in the past have used HGH to do just that, recover from surgery.  The most notable would have to be Andy Pettitte, who is still currently playing for the Yankees, but he is not alone.  Elevated testosterone is what Bartolo Colon tested positive for last year, and elevated testosterone is caused by HGH.  So should this be allowed?  And if it shouldn’t, what should the Commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, do about PED’s?

I am honestly torn on this subject.  While I believe that there is no place in baseball for steroids, I am also on the side that says the players who were known steroid users should still be allowed into the Hall of Fame.  Before the steroid induced HR races of the late 90’s, baseball was struggling.  A strike-shortened season had sent a lot of fans packing, and a record breaking HR chase is just what baseball needed to bring those fans back.  I also understand where Madson is coming from, HGH is a medical treatment that could help a player’s career, but at the same time I understand that if you allow players to use HGH to recover, then there will be players who will abuse it to try and take their games to the next level.

So again, what should Selig do about PED’s?  Nothing.  Selig and MLB have taken huge leaps with the drug policy in the last 15 years.  The times are gone when a jar of androstenedione was found very easily in the locker of St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire back in 1998.  Players are being caught by the program, and as this program continues to evolve, it will continue to weed out players who are cheating to try and get ahead.

Some of you may think, “You really have faith in Bud Selig?”  I know what you mean.  This is a guy who has taken years to resolve the Oakland Athletics’ stadium issue, which still is not resolved, and continues to neglect the expansion of instant replay, despite pressure from fans.  A guy who, when he’s asked about those issues, deflects the questions like the shields of the death star.  To that I say, I know, and I don’t trust the guy farther than I can throw him, but there is one issue he has worked hard to resolve, and this is it.

If you take a look at MLB.com they have a complete timeline of the drug policy, starting from the day that McGwire admitted to useing androstenedione, and ending when Brian McNamee turned in a phone call that seemed to implicate Roger Clemens in the use of steroids.  It chronicles the first testing survey and how five to seven percent of the tests in that survey came back positive.  The most important thing you will find in this timeline is that the original penalties for positive tests were 10, 30 and 60 days for the first, second and third offenses respectively.  That is nothing compared to today’s penalties of 50 and 100 days for the first and second penalties, and a lifetime ban for a third offense.

So, even though it may seem like there is still a major issue with PED’s in MLB, the system has evolved, and every year more players are caught because of it.  Even with the biogenetics scandal and the cloud that it hangs over the heads of some of the best players in the game today, fans can sleep well at night knowing that the system is evolving.  As hard as it may seem to believe, Selig and MLB are doing the right thing.