If I Were the Commissioner of Baseball...

If I were the Commissioner of Baseball...

In all honesty, I could probably write this article in two words ("I'd quit"), but, for the sake of blogging, I will continue.

Remember as a kid when you'd play Monopoly? You would start out by buying a few properties, the game drags on, and you start realizing that the banker has more money than everyone else. Coincidence? After closely monitoring the banker's moves over the next few turns, you realize that he/she is, in fact, cheating. You call the banker out, argue for a bit, then you either switch bankers or quit the game. Even as a kid you knew that you weren't supposed to cheat.

Cheating is something that's been looked down upon, for years. Here are a couple of examples of things that happened - way back in the day - when people would cheat. When you cheat in anything, there are serious consequences... unless you're a baseball player.

A decent Major League Baseball player can enter the league sometime in his early twenties, and retire in his late thirties or even his forties. A person with enough talent can be playing high-level professional baseball for 15-20 years. That's a long time to be playing ball, right?

During those 15-20 years that one is playing professional baseball, there is a good chance that you, or one of your close friends on the team, will be introduced to using steroids or other PEDs. If you use these at any point in time during your career, you can and will be labeled as a "cheater."

Let's take a look at how much PED's can affect your career:

One very prominent former baseball player, Barry Bonds,  wasn't just good at his job, he was great. He was a great fielder, base runner, and batter, too. Through the first 15 years of his illustrious career, Bonds had belted 494 career home runs, averaging about 33 home runs per season. Had he retired at that point, everyone would still consider his career a huge success. In his 16th year, however, Barry blasted 73 home runs - in one year - breaking baseball's record for the most home runs in one season. Imagine your banker sneaking almost all of the Monopoly money into his pile. That's basically what Bonds did. He continued walloping home runs for another six years, and cheated his way into baseball's record books by stealing one of the most hallowed records in all of sports: most home runs in a career. Bonds was never suspended for steroid use.

In 2001-2003, another big league slugger, Alex Rodriguez was using steroids on a regular basis. He didn't admit it until after it had happened, but he did admit it.

Major League Baseball issued no penalty.

Rodriguez, 38, stopped using steroids for a time, but was recently caught using them again. Major League Baseball is now threatening to either give "A-Rod" a suspension for the rest of 2013 and all of 2014, or a lifetime ban.

This leads me to a question: how could baseball avoid the drama, bad press, and cheating? The answer is simple.

Test every player, and ban them on their first failed drug test.

Calm down, I know you think that's too harsh, but hear me out.

Ryan Braun, another juicer, was recently sentenced to a 65 game suspension for PED usage. Sixty-five games out of a 182 game season. Plus, Braun will go onto play baseball for a long, long time after that. One third of one season is a slap on the wrist. If I were the commissioner of baseball, and I were faced with this exact situation, I would ban every single player who is cheating immediately. No more 50, 65, or even 182 game suspensions. They would be banned from baseball for life.

If you start banning players now, the game as we know it will take a huge hit. Tons of notable players would be gone, but it starts everyone out with a clean slate, and the future of baseball would be bright. Instead, the Ryan Brauns and A-Rod's of the world are destroying the our nation's pastime. They are tainting the record books and getting paid in the process! (Alex Rodriguez is owner of the two most expensive player contracts in sports history.) Lance Armstrong is banned for life, stripped of his Tour de France titles, and losing endorsement deals, but Ryan Braun will be back next spring.

Your banker is constantly stealing money from Monopoly's funds and you're doing nothing about it. It's time to act and make these players face consequences that fit their actions. Baseball needs to change, and it needs to change now.

Just remember kids, cheaters never prosper... unless you play baseball.