I feel like every few years we have to talk about a problem in baseball. Whether it is steroids and performance enhancing drugs or the hardness/bounciness of balls. There is always some issue in baseball. Now it seems that pitchers are using foreign substances to help them get more spin. Okay, technically this not a new problem. Pitchers have always been doctoring the ball and finding ways to get an edge.
There is a fantastic article by Travis Sawchik that everyone should read. One of the things that stood out to me in the article is just how widespread the cheating is among pitchers throughout the majors and minors. If the guy who runs the pitching clinic can text a client in the minors and that dude can immediately give them advice and tell them how pitchers do it…yeah, that is bad.
If it is that widespread, then maybe just pick a substance and make it legal. Obviously pitchers will try to find a way to get an edge and that is where MLB should come down hard. If you get caught using a banned substance, maybe you get banned for three years. I think they should allow performance enhancing drugs, but if you are caught using one that is banned, then same thing: three year suspension. Or whatever.
What bothers me about this stuff is that it just feels like MLB does not care. They want this to go away, which was kind of their attitude on steroids at first. The league never makes the right decision. Seriously, they are driving fans away from the game and they just do not seem to care. It is frustrating to see this as a fan.
