Article:Baseball Takes A Deep Breath

This weekend in virtually every Major League Baseball clubhouse there a had to be a collective sigh of relief. In a move that was almost evident from the start due to the strength of the MLBPA, the MLB decided to not suspend any players linked to steroids or HGH in the past. This means players like Jose Guillen of the Royals and Jay Gibbons, assuming he gets picked up, do not have to serve their previously assigned 15 game suspensions. It also keeps players like Paul Lo Duca, Andy Pettitte, and Paul Byrd off the hot seat. But in the court of public opinion these players will still be penalized in a different way and suffer. But personally, I think it is a bad move for the MLB not to carry out their suspension on a proven cheater like Gibbons, Gullien has some holes in the story, but these players cheated and it was just this past season. I think going three to five years back and giving someone like Pettitte a suspension is ridiculous, but the players within the past six months need to punished and 15 games is nothing to begin with. Bud Selig's alternative punishment for the rescinded suspensions is community service, which I have to kind of laugh at. But the biggest sigh of relief felt this past weekend had to be from those players not mentioned in the Mitchell Report and have completely gotten away with cheating in one of our nation's finest sports. I'm glad this situation was taken care of swiftly but I don't believe that it was the right decision at all.