Viewpoint: Universal zero tolerance for doping should start with MLB

The second syllable of Lance Armstrong’s last name was once a testament to his seven Tour de France titles and his brave fight against testicular cancer.

Now, it will forever be a just mockery of how he cheated his way to strength. Now, it’s fake, just like his career.

This week, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency banned Armstrong from competitive cycling for life and stripped him of all his Tour de France trophies.

Armstrong has been fighting USADA charges since June, but decided Thursday he would not fight the charges in arbitration.

“The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today - finished with this nonsense,” he said in a statement.

Armstrong has been fighting doping allegations since 2004, when journalists David Walsh and Pierre Ballester accused him of taking PEDs in their book L.A. Confidentiel.

The USADA’s consequences for Armstrong were appropriate -- and they should set a precedent for all sports -- especially Major League Baseball.

Melky Cabrera could find himself in trouble beyond his 50-game suspension from baseball.

America’s professional baseball league is infamous for its players’ rampant PED usage in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2007, The Mitchell Report named 89 MLB players who used steroids in addition to recommending prevention practices.

MLB’s current penalties are as follows: 50 games for the first offense, 100 games for the second offense and a lifetime ban for the third offense.

Not strict enough.

Since 2008, 10 Major League players have been suspended 50 games for doping. Two -- outfielder Manny Ramirez and relief pitcher Guillermo Mota -- have twice tested positive and been suspended 100 games.

However, PEDs have still been linked to countless others who have not been suspended. Superstars such as Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte have come out and admitted pre-Mitchell Report usage, but both have gone unpunished.

Retired MLB outfielder Jose Canseco has been very outspoken in favor of steroids, whether it’s on his Twitter account or in his book Juiced. Mark McGwire, his former Oakland A’s teammate, has also come clean on the matter.

Others from that era -- notably Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens -- have never publicly admitted to have knowingly taken illegal PEDs.

Then, there’s the Ryan Braun situation. In October 2011, he tested positive for elevated testosterone levels, which the New York Daily News reported were “the highest ever for anyone who has ever taken a test, twice the level of the highest test ever taken."

Braun won an arbitrary appeal of the positive test in February 2012, becoming the first Major League player to successfully do so.

Braun did not unanimously win his appeal, and his case alone still suggests that PEDs are still being used throughout Major League Baseball.

To further corroborate the issue, San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera failed a drug test last week and was suspended 50 games.

He was among the favorites to win the MVP award before his suspension.

To add insult to, well, more insult, reports suggest that he concocted a phony website in an attempt to prove that he took the drugs unknowingly, through a supplement he ordered.

Major League Baseball has taken commendable efforts since 2007 to eliminate the steroid issue, but so far it has failed. There is only solution: a zero tolerance lifetime ban on first offense. Keep the appeals process for the rare event of a false positive, and create a detailed, running list of all the substances that could cause a false positive.

But the MLB needs to make a statement to its players that they can’t approach PEDs like they would a plate appearance.

When it comes doping, one strike and you’re out.

Dan Norton is a Summer 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.

This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.