Be consistent, Bud

To retroactively punish someone for something done 5 years ago that wasn't against the rules at the time and the results of which were agreed to remain anonymous is ABSURD. Bud, you cannot threaten to punish any player outted from this List Of 104. No one. Not one single player, even as high a profile as ARod.

In an interview with USA Today, Selig was asked if he would consider suspending the three-time American League MVP after Rodriguez told ESPN on Monday that he had juiced from 2001 through 2003 when he played for the Rangers.

"It was against the law, so I would have to think about that," Selig told the paper. "It's very hard. I've got to think about all that kind of stuff."

Yes, Bud, it is very hard. It's painful. The scab has only been torn, but it's hanging and getting caught on everything. It hurts. Either rip the entire thing off and expose all of the remaining 103 or be prepared to have to address a leak every off-season.

As far as the remaining 103, I am totally torn on this. On one hand, the players and Union were assured anonymity by MLB. Releasing this now would be against those players' rights and expectations of confidentiality. If I were one of those 103, especially if I were now retired, I'd want that list destroyed. If I were one of the 103 who is still active but not a superstar, I'd be fighting the desire to remain in the dark versus standing up for one of my Union members who got unjustly outed. I would love to see some player come out and break the glass, admitting he was one of the 103 and he couldn't live with himself knowing that one player was taking the heat for everyone. Will it happen? Doubtful. It will happen when a good investigative reporter gets another name or two leaked and has a book to sell.

On the other hand, I'd love to see the 103 names release immediately. Just get this nightmare out there so we can get to the business of healing. Sure, there'd be a huge hue and cry but soon enough, it'd fade into the ether and we'd be talking about the games again. And we wouldn't have the scepter of additional leaks coming every year forever.

Via Shysterball, Joe Maddon discussed an amnesty idea, which I think is smart. Said Shyster:

Only problem -- and it's, you know, a pretty huge one -- is that under the terms of the 2003 testing program, no one could have been punished for it anyway. And it's not like MLB discipline is even a problem. The problem is that anyone caught using steroids is made an utter pariah by the professionally outraged baseball media, and there is no amnesty program short of the suspension of the First Amendment that can do anything about that.

If there was ever to be anything approaching a workable amnesty setup, it would have been a law enforcement/baseball deal associated with the Mitchell Report and the BALCO/Radomski/McNamee/Novitsky business. That would have had at least some media buy-in and could very well have prompted something at least approaching a thorough clearing of the air. Never happened though, because (a) the feds are far more interested in prosecuting the War on Drugs than they are in actually stopping drug use; and (b) baseball has never really wanted a clearing of the air. They wanted a nice phony End Point. And they got it for about a year, but
now it's gone.