Major League Baseball set to ban Alex Rodriguez through 2015

[Simon]

There was a serious problem with gamblers infiltrating baseball 100 years ago.  It culminated in the infamous 1919 World Series where 8 players from the Chicago White Sox "threw" the series due to payoffs from gamblers who then bet on the rival Cincinatti Reds to win the championship, which is what happened.

After about a year of rumors the true story came out, and the owners appointed a former Federal Judge, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, as Commissioner with complete power over the game.  Although the 8 players were acquitted in a trial in Chicago (the jury was paid off by the gamblers), Landis none-the-less banned all of them from baseball for life.

That fixed the gambling problem.  The same draconian policy needs to be followed in regards to performance enhancing drugs.  The international drug ban for Olympic athletes has just been increased to 4 years for a first offense.  We're moving in the right direction....