Cheat, Just Don’t Get Caught, Get Caught and We Will Forgive

baseball

Cheat, just don’t get caught seems to be the message coming out of Baseball, and if you do get caught then we will just give you a year ban and you can still make your millions.

Is that supposed to be a deterrent to taking drugs?

Take drugs, make millions, get caught, take a year out, and then come back and make more money.

I just don’t get it, either ban the players completely or legalise the drugs, because this is just a joke.

What kind of example are we looking to set here. It certainly isn’t one of don’t cheat or don’t take drugs.

Alex Rodriguez, the highest paid Baseball player, gets to continue playing whilst he fights the allegations, I don’t get that either. I know we are all guilty until proven innocent, but he has already admitted to using drugs before.  So why not suspend him on full pay.

What will they do for the games he plays in, if he scores the winning home run and then they find him guilty, will the reserve the scores of those games, will they declare the opponents the winners. Unlikely!

As a sports fan I find this bizarre, there is a huge cloud over Baseball, supposedly Americas favourite pastime, and yet it appears to me that they seem to be prepared to accept cheating by the lenient sentences they offer.

Baseball claims to have one of the best drug testing program in sports, but whats the point, if people just get what appears to be a slap on the wrist and then can go back to a career of earning millions.

It’s about time someone took a stand on this, but I doubt that anyone will. Too much money involved, too many self interests.

I hear that the Commissioner is threatening a life ban for Alex Rodriguez, if he doesn’t admit his involvement.

If you know he’s guilty, then why not pursue a life ban anyway, make him an example, show people you are serious about drugs in Baseball.

You might be wondering why I am writing about this, or what it has to do with leadership.

But the point is, where is the leadership in all this, where’s the integrity, the trust, the good example being set in all this.

I don’t doubt that there are many players who are clean, and drug free in Baseball, but non of them make the money that Rodriguez makes.

I just feel we are sending the wrong message!

Gordon Tredgold

Leadership Principles