Baseball is cleaning up, but Biogenesis is only the beginning

There was a time in the not too distant past that a blind eye was turned to the use of drugs in most professional sports.

There might have been a time when people truly didn't know what was going on, but for the most part it was ignored for years.

Larger players meant longer home runs. More home runs meant better ticket sales.

In the years since, though, more attention has been given to the integrity of this special game that we all have grown to love.

While more busts and suspensions mean more attention to the darker side of baseball, it also means that there is finally a consensus that something needs to be done.

The players, the fans, the writers and the MLB brass are all ready to get back to baseball. The problem is, the PED discussion is going to be a part of the game for a long time to come--if not forever.

As long as there is competition, there will be players looking for a way to skirt the rules.

What has happened in the Biogenesis scandal in 2013 is not the end of a long investigation--it's only the beginning.

It's not the only clinic of its type and the players named in the investigation aren't the only players to use. In the years to come, other players and clinics will be discovered.

Just like the political "war on drugs," you never fully win. There isn't some specific V-Day where Bud Selig will walk to a podium and announce that the drugs are gone from the game.

The best we can hope for is a time where the restrictions are so tight that the risks clearly outweigh any potential competitive gain.

The key for fans is to try to keep these investigations in perspective when they rear their ugly head.

There are 750 active players in MLB on any given day (30 teams--each with a 25-man active roster). That does not include players on the disabled list or the hundreds more in the minor leagues ready to come up.

A total of 13 players were suspended on Monday. That mean's roughly 1.7 percent were affected.

Yes, that amount is completely unacceptable, but in the grand scheme of things it's only a handful. There are more--anyone who thinks otherwise is too jaded for their own good. However, even if there are five times as many involved in the use of performance-enhancing drugs, that's still less than 10 percent of all professional baseball players.

Again, it's unacceptable, but the numbers help put things into perspective.

The key to combating the problem won't come from MLB. Testing policies are great and can be effective, but it takes more than that.

The MLB Player's Association and the players themselves will have to step up, speak out and make it clear that they're sick of what drugs are doing to baseball.

More than anyone else (aside from the media who are sick and tired of writing about drugs), the players should want to get back to baseball. These incidents are major distractions for players, managers and fans.

While it's complicated to speak out on the subject because of personal relationships and union obligations, as long as players turn a blind eye, the problem will only grow.

The players have taken a bigger stance than ever this year, but it's going to require much more.

There are few tools in this world as powerful as shame and that's what the offenders should be feeling--not because they were caught, but because what they did was wrong.

It's not fair to other players, their teammates, the ownership and management that put their trust in them or to the fans.

The hope is that fear of being alienated by other players could work as a deterrent for the future. That's what it will take to make a significant difference.

Strengthening of the MLB drug policy is a step in the right direction, but true reform will have to come from within the MLB player "fraternity."

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Corey Noles is a Cardinals Writer and Columnist for The Daily Statesman. Contact him at cnoles@dailystatesman.com or on Twitter @coreynoles.