JC Romero and Sergio Mitre

Okay, they didn't use steroids, but I still like the picture.

Both JC Romero and Sergio Mitre have been suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball for using performance-enhancing drugs. You'll likely see a lot of stories trying to qualify and pity the two pitchers, but you won't find it here.

1) Romero should have called the hotline. That's what it is there for. How long would it have taken to call the hotline? I don't feel sorry for the guy. In this time, you know the result of being even labeled with PED's. You know the results. You know the consequences. TAKE EVERY PRE-CAUTION. By not doing so, you're bringing it on yourself.

2) I admire Mitre for accepting responsibility. He owned up to it and said it is his fault. However, he did sort of qualify it by saying "contaminant" and implying it wasn't his fault. Therefore, I don't pity him.

3) How do we know the "contaminant" didn't come from Mitre himself? I hate to be pessimistic, but I find it odd that a pharmaceutical company would accidentally spill something in the supplement.

4) Isn't this policy what we wanted? We demanded people be held responsible, but at the first moment they seem innocent, we waver and qualify. You can't have it both ways. Then again, is it logical to have such a strict policy when we've obviously found an "exception" possibility? Then again, if we allow exceptions, people can just lie and fit their situation into that exception.

5) We live in a democracy that "values" the whole "innocent before proven guilty" thing (I say "values" because we're awfully inclined to believe people are guilty before proven innocent), and the two pitchers were proven guilty. Now, we wait for the insanity pleas.

6) What exactly is the difference between steroids and other PED's than the protein shakes, etc. that are still legal but still are unnatural performance enhancers?