Today's biggest headlines include David Wells accepting a $100,000 fine and the toxicology report due soon on the unfortunate Oriole pitcher who passed away. Pretty depressing stuff for Spring Training.

First, the debate over ephedra is overdue. Of course it takes a death to point out the need for the investigation, but at least the response is the correct one. MLB and the players association have a responsibility to its players to give them the best information and protect them from situations that will harm them. But let's take this a little further.

It's okay to ban substances, but what of the hundreds of other legal substances. Each club has a medical staff, conditioning coaches and trainers. Why aren't questions asked about what a player is taking before allowing them to participate in any conditioning activity, whether it be warmups or anything else. Heck, if a player is taking Nyquil, the medical staff should know about it and make adjustments in conditioning activity. A player is not going to admit to taking illegal substances which is why you need random testing, but they should be screened for legal substances. These players are worth millions to the teams. You would think it would take more care with that investment. The unfortunate fact here is that players are always going to look for an edge and have to be protected from themselves and the system.


And what was David Wells' crime? His crime was writing and releasing the book while he was still playing and still playing on the team he wrote about. But if I were him, I'd think a little bit about his first amendment rights and how he can be fined for expressing his thoughts?

And it's amazing that more of these types of books don't come out. We aren't stupid anymore. We know that people aren't perfect. Do we really expect our players to be? Did Jim Bouton's book tarnish my feelings for Mickey Mantle. Not really. All it did was make me wish the Mick took better care of himself so that he could have excelled longer. But wasn't Bouton's book really entertaining? It sure was. So was Sparky Lyle's and Ron Luciano's. More power to you, David.