So, this Biogenesis scandal is really getting out of hand, and Curt Schilling added more fuel to the fire with his comments today that the Red Sox encouraged him to use PEDs.

When the original details of Anthony Bosch’s anti-aging clinic were released a couple weeks ago, we saw names that weren’t surprising, such as Bartolo Colon, Melky Cabrera, and Yasmani Grandal. There were also names a little more surprising, such as Alex Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz, and Gio Gonzalez. As recently as this week, Francisco Cervelli, Danny Valencia, and Ryan Braun were added to the most controversial list of players since the Mitchell Report was released. The list is now 12 players deep, with Jesus Montero and Jhonny Peralta being the latest names released.

The fact that people within the Boston Red Sox organization encouraged an injured Curt Schilling to take PEDs in 2008 to try and get on the field again is just absurd. Now, I realize the former pitcher doesn’t have the best reputation in the public eye, but I would be hard for me to think that he would say something like this just for publicity and money. Maybe I’m just naive, but that’s me.

Either way, just when we thought the game was moving past a dark time in the game that was the steroid era, it’s right back at square one. The punishments implemented approximately ten years ago now are harsh, but obviously it’s not harsh enough to get rid of doping in baseball.

I can’t remember who said it, but I heard the proposition of having the first offense for violating the drug policy be a year suspension, then the second offense be a lifetime ban (it might have actually been Schilling). That seems a bit much, I know, but if players aren’t going to take the current consequences seriously, then there has to be some sort of punishment that is so they decide the risk isn’t worth the potential reward.

Regardless of what the truth ends up being, I’m disgusted that we have to watch this beautiful game revert back to the dark days of PEDs again. Just when it looked like there was so much progress made, it’s seemingly getting erased.

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