Selig should hammer home tough message

The head of the nail is unobstructed, the hammer gripped in hand. All Bud Selig has to do is pound.

The commissioner of Major League Baseball is in position to strengthen penalties against steroid users as never before, with sentiments surrounding cheats bordering on venomous, with the game holding its face in its hands out of shame, with the players’ association appearing callous as it strives to maintain the status quo and keep the penance for first-time steroid offenders at 10 days rather than raising it to 40 or 50.

The current banishment for first-time offenders, which leans heavily on the embarrassment factor but, in terms of actual inconvenience, is the equivalent of swatting players on the bottom with a rolled-up newspaper, isn’t much of a deterrent.

So after eight confirmed steroid suspensions, including Monday’s banishment of future Hall of Famer Rafael Palmeiro of the Baltimore Orioles, this is as good a time as any for Selig to apply pressure. After Palmeiro was revealed to be dirty less than five months after jabbing a finger like a chastising schoolmarm at congressmen during a hearing on steroid use while stressing his innocence, this is the perfect time to enlist the public into shoving the players’ association into doing what is right.

Namely, instituting a punishment that really will make players pay for illegally enhancing their performances.

Maybe, even, it will prevent the players from insulting the public. Because that’s all their denials are – pathetic insults.

Of the eight, none “intentionally” took steroids. Each professed ignorance to what he was ingesting or injecting, even though pro athletes have the incentive and resources to guarantee they don’t break the rules, even though baseball began testing for steroids this season and each cheat knew there was a chance he would be detected.

Palmeiro, who last month became the fourth player in history to total 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, defended himself by saying he had nothing to gain by taking steroids, especially after testifying before Congress and earning the national spotlight. He wouldn’t have put himself in such a position by knowingly breaking the rules, he said.

But test results are far less likely to lie than players. If Palmeiro tested positive for stanolozol, as has been reported, experts say he couldn’t mistakenly have taken it.

Of course, he doesn’t have to give a reason for cheating. It doesn’t matter why he did what he did, only that he did it and, thankfully, was roped in by a testing system that was nonexistent in the past.

That’s a great first step, the actual testing of players for steroids.

But the testing has no bite if the penalty phase is light. The process can’t lean on humiliation being its main weapon, because inevitably there will be those who will trade the 10-day shame for the big-contract gain. The eight confirmed cheats have shown a complete lack of remorse by refusing to assume responsibility and admit guilt.

If the first wave toes the line and blames everything under the sun except the guy staring back in the mirror, it’s pretty clear what the defense will be for future cheats.

Deny, deny, deny.

But Selig has an opening, one he shouldn’t let close before he steps in and pushes for the kind of penalty phase that would make it too uncomfortable for a player to seriously consider trying his luck.

Get them to abstain, and there won’t be a reason to lie and deny.

All the commissioner has to do is hammer the nail while it’s there.