The Fallout From the Mitchell Report

J.C. Bradbury writes in the New York Times that baseball players should police themselves.

It is not possible, he says, to achieve the total elimination of performance-enhancing drugs. Therefore, the objective must be "the second-best goal of reducing performance-enhancing drug use."

Under a system of significant fines and bonuses, baseball can clean up its act, he says.

In the Los Angeles Times, Helene Elliott says baseball players need to take responsibility for what happens in their sport.

Childs Walker, in the Baltimore Sun, reassures everyone that baseball will bounce back, as it always seems to do after a scandal.

And Jason Whitlock, in the Kansas City Star, is even more reassuring. It's the fault of the system, he says. This is a drug culture in which everyone does it. Everyone self-medicates to keep doing their jobs.

I think Whitlock could be on to something here, but I can't help feeling he takes it to the extreme. I do believe, however, that he's right when he says there's no easy solution to the problem. But, just because it isn't easy or self-evident, does that mean we shouldn't even try to find an answer?

I'm glad we're having this discussion. And I hope there will be much more said about this. We've turned the other way for too long, when everyone knew there was a problem.

So even if Whitlock is right and the steroid scandal is the result of peer pressure, it's time for some tough love.