MLB HGH Testing: Baseball's Intense New Drug Policy a Lesson for Other Leagues

Cheaters beware. The MLB's new approach to drug testing will clean up the sport and provide a lesson to other professional sports leagues around the world.

According to ESPN's Buster Olney, the baseball league's new CBA includes testing for human growth hormone.

The report goes on to mention that a positive test will cost a player 50 games, or roughly one-third of the season. Ouch.

An argument can be made that the MLB, more so than any other American sports league, has had its reputation destroyed because of its performance-enhancing past, and therefore has no choice but to test for HGH.

Still, let us applaud baseball's leaders for once.

They are sacrificing ridiculous home run totals and out of the park excitement for an even playing field and a true and honest product.

Most sports fans assume baseball is the only traditional sport where doping is a major concern, but in reality athletes are often too competitive for their own good.

The pressures to perform, excel and win drive athletes to dark places sometimes, and the MLB's new drug policy guarantees justice for those players who do it the right way.

As long as there is competition, there will be those looking to gain the upper hand. A 50-game benching gives writers and fans plenty of time to annihilate whatever is left of a player's reputation after testing positive for HGH.

The penalty is just and will no doubt be effective.

This news from the MLB is more exciting than the addition of more Wild Card teams, or whatever rule changes might come next.

We can only hope other leagues take notice of what baseball is doing now.