Now that the Mitchell Report is out and available to read (you can view a PDF here and a fair summary of who gets named can be viewed here), we baseball fans have some serious thinking to do. My love of the game grew up and matured during an era when two of the greatest players of their generation—Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens—appear to have taken performance-enhancing drugs. I’m disgusted. I’m outraged.

Senator Mitchell is right, I believe, to lay blame across the board on players, owners, clubhouse officials, management, the union, the commissioner’s office, etc. The thing that makes me most upset, however, is that the people who may actually lose their jobs are those least in the spotlight. Yes, Clemens and Bonds may never sign new contracts—both are free agents—and their careers will end in ignominy. The memories of the careers of the former players named will be tainted. These are reasonable outcomes. Current players, however, with productive years left, such as Miguel Tejada (who won the AL MVP whilst playing on my team, the Oakland A’s in 2002) will continue playing and continue making mounds of cash even if their public image is marred. The management in the teams will likely stay the same, as will the leaders in the Players Association and the commissioner’s office. Some heads might roll, but these will be lower-level folks, like the clubhouse management.

Players cheated and management turned a blind eye. How in the world Bud Selig can be held partly responsible for this disgusting era and maintain his job as commissioner of baseball is far beyond me. Well, it’s not that beyond me mentally, but it is beyond me ethically. The revenues of baseball have expanded greatly under Selig’s watch, and that’s what matters to the business folks in the sport. Also, the commissioner is picked by the owners and Selig comes from the ranks of the owners. They’re not going to throw one of their own out to the wolves. Selig should resign. The owners need to choose a new commissioner who is not an owner of any team and whose interest is in the integrity and total well-being of the game, not primarily in the financial health alone. We need a Bartlett Giamatti. The leadership of the Players Association also needs to leave. Their charge is to represent and protect the players, but they sacrificed the good of the game in shielding their players from reasonable demands of accountability such as drug testing and consequences for failed tests.

I agree with Senator Mitchell that MLB needs better testing and stricter consequences. The most recent policy, while better than what existed before, is still horribly toothless. MLB ought to adopt the policy found in most international sports: a first positive test leads to a year-long suspension, and the second positive test leads to a lifetime suspension. Despite Selig’s claims yesterday, I doubt that until there is a change in leadership among both the owners and the players, that any major transformations in MLB’s drug policy will occur.

This controversy is worse than the pettiness of the strike of 1994. As of now, I will likely boycott MLB next season, which saddens me because I love the game. Living in Southern California has afforded me the first time in my life when I can see games in person at a reasonable cost and I try to go to several games each summer even though I despise both home teams here. My boycott will likely extend until I see significant changes in how MLB handles itself and the integrity of the game. I want to see a competitive, honest game, not professional wrestling run by greed.