Posted by Bill Baer on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 5:14 am

Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com recently suggested that alcohol should be banned in all Major League clubhouses. I realize I’m a bit late in reacting to the suggestion and I’m sure the blogosphere has covered it in depth already. Still, you haven’t heard what ol’ important me has to say about it.

It’s pretty simple really. Alcohol should be banned because the prohibition would protect Major League Baseball’s investments: the players. It is true that few players have been terribly victimized by the substance, but every so often a tragedy, like Josh Hancock’s death, occurs. If given the opportunity, the Cardinals organization would like nothing more than to roll back time and ban alcohol from its clubhouse prior to the start of the 2007 season.

As much as we like to think of baseball as merely an innocent kid’s game, the truth is that it is a goliath business. Major League Baseball has a duty to its employees, its shareholders and its fans to make decisions that are best for generating revenue or moving towards the generation of revenue. Allowing the players to ingest a substance that inhibits the user’s ability to make sound judgment, increases irritability and dehydrates the body is, at face value, irresponsible.

Teams spend enormous amounts of money putting together expert medical and training staffs, sending players to world-renowned doctors (like Dr. James Andrews), and providing access to high-quality medical and exercise products and equipment. Clearly, the well-being of the players is a top priority. It seems then that alcohol hasn’t been banned in all clubhouses simply due to tradition.

Alcohol and baseball are long-time associates. For instance, Babe Ruth and alcohol were an inseparable pair. Mickey Mantle made a name for himself off of the baseball field with his unyielding alcohol habit. So of course the progress of alcohol prohibition in baseball would move at a snail’s pace. Morosi notes that only 11 of 30 MLB teams have officially prohibited alcohol in their clubhouses.

In the wake of the sport’s performance-enhancing drug scandals, the freedom of players to use alcohol makes the sport look hypocritical. Now, I’m not suggesting that alcohol is a performance-enhancer (although Babe Ruth thought it helped him). However, PED’s are banned for several reasons, chiefest among them: the harmful side-effects. Once again, MLB clearly has the well-being of the players in mind.

Alcohol has a sibling in tobacco. Like alcohol, tobacco hasn’t been outlawed in baseball yet either. This article from 2008 notes that tobacco use in baseball is down significantly, but not at zero percent. Of course, the harmful side effects of tobacco are common knowledge by this point, so there’s no need to rehash them here. Logically speaking, if alcohol is to be banned in baseball then so too must tobacco.

That brings us to the dilemma: where is the line drawn? There won’t be too many people arguing that the players that represent multi-million dollar investments should be allowed to use alcohol and tobacco on company time. Similarly, with the recent motorcycle accidents of Ben Roethlisberger and Kellen Winslow, sports teams have become more mindful of what their athletes do off the field. Naturally, this has led to contract clauses that stipulate what athletes can and cannot engage in on their own time.

If teams are allowed to control what the players are doing off the clock, then the next logical step is to ensure that the players do not use alcohol or tobacco out of the clubhouse as well. Following that, the next logical progression asks if teams can control what their players eat and drink (e.g. fast food)? Can the players play video games? What about active video games like Wii Fit and the drums on Rock Band? After all, Joel Zumaya injured himself playing Guitar Hero.

How long until players are put in a protective bubble? Banning alcohol isn’t as simple as it looks. As cliche as it sounds, it is indeed a slippery slope.

The fact remains, though, that the players are the investments of 30 Major League teams and each team has a right to ensure that those investments are able to return a profit. As Jason Rosenberg would say, “It’s about the money, stupid!”

Those slippery slopes must be skied upon in the best interest of the sport.