The withdrawal from contention for baseball's batting title by San
Francisco Giants superstar Melky Cabrera, albeit under pressure from
honorable individuals associated with the game, demonstrates that
there is some honor among thieves, Cabrera indicating that he did not
wish to receive an honor which would be tainted.

It should be prominently noted that Cabrera would gladly have accepted a tainted
batting crown had his cheating through the ingestion of a prohibited
substance been undetected.

Melky Cabrera has done the right thing vis-a-vis the batting title,
diminishing the glare of the unfavorable spotlight on him, but the damage he has
done to baseball through his shameful actions is beyond calculation.
"America's Pastime," a great sport, is now troubled as one cheater after another
falls. Fifty-game banishments and loss of income do not seem to be effective deterrents. There is something very wrong with a sport in which many of
the greats consider themselves not to be great enough and turn to
performance-enhancing drugs.