I’m rooting for Robinson Cano, but …

All Star second basemen Robinson Cano returns to the Mariners Tuesday after serving an 80-game suspension for breaking the rules. Specifically, he was caught using performance enhancing drugs. The Mariners desperately need a jolt right now as they try to end the longest playoff drought of any team in all of the four major sports in America.

Seattle Mariners blog

Should we be rooting for Cano, even though he was caught cheating?

This one is tricky for me. I don’t like cheaters. I’m that guy who double checks the rule book when playing a game. I’ll challenge your crazy word in Scrabble. I think you should compete hard and do everything you can to win inside the rules. But sometimes there are stupid rules on the books. Look no further than the NFL’s catch rule. Dumb.

I also think it’s foolish and short sighted to assume that professional athletes won’t try anything and everything to get an edge when there are literally tens of millions of dollars at stake.

Remember Robbie Cano signed a quarter of a billion dollar contract when he became a Mariner.

This is going to sound a bit radical, but how about this as a possible solution: A professional athlete ingredient list, just like you see on the back of the food you buy.

So when you’re checking out the stats of your favorite baseball player, there would be a little section that states what substances he is currently using to help his performance. Anything goes, just let the team and the fans know.

I know this idea will offend a lot of purists out there, but it’s really the only way. For starters, right now we have no idea who’s using and who’s not. Sports fans routinely look at things like how much a player bulked up in the offseason to see if there are clues to rule breaking. If someone put on 40 pounds of muscle in four months, he has to be juicing, right? With my idea, you could just look at what he was taking, and make your own judgments.

Next, with my plan, the athletes would be taking substances under the guidance of the team doctors. The doctors could explain the risks and rewards of each substance, and talk about the long-term side effects so that players can make a more educated decision. No more buying things on the black market and injecting your teammate in the bathroom stall.

Finally, my system acknowledges the reality of incentives. After a lifetime of chasing their dream of becoming pro, there are huge incentives for the athlete to cheat. For many, being a fraction of a second faster or 5 percent stronger is all it would take to make it, and these substances seem like they could be the magic bullet. If a lucid adult wants to take that risk, why should we stop him?

Just tell us what you did so we don’t have to endure all the lame excuses anymore.

I’m going to root for Robinson Cano because I want the team to do well, not necessarily because I’m a Cano fan. He’s a cheater, but I think the time has come to change the rules.

You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.

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