This time, didn’t have to

So it turns out Melky Cabrera’s dramatic transformation f rom fringe player to baseball superstar wasn’t all just a matter of better conditioning and cleaning up his life. Like so many others, lured by the huge money that accompanies huge RBI totals, Melky decided he needed a little extra help. How sad. How stupid. At the same time, Major League Baseball probably doesn’t know whether to celebrate its drug-testing program for nailing another prominent player or shudder at the fact that the reigning National League Most Valuable Player, Ryan Braun, and the recently-crowned MVP of Bud Selig’s exalted, ratings-challenged All-Star Game — the same All-Star Game that decides home-field advantage for the World Series — have both been exposed as synthetic testosterone cheats (Braun’s suspension was overturned by an arbitrator). What does this say about baseball? That it’s doing a commendable job of cleaning up its chemically assisted act, or that, in spite of testing, its best players remain undeterred in their efforts to beat the system?

Doping experts say players are still routinely using fast-acting steroid creams and patches that don’t trigger positives. And so, shocking as the Braun and Cabrera testosterone revelations may have been, you can be sure there are going to be more and more of them. The incentive is still too great.

Cabrera, 28, who only two years ago was a released player seemingly playing himself right out of baseball, earned $6 million this season, his free agent walk year, after turning down a two-year, $13.5 million extension offer from the Kansas City Royals last August. After averaging .267 with 8 homers and 54 RBI over his first five years in the majors, Cabrera hit .305 with 18 homers and 87 RBI for the Royals last year. He was hitting .346 with 60 RBI and a leagueleading 84 runs and 159 hits for the San Francisco Giants before the 50game MLB hammer came down on him Wednesday.

It all started when the Braves released him after the 2010 season, in which he hit a careerlow .255 with a paltry four homers and 42 RBI. Melky had to do some soul-searching, as Kevin Long, his first major league batting coach with the Yankees, opined that he had allowed himself to get pudgy by drinking and partying too much. Earlier this year, Long attributed Cabrera’s turnaround to a renewed commitment. “He has totally gotten committed to his career,” Long said. “He doesn’t drink anymore and he doesn’t take anything for granted anymore. If Melky had committed himself to the