Congratulations Major League Baseball, you have a brand new reason to be ashamed of yourself.

Alex Rodriguez, three-time Most Valuable Player and all-around juggernaut of the game, has been suspended for a full 162-game season and any playoff games the Yankees might participate in. The suspension was put into place when Rodriguez was linked to the Biogenesis scandal involving a lab in Coral Gables, Fla., that provided banned substances to players.

Since Rodriguez was first linked to performance-enhancing drugs, he has been vilified by just about everyone in the media. He used to be a shining star. Everyone loved him and most wanted him on their team. He was a sure-fire Hall of Famer with insane numbers.

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There was a decent shot he was going to be considered the best player since Willie Mays.

But here’s the thing: he should still be considered a great player.

Performance-enhancing drugs do not ruin the game of baseball. As a matter of fact, they enhance it. After all, it’s right in the name.

Think back to when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were having the home run contest. That was the most exciting time in baseball since the 1960s. Everyone was glued to the television to watch these big-name stars belt home runs.

Both McGwire and Sosa were PED users.

I do not know exactly when it was decided that PEDs were evil. I guess since it deals with needles and a bottle and a doctor, it is to be vilified (even though Captain America got his powers from a bottle).

Why vilify something that could possibly make the game better?

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The detractors say, why not make the field only 150 feet so every hit is a home run?

What they do not realize is I’m not talking about fundamentally changing the game. I’m talking about an athlete’s training program. Maybe we should outlaw any kind of weightlifting or training.

“But it is dangerous for these athletes to take PEDs.”

It is dangerous for these athletes right now because they are not allowed to do it even under a doctor’s supervision. We have created a crime (even though a lot of ballplayers never break a law while still using PEDs). And the Center for Disease Control lists steroid-related deaths at fewer than 10 a year.

These are grown men making a decision. These athletes give their lives and bodies to the sport. If they want to use PEDs as part of their training regiment, there’s no reason to stop them.

“But if athletes use PEDs, then the kids will start using them and (insert whichever argument you wish to use).”

Here I will concede a little bit. I do not think athletes should openly use PEDs. I am not saying they should advertise them, only that they should be able to use them.

But if these people really cared about children, then they would also demand that stadiums quit selling beer. Or end the likes of stadiums being named Busch Stadium or Miller Park or Coors Field. Or that alcohol advertising should cease during broadcasts of the games.

After all, alcohol kills hundreds of thousands of people a year compared to PEDs.

The fact of the matter is it comes down to hypocrisy. Major League Baseball wants to have its cake and eat it too. It want these awesome athletes to play while simultaneously manufacturing a fake argument against them.

That’s why they keep the likes of career American League strikeout leader Roger Clemens and career home run leader Barry Bonds out of the Hall of Fame while simultaneously electing Joe Torre and Tony La Russa.

Both coaches had more than a dozen players implicated in steroid scandals and benefited greatly to the tune of seven World Series wins between them. In La Russa’s case, he coached the likes of McGwire and worst-person-on-Planet-Earth according to self-righteous baseball fans Jose Canseco.

Yet a blind eye is turned to these coaches. Some say they did not know about the usage. I’m in the camp that I believe Canseco since pretty much everything he said in “Juiced” (his personal account of steroid use in MLB) turned out to be accurate.

It’s similar to how a cocaine dealer gets 15 years in prison, but the guy who launders his money only gets three.

But if you believe the coaches and officials did not know, I definitely have a bridge to sell you.

Ultimately, the blame lies with us.

We were the ones who made baseball billions to see balls fly over our heads.

Bud Selig tricked us and every holier-than-thou media personality into thinking it was wrong.

We allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking we were owed something by these players when, in reality, it is a privilege we get to watch these athletes.

We became convinced that we were “duped” when we were given an awesome game to watch.

We grew bitter with the lies we considered truths because we heard Skip Bayless say something and regurgitated it until we were legitimately angry.

So it is time for this vilification to stop. It’s time to accept PEDs into the sport. It is time for us to stop condemning Sosa, Bonds, McGwire and Clemens. And it is time for us to stop being so angry with Alex Rodriguez and appreciate what he has given to the game.

Except that he plays for the Yankees. That is unforgiveable.