From the news department of 'duh'

The picture to the left is the pile of paperwork that comprises the indictments against the players, coaches, and politicians involved in the game fixing in the Taiwanese major league. As any good state department employee applaud, the government has gotten involved:

The Cabinet-level Sports Affairs Council (SAC) announced yesterday that baseball players facing trials and termination of their professional baseball careers for participating in game fixing also be barred from working as coaches or teachers.

Doesn't this really fall under the 'duh' category? I mean, would you really want these guys involved with youth sports, or teaching your children? Maybe they should call this the 'Pete Rose law'. And as much as I oppose government involvement in my sports, I wouldn't mind seeing something like this enacted in the states.

I think there is some good reasoning behind this:

SAC Minister Tai Hsia-ling said that not being able to play baseball again is the biggest punishment for a pro baseball player, but there is also a consensus between the SAC and the Ministry of Education that the criminals should no longer be allowed to coach teams or teach at educational institutions.

I'm not talking about ostracising this guys from society. They need a fair trial, and if found guilty, they should be punished as seen fit by the courts. After that, like any criminal, once the debt is paid, they should be allowed to be a productive member of society again. But coaching or teaching? Nope, not in my world.

If found innocent, then complete exoneration, and they can return to playing, coaching, teaching, whatever. Unless they give evidence to escape prosecution. That say guilty to me.

Of course, there will aways be the opposite opinion of who would be better to teach kids about the problems of gambling and game-fixing than someone who has been caught and punished. By that reasoning, Pete Rose should give children's clinics.

Is that what we really want? In this case, I think the government got it right. Just my opinion.