I grew up as an avid baseball fan. Growing up in Southern California I was something of a "born and bred" Dodger fan. The earliest picture of myself that I know of shows me wearing a T-Shirt that says, 'Welcome to Los Angeles, Dodgers" from 1958. I played every level of baseball through college and I learned how to keep score by listening to Vin Scully on the radio. If baseball is, as the book edited by Christopher H. Evans and Williams R. Herzog II states, The Faith of 50 Million (Westminster/John Knox Publishers, 2002), I would be counted as one of the faithful. That is why this recent mess of steroids and performance enhancing drugs (PED) is so utterly repulsive to me and this is one fan's outcry for change.
The story of PED's has been running its course for a few years now, with ever-increasing intensity. The recent book by Jose Canseco that "names names," although in a most unverifiable manner and the tragic demise and death of Ken Caminiti, finally seemed to bring the issue to a head. Baseball, both management and players were forced to revamp their laughable drug policy (the same basic policy that stood by and watched players like former Dodger pitcher Steve Howe destroy his career and nearly his life, essentially doing nothing in the process) into a slightly less laughable policy. Congress had hearings, but of course little happened there except sound bites and the opportunity for the lawmakers to rattle their sabers once again. The relation of Congress to baseball has become quite comical. In regard to baseball, Congress has become the "little boy who cried wolf" with every scandal or anything they don't like about what's going on with baseball there is the talk (at least a few times a year) of removing baseball's anti-trust exemption. That threat is now utterly hollow; no one believes that they would ever actually do it. Although why the exemption is necessary to baseball and no other major sports league remains mysterious to me.
Jose Canseco refused to answer questions because he had not been granted immunity from prosecution, other players, like Sammy Sosa, said they were "clean." Two players, Jason Giambi (who has admitted using PED's in the BALCO Grand Jury proceedings) was subpoenaed and then excused and Barry Bonds, the most notable of all the players in the vortex of this scandal was not even subpoenaed. One thing, one sad thing, did come out of the hearings; that was the inexplicable silence of retired player Mark McGwire. While condemning PED's he refused to talk about himself or anything he had ever seen in his career regarding PED's. In one day he went from one of the most notable and well-loved former baseball stars to one who will probably now never, and if he did use PED's should never, see his plaque in the Hall of Fame.
There are no easy answers about any aspect of this mess. Some players started fooling with PED's for whatever reason. Management (like Kevin Towers, general manager of the San Diego Padres who oversaw the downfall of Ken Caminiti) liked the results they saw and looked the other way. As an aside, for his actions I think Towers should be fired and banned from baseball (management needs a wake up call in this regard as well). The players union, who still view themselves as a mini-ACLU, are more concerned about the "privacy rights" of players and how they could continue to enlarge contracts each and every year, instead of actual concern for the overall welfare of players and the well-being of the game that was providing them with their almost fantasy lifestyle.
There is also no easy solution. Major League Baseball went to the Congresional hearings insisting that the new policy would take care of the problem. The players who might shed light on the truth won't because of peer pressure and fear of criminal prosecution. Most experts from other sports and sporting organizations believe the new MLB policy is far too weak. A sentiment that was shared by Senator Jim Bunning, one of the great baseball pitchers and a member of the Hall of Fame.
In most sports, notably track and field and Olympic sports, if you violate the drug and PED policy, you lose your medal and you're suspended for a year. Baseball should do the same thing. First offense, a one-year suspension period. If you want to add peer pressure against PED's then you could add the proviso that games in which that person played in the season up to when the positive test came in would be forfeit by the team. How that would work might be messy, but it would certainly have the effect of the other clean players on the team no longer "looking the other way" towards the cheaters.
The use of PED's by players is cheating, pure and simple, no different in effect than swinging a corked bat or throwing a spitball. It is an "ends justifies the means" mentality combined with the logical extension of the arguments of the abortion rights crowd, "it's my body and I can do whatever I want with it." If the results were just to their own bodies, then I doubt I would care all that much, but the issue goes beyond that. Younger and younger players at the college and even the high school level are dipping into PED's to get over the top and compete at what they think is the highest level. These kids want to both reach the top and they are being fed the lie that PED's are the only way. And as a tragic result, some have died.
Baseball players are role models, whether they like it or not. I get disgusted when I hear players say that they are not role models and don't want to be. Some of the more moralistic sounding players talk about telling kids that their parents, etc. are the real role models. Well, that is simply bogus. Kids look up to successful athletes and want to emulate them, they always have and they always will. There should be a required, and enforced clause, in all players contracts that states that they understand that they are role models to youth and will behave accordingly. If they don't want that kind of pressure or scrutiny (which is also called accountability) then there are a lot of other jobs out there.
PED's are clearly a mess and a scandal in baseball right now, so what is to be done? My suggestion is that simple immunity from criminal prosecution for players is granted. The agents, trainers and other hangers-on that were involved in the PED scandal are and should be fair game for prosecutors. But to clean the game up now, there has to be a completely candid and forthright admission on the players of all that has been going on. That does not mean the players get off without penalty. I think any individual records set by players who used PED's should be stricken from the books and those players should never be eligible for the Hall of Fame. MVP or other personal awards should be revoked and given to the runner up (the Olympics does this all the time). A regular and effective testing system must be in place and the penalties should be simple: first offense, suspension for one year; second offense, suspension for two years, and a voided contract; third offense, lifetime ban.
Baseball has to stop looking at the simple bottom line at the turn-style to determine whether or not their sport is successful. A enterprise can be successful on the outside and rotten to the core on the inside. Success for a sport cannot simply be measured by the dollars coming in, it must also me measured by the quality of the message of character building and personal values it is sending out every day.
I daresay that the overwhelming majority of major league baseball players are good, clean and concerned about the image that they personally project and that the game in general projects. But the scandal now is such the evil of the minority is overshadowing the good of the majority and drastic action is required to reassure The Faith of 50 Million.
Posted by Narnia3 at March 19, 2005 10:12 PM | TrackBack