Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades — commissioners, club officials, the players’ association and players — shares to some extent the responsibility for the Steroids Era….There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.
[I urge Commissioner Selig] to forego imposing discipline on players for past violations of baseball’s rules on performance enhancing substances, including the players named in this report. Spending more months, or even years, in contentious disciplinary proceedings will keep everyone mired in the past.
This opening quote summarizes all one needs to know about the findings in former Senator George Mitchell’s 409-page report on the illegal use of steroids in baseball. Alas, despite Mitchell’s 21-month effort, there’s nothing new in it (not even the outing of high-profile cheaters like Roger Clemens).
Moreover, it’s simply naïve to think that this report will precipitate the end of the “steroid era” in baseball. Indeed, nothing indicates why it won’t quite like Mitchell’s own lamentation that the formidable and enabling players’ union was “largely uncooperative [and] rejected totally my requests for relevant documents”.
Which brings me to the game’s beleaguered commissioner, Bud Selig. Because when he vowed to punish the 86 players named in this report, he was about as credible as Barry Bonds was when he swore that his performance-enhancing drug of choice was flaxseed oil….
Meanwhile, Mitchell’s concern about his report triggering a flood of litigation is instructive. After all, Donald Fehr, who heads the players’ union, has already indicated that he intends to sue Mitchell for defamation on behalf of at least some of the players named.
But if Selig attempts to discipline any player based solely on the allegations in this report, he will be hit by a tsunami of lawsuits. Because he would be clearly liable to charges of being arbitrary, capricious and, in fact, discriminatory – given that Mitchell himself conceded that there are many more steroid abusers in baseball beyond those named in his report. (And no player is more conspicuous by not being named than Mark McGwire – the game’s second most notorious juicer.)
Although, no discipline Selig imposes could possibly do more harm to players like Roger Clemens than Mitchell has already done by naming them in this report….
That said, the following excerpts from my previous articles should suffice to explain not only my profane regard for this report, but also why it just confirms my contention that Barry Bonds is being scapegoated for the epidemic of steroids in baseball.
1. [The commissioner, owners, sports writers and fans] all profess incredulity at Canseco’s claims that he and many of baseball’s best players were (and are) juiced-up on steroids….
Baseball “purists” are so outraged that they are calling for all records set over the past decade to be eradicated because they were probably achieved by pumped-up cheaters. Yet these cheaters were the ones who rescued the game from almost terminal disinterest after the baseball strike of 1994. And team owners and fans alike knew full well that the sudden supernatural performances of once mediocre players did not result from pumping iron during that strike.
At any rate, so what if players take steroids. It’s, essentially, a victimless vice – far less poisonous than alcohol. And where steroid junkies usually endanger only fellow players on the field, drunks endanger all of us on the highway (and in so many other ways).
[from Baseball is Juiced. So what!, February 2005]
2. The real question is not: Is Barry Bonds (or any other player) a steroid junkie? Instead, the question is: What is baseball going to do about it?
[from Baseball’s MVP, Barry Bonds, is a steroid junkie…duh!, March 2006]
3. Bashing Bonds about steroids has become a national sport. Never mind that if all players taking steroids were hounded from the game, there would be few players left deserving of cheers.
Steroid use has flourished in baseball (and other professional sports) pursuant to an open conspiracy among players and team owners to feed the gladiatorial lust of fans – who want to see bigger, stronger and faster cyborgs perform for their atavistic enjoyment. And, naturally, the more fans revel in their steroid-fuel feats of athleticism, the richer players, and even richer team owners become.
Just as the achievements of players like Babe Ruth have not been diminished even though they drank alcohol during prohibition, the achievements of players like Barry Bonds should not be diminished even though they’re taking steroids today…. “Babe Ruth didn’t play with no brothers.” What is more of an advantage: steroids or racism?
So, asterisk this!!!
[from Bonds should be cheered, not jeered, as baseball’s new home run king, August 2007]
4. The entire world witnessed Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire perjure themselves during congressional testimony last year. Yet the Congress gave them both a walk by refusing to indict.
It’s patently disingenuous for Commissioner Selig to assert that former Sen George Mitchell’s report will preserve the integrity of baseball. And speculation that he will suspend players like Bonds, and even strip them of their records and awards – based solely on this report (no matter what Mitchell “discovers”) – is utter rubbish!
[from The indictment of Barry Bonds would be an error for baseball, April 2006]
So, let’s play ball!
Related Articles:
The Mitchell Report (pdf)
List of players implicated
Mitchell report, steroids baseball
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