Mitchell, Steroids, and Baseball
So have the Claude Raines impressions started yet? Is anybody out there shocked that baseball players have been using steroids and other substances? There's been enough of a shadow hanging around baseball for years by this point that it's pretty much a given that some number of players are doing something they shouldn't be. And, just as much, there's more than plenty of evidence that Major League Baseball has been turning a blind eye to it. Steroids can enhance athletes' physical powers and performance. It can make a more exciting game. While there can certainly be a downside, Major League Baseball has benefited from a stronger platoon of players. But now that names have been named, watch for a mass of surprised baseball officials. Who could have guessed? How could this have happened under their very noses? What could possibly have been suspicious about a 45-year-old pitcher remaining maybe not at his peak but certainly head and shoulders above most other Major League pitchers of any age, and way beyond any other 45-year-old man? Why should they think he's anything more than an outstanding competitor? And who could have possibly suspected a succession of home-run sluggers just weren't really good hitters? Never mind that the record for home runs hadn't been approached for more than 30 years and is now regularly bettered?
I haven't had time to comb through the full report (PDF), but there's nothing much surprising that I've seen so far. Unfortunately, there's not a smoking gun that I can find, either. Much of the report is filled with testimony from convicted felons fulfilling their plea agreements. While they can be charged with perjury if they're telling lies, these aren't exactly unimpeachable sources. Predictably, many of the players named in the report, including Roger Clemens, have issued denials. This will change, or course, but as I write this, the News Home at the MLB site is full of "he said/he said."
Will the Mitchell Report have an effect on attendance when the new season starts up in five months? Are baseball fans going to stay away from the ball parks? I doubt it.
posted by Doug @ 2:17 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Yet another divine result of competition. I'm so glad it fixes everything. Government, get out of the way and let the boys play!
I believe steroids can help people do things they otherwise couldn't, and I believe they have deleterious long-term effects. I've been a staunch defender of the players on this issue in the past, but their lack of cooperation with Mitchell's committee left them open to any and all methods of gaining information that said committee needed to use.
Therefore I can't really feel sorry for the players who were named in this report, because each of them had a chance to answer the allegations and chose not to.
The idea that Larry Bigbie, Chris Donnells, etc. are "Snitches" who should be held in contempt is absolutely flabbergasting to me, but it comes from a very macho, very tah-wisted, and ultimately useless culture that one hopes that the Mitchell report will be the first step toward eradicating.
The Mitchell Report is not intended as a step towards eradicating the problem, in spite of all its brave rhetoric. It is rather intended as a step towards MLB's goal all along - of burying the controversy. There's little of substance in it that wasn't already widely reported or rumored. The few "big names" in it were similarly already the subject of report and rumor. There appears to be little that would constitute a slam-dunk conviction in a court of law. Baseball (i.e., Selig & friends) can now proceed to punish a few folks if it seems expedient to do so (and how handy that the star accusee is Roger Clemens, in his mid-40s and considering retirement), and then claim that the problem has been addressed. They can then go back to avoiding any intimation of their own complicity in the matter. Note that Selig, in his press conference yesterday, said that he hadn't read the Mitchell Report(!) The man made his fortune as a car dealer and his roots continue to show. The folks in Washington got nothin' on Bud when it comes to galling nerve and the willingness to lie with a steady pulse and a clear conscience.
To cap it off, I have to suspect that the owners have this as a fall-back plan: If the PR really goes south for them on MLB's complicity in the steroid scene, they can have Bud step down as commissioner and replace him with another henchman. With all of the focus that's been put on Bud over this, they could then claim that they've taken care of the problem, thus obscuring the fact the the commissioner works for the owners.
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