This op-ed piece in the NY Times is a home run about who is actually to blame for the steroid scandal:
The obvious villains in this whole mess would seem to be those players who are believed to have taken steroids. Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds have become household names of disrepute, and some baseball fans are suggesting that any home run records they have should also carry an asterisk as simple as it is humiliating:
*Steroid Aided.
But the true villains are baseball’s owners, greedy and feckless throughout the game’s history, and in the case of this latest mess, guilty of cynically jettisoning the game’s subtlety and complexity to turn it into a slugfest circus – home-run madness passed off as baseball. Regardless of who knew what when, steroids helped to advance that master plan.
In comments made in the shadow of the Congressional hearings last March on steroid use in baseball, Mr. Selig insisted that owners did not look the other way during the past 10 years. “It’s easy to look back and rewrite history,” he said. “People can say that we knew, but I’d like to know on what basis. There certainly is no medical evidence. There was no testing.”
It’s a pathetic argument. There was no testing because, well, contrary to other pro sports, there was no testing. The National Football League began testing for steroids in 1987. The National Basketball Association started testing in 1998. But up until 2003, Major League Baseball had no testing.
But the see-no-evil defense just doesn’t wash. It doesn’t wash given the owners’ lack of vigilance when it has come to other substances that have harmed the game – alcohol, cocaine and amphetamines. It doesn’t wash when as far back as 1988, the name of Jose Canseco came up in connection with steroid use on national television before Game 1 of the World Series.
It doesn’t wash given that the longest-running manager in baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Tony La Russa, has recently said that steroids were prevalent in the game in the 1990’s. It doesn’t wash given that any owner, even from the padded plush of his luxury box, could look onto the field and see an increasing number of players in the 1990’s so bloated they’d explode if pricked with a pin. Most telling, it doesn’t wash given the aberrational increase in home runs over the past decade.
Owners can attribute the lack of testing to the admittedly difficult players’ union. Or they can cling to ignorance, the de facto policy they adopted of “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t test.” But far from being unsettled by possible steroid use, because they clearly weren’t, baseball’s kings may instead have privately celebrated performance-enhancing drugs, seeing the bulking up of players as an essential component of their effort to rekindle public enthusiasm for the game that they feared had been lost.
The players who used steroids may have broken laws regarding the use of steroids, but they DID NOT CHEAT. It simply was not against the rules of baseball to use steroids, and that is because the owners needed the long ball to sell tickets. I wish people would shut up about McGwire and Bonds. Bud Selig and his gang of misfits are to blame. They created the situation, they rewarded the behavior (with lucrative contracts), and they refused to set standards and test. They are to blame.
Mr Furious
One hundred percent correct. While I have lost tremendous respect for McGwire (never liked Bonds), the fact is he was playing by the rules that existed at the time. One might be able to make an argument that if it’s illegal in real life, it stands to reason it should be likewise against the rules in baseball even if not explicitly stated, but then, so would fighting.
It’s simple, baseball consciously looked the other way on this issue
RW
Oh, bullcrap.
There was no testing because the MLBPA refused to negotiate just such a thing and there was nothing the owners could do.
I know people like to bitch and moan and I think the owners are a bunch of idiots, but THEY ARE NOT AT FAULT because the union would allow no testing until the fiasco that happened with BALCO raised things to a fever pitch.
I repeat: the owners could do nothing.
Oh, Steinbrenner could say “Giambi, I know you’re using steroids, so you’d better clean yourself up”, but he’d then be hit with a grievance. Or, folks could say “they shouldn’t have given Bonds/McGwire/Giambi all that money, for it was really compensating steroid use”. Well, w/o someone being tested, they really don’t know that they’re using, even if it’s obvious. After all, it was obvious that Saddam had weapons, right? It was obvious that the lady in Duluth was another Laci Peterson, right?
Oh, and then the owners would be hit with a collusion grievance/lawsuit (and they’ve already lost one of those).
Sorry, the owners were hamstrung by the most powerful union in America. Thankfully, that’s starting to change, but the people at fault are the players who took the steroids and the union for refusing any testing.
PERIOD. End of discussion.
Halffasthero
I ageee with the above and with Mr. Cole, however, there is another element that I believe is also culpable if we are letting the players slide and that is THEIR AGENTS. These guys have, without a doubt, known about this all along. To suggest they didn’t would be a joke of immense proportions. How many of them hinted to their clients that steroids might be the best way to stay competetive and land the bigger contracts? Frankly, they need to be dragged into the sunlight right along with the players and owners.
RW
BTW, add Selig to the owners.
The commish (the biggest idiot walking the planet, btw) and the owners had steroid testing on the table for the new contract….the MLBPA said “no way in hell” and that was that. And if someone says “they could’ve imposed a lockout in order to force the union to accept” (the only feasible thing available), I call foul….the fans would’ve left in droves and the game would’ve been ruined worse than the ’94 strike.
derek
MLB advertising slogan from a few years back “Chicks dig the long ball” They knew and they didnt care about anything other the bottom line, time for the owners and league executives to own up to it
smijer
All of the above, and of course the end consumer. The fans who buy the Budweiser that is advertised during the Cardinals games, and whose team loyalty can shift with the wondrous broken records that get broken a few years earlier with longer hitting through modern chemistry.
One solution is to give your business to the college teams and the minors until MLB cleans up its act…
RW
smijer,
Dude, don’t be dissin’ beer. :)
Mr Furious
Good point, RW. I negelected to include the Player’s Union, and so did John. They certainly played a huge role as well. But the point John and I are making is still essentially true. Pointing fingers at Barry Bonds dismisses the causes and culprits behind the issue.
It wasn’t just the players.
Hmm. Just like it wasn’t just a “few rogue soldiers” funny how that works…
RW
I understand your point, Mr Furious, but what, exactly, could the owners and MLB have done.
Specifically?
The union said “no” during the contract negotiations. Under the collective bargaining agreement principles, unless both sides agree, the issue is dead. MLB follows the CBA process.
Bud Selig couldn’t waive a wand and make a steroid policy become implemented. George Steinbrenner could close his checkbook and watch the other owners sign the players and there’d still be no testing policy because the union wouldn’t allow it.
Honestly (because I feel icky defending the idiotic owners/management), what could have been done differently?
John Cole
Two words, Ricky-
Public Pressure.
If Bud Selig and the owners had wanted to stop steroid use, which everyone knows was an open secret in baseball for YEARS, all Bud Selig had to do was in one of his thousands of interviews was state the following:
“I am really dismayed that the Players Union refuses to budge on the issue of steroid testing. I think steroid testing is cheating and a crime, and we need to stop it.”
If you don’t think the media would have picked up from there and Congress would not have immediately inserted itself into the issue, you are fooling yourself.
M. Scott Eiland
There’s plenty of blame to go around, John–the owners for making the players justifiably think of them as a pack of liars, the union for having a “win at all costs” attitude that was hurting a substantial part of their own membership, the players for not having the sense to rein their union reps in, and the public for not caring that players were wrecking their health to stay competitive.
RW
Public pressure?
They couldn’t even play an all-star game without screwing it up, they couldn’t play the WS in ’94 because they screwed up the season, they couldn’t sell the Expos so MLB simply took it over and now owns a team, and you’re saying that Bud Selig going to a microphone and saying that steroids were bad was going to suddenly (A) give him instant credibility, especially after the ’03 all-star game; (B) Cause Don Fehr to go “oh, no, Selig said we should put in testing, even though they’ve asked for it for years, but this time he said it in a stern voice on television (again) and I’m betting he means it this time…whoops, I peed my pants in fear, even though I’ve bent over MLB in contract negotiations for decades, THIS TIME I’m scared”?
Jokes aside, is it your official stance that Bud Selig – the Bud Selig that we all know, not someone in a boy band that I’m not aware of or something – would be able to somehow use his charisma in order to sway public opinion?
THAT’S the grand answer that was missing?
John Cole
It is my opinion that if the baseball owners wanted to do something about steroids, they could have and would have, and it is my further opinion that the baseball owners created the incentive for players to continue to use steroids under the cover of their inaction.
RW
Again, I ask, what – SPECIFICALLY – could they have done.
John Cole
And I stated, specifically, what they could have done. They could have made this a public issue and made it a public debate- yet you reject that for whatever reason.
If anything, the outrage you are now showing is proof that the public would have sided with them, and more specifically, Congress would have injected itself in the matter. You did see the Congress question Sammy Sosa last month, didn’t you? You do remember what caused that inquiry, right? JOSE CANSECO’s BOOK. Yet you want to sit here and tell me that if the Commissioner of baseball stood before the press with numerous baseball owners and said that steroid use is rampant, a problem, and one that can’t be solved because of the evil players union, nothing would have happened.
Your position defies logic.
RW
What caused the inquiry was the leaked testimony of Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds. Without that, Jose Canseco would’ve been laughed off the bookshelves due to his own questionable credibility.
So, your stance is that the whol steroid thing could’ve been avoided had Bud Selig said something long ago, before any books or testimony, which magically would’ve caused the national public to jump on board the Selig train and cause a nationwide wave of momentum that would’ve made Donald Fehr, the leader of the most powerful union in the nation, to change his mind and the US congress to start hearings based on……..
Oh, yeah, speculation, because there was nothing out there other than me and a few other folks saying “it’s obvious that they’re on steroids”.
And you say my position defies logic?
STOP RIGHT THERE.
As soon as Selig says that, Donald Fehr files a grievance and Selig is put before an arbitrator, for unless he has specific knowledge or evidence of steroid use of any MLB player, he is guilty of slander. Well, or whatever the proper legal thing would be (I’m not a lawyer). Without evidence, he can’t do that, John. And without testing, he can’t know who’s taking steroids.
Do you think that no reporter would ask Selig to name one player who was taking steroids (remember, this was pre-testimony)?
What are they doing now? Bud Selig is proposing tougher penalties….by going THROUGH THE UNION, because he can’t do a damn thing since the collective bargaining agreement is cemented & without both sides agreeing, nothing changes.
Congress, Selig, you, me and everyone else can scream all we want, John. It’s not as if the general public hasn’t been up in arms about MLB salaries going through the roof, Steve Howe getting 7 lifetime bans, etc…..it’s gotta be negotiated through the union.
My position deals with reality and the facts, John. Your position relies on the supposition that Bud Selig becomes the rhetorical pied piper of public opinion and causes the US congress to follow HIS lead.
That would be the same congress that threatened hearings two years ago because they were so pissed at Selig’s decision to stop the all-star game. Come on.
BTW, I don’t think the MLBPA is evil. It was necessary and Curt Flood is one of the most influential people of the last century, probably responsible for more millionaires than Bill Gates. But, that strawman aside, please point out where I’m wrong.
And please give me one tangible thing that the owners could’ve done, for saying “they could’ve swayed public opinion” is as plausible as saying that if Al Sharpton could’ve swayed public opinion, he’d have been elected president.
RW
BTW, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m “siding” with the idiot owners, but I also can’t ignore reality on a whim and declare pure supposition to suddenly become plausible.
John Cole
As soon as Selig says that, Donald Fehr files a grievance and Selig is put before an arbitrator, for unless he has specific knowledge or evidence of steroid use of any MLB player, he is guilty of slander.
Nonsense.
Bud Selig is proposing tougher penalties….by going THROUGH THE UNION, because he can’t do a damn thing since the collective bargaining agreement is cemented & without both sides agreeing, nothing changes.
Then they have no contract, and Bud Selig goes before the cameras and explains the baseball seasonk is cancelled because the players refuse to be tested for illegal steroids, something Selig and the owners find objectionable.
BTW, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m “siding” with the idiot owners…
This ain’t the DU, don’t worry. Likewise, I am not excusing players. However, baseball made no attempts to stop this open secret, and in fact encouraged the behavior.
Some specifics, btw:
Demand that baseball construction stop shortening the outfield walls, examine the rules change, quit diluting the pitching talent with expansion, go to the press, stop rewarding sluggers with exorbitant contracts, quit basing entire ad campaigns and the success of your sport n the long ball, etc.
But most of all, they just had to put their foot down. You keep acting like the negotiations are one-sided- it is what the union wants and nothing else. Nonsense- as you stated, both sides have to agree. Had Selig and Co. not agreed to a contract because they refused to be tested for steroids, I know which side would have won that debate.
shark
I like how he lets the players union off the hook, despite the fact that there is zero chance of any steroid policy EVER unless they agree.
The owners pushed through a very stringent drug testing plan in the minors after all…
RW
That puts a huge nail in the coffin for the game. While I’d be on the side of getting rid of steroids, no way (IMO) the fans don’t rebel, much worse than ’94. And, again, Fehr would play MLB like a fiddle and have the players play the role of victim “who does Selig think is taking steroids? Let’s hear some names. Until then, vendors, parking lot attendants, employees, television stations, etc., are losing revenue while the millionaire owners of baseball hold the sports world hostage on a witch hunt against all of MLB without one scintilla of evidence. Besides, the unknown samples from last year’s minor leagues only showed a 5% usage, so there IS NO evidence of RAMPANT USAGE based on MLB’s own data”.
Could you see the casual MLB fan accepting the 4th week of a lockout & having folks like Greg Maddux or David Wells go on camera and talk about how they’re kept from playing baseball because Bud Selig thinks they’re probably using steroids?
I’m with you in spirit, but I have a better chance being elected Prime Minister than that ever happening without MLB imploding. As it stands now, with Bonds outside the picture, the steroid thing is slowly fading away.
Notice how no big name players have been nailed, yet?
Gary Farber
I apologize for the fact that I’m skipping reading all previous comments, and that I, in all honesty, don’t really care much about baseball issues. I just wonder how this sort of thing will square with genetic screening both at birth, and possibly at admission to a ball team, in a few years. Pro sports, which I frankly know almost nothing about, and could care less, don’t seem well prepared for obvious impending extropianism. I suppose they’ll say they didn’t see it coming.
Yeah, that will be believable. Jocks never believe the people they beat up as fags and science folks.
RW
Thanks for killing yet another discussion, Gary, in your usual drive-by fashion.
Dillon
Well, there is one other point of view not covered here. What’s really wrong with steroids? I’m interested in seeing how much the human body can achieve, regardless of method/regimen/science, and/or enhancement. Like so many drug issues, the degree of risk is mainly attributable to the degree of illegality. Why can’t we overtly allow research and development of substances to make humans bigger, faster, and stronger? We allow Lasik eye surgery, an obviously non-natural procedure, which gives hitters a huge advantage, why not drugs? Are drugs inherently immoral for some reason? If they were legal, they would be subject to FDA testing and approval, and much safer for everyone concerned.
bago
Bring on the roid leagues. Who doesn’t want to see the very best at their game kicking ass?