PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
by Chris Freind
When Barack Obama becomes President, his first Executive Order should be to open up investigations of cocaine use by George Bush (and himself) and marijuana use by Bill Clinton. After all, why not follow the lead of the illustrious Commissioner of Major League Baseball?
Nothing like trying to dig up irrelevant past events and ruin people's lives.
The George Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball was just released, and was notable only for the big names it dragged through the mud, such as Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and of course, Barry Bonds. The conclusion was that the steroid culture was rampant in baseball for decades, and for that, blame must be shared from "top to bottom".
What a scoop! Right up there with the bombing of Pearl Harbor!
Whether players used steroids in the past is meaningless, and both Mitchell and Commissioner Bud Selig know it. This report is a sham because it doesn't publicize the most important fact of all, and, by extension, lets the biggest coward of all off the hook. Way to weasel your way out again, Bud.
Let's quickly recap the facts:
1. Baseball didn't ban steroid use until the 2003 season, didn't begin testing until 2004, and only implemented penalties in 2005. (They were only thirty-two years behind the Olympics). During this time, baseball still hadn't banned the human-growth hormone, HGH, either. Most fans think MLB outlawed steroids decades ago, and Bud Selig wants to do everything in his power to keep it that way. His best "teammate" is an uninformed public.
2. Anabolic steroids are a Class III controlled substance under federal law. Like Class I and II drugs, such as heroine and cocaine, no one can be arrested and charged for having consumed steroids. Consumption is not illegal, period.
3. What is outlawed is the manufacture, possession and distribution of such drugs, including steroids. And no, having steroids "in your body" does not constitute possession. For comparison, underage drinkers can get nailed for both possession and consumption, because it is expressly stated that drinking alcohol underage is illegal. Using drugs is not.
4. Baseball was on the brink after the 1994 strike, in desperate need of a monumental turnaround. They found it by building ridiculously small ballparks, adding new teams to further dilute talent, and turning a blind eye to corked bats, juiced balls---and steroid use. The numbers speak for themselves. Fans returned in droves, and fell in love with the long ball, home run derbies and broken records. Since Baseball has just set its fourth consecutive attendance record, the Selig Plan worked. Of course, when it became convenient, Bud stabbed the very players on whose back he and baseball rode to glory, making billions in the process.
Help me out on this one We are demonizing players, including active ones like Clemens, for allegedly engaging in an activity that wasn't against the rules of the game. And yet virtually no one in the media calls Selig and Mitchell on the carpet when they continually throw out that magical but empty phrase "possible disciplinary action." What planet are these guys on? They did the same thing to Yankees star Jason Giambi earlier this year when he talked about his steroid use years ago---before it was banned. The bottom line is that they won't do anything for pre-2003 steroid use because they can't. Period.
What's Bud going to do—-retroactively punish these guys? Under that rationale, if we admit driving the 65 MPH speed limit on a highway that now posts a 55 MPH limit, can we expect a ticket?
Or is he going to lobby to keep them out of the Hall of Fame? That takes the cake. Keep one of the most dominant pitchers of all time out of the Hall for something he (maybe) did that wasn't even in violation of the rules. And the "evidence" is weak at best.
And let's just conveniently ignore that some players used other "performance-enhancing" substances to get better, such as potent vitamins, creatine, androstenedione (andro) and other amino acids. All were legal, and were in widespread use throughout baseball. In fact, Mark McGwire made no secret about his preference for andro.
If baseball wants to send a genuine message, it should focus solely on the current players and dole out severe punishments for steroid violations, after they became banned. When you look at how they have handled some recent cases, with lenient penalties, it becomes apparent that baseball still doesn't care about solving the problem. As long as seats are being filled, lip service is just fine.
Bud Selig is the biggest hypocrite in baseball history, from his complicity in allowing steroids, to refusing to stand when Bonds made history, to cowardly boycotting Mitchell's press conference. His is a "record" that needs to be smashed.
If baseball is to ever regain the integrity and moral high ground that once earned it the title "America's Pastime", it needs to dump Bud Selig. He has struck out once too often.
