Steroids Part I.

Players and Management: Everyone’s Dirty

We stand on the eve of the steroid armaggedon that has been building since before Jose first plunged a needle into Mark McGwire’s butt. This week the federal government indicted Barry Bonds on Perjury and Obstruction of Justice charges based on his testimony before a grand jury in which he stated he did not use steroids. In less than a month, Major League Baseball will be releasing the Mitchell Report, which supposedly documents the usage of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) by players throughout the sport. This report and the Bonds trial fail to adequately correct the wrongs already perpetrated against the sport and fall well short of providing an answer as to how to pick up the pieces. Basically, why bother with a report when it is clear that everyone has contributed to this mess?

Players
Naturally, this is where the investigation begins and, if MLB has its way, where it will end. Each player who ever took steroids or HGH or whatever other PED they could find is guilty of tarnishing the purity of the game. It was their individual decision to cheat and they should be rightfully tainted for it. However, this simple thinking ignores how universal concerns pushed these people to cheat. Looking closer each player using PEDs did so for much more complex purposes: greed, job security, fame, talent enhancement, peer pressure, career pressure, etc.

I’ve seen it asked at other times, but which of us would ignore the Siren’s call to “rub the clear” on our bodies knowing that to do so could open the door to outrageous fortune and adulation the likes of which average people, like myself, will never know? What about the middle-aged player on the verge of being pushed out of the lime-light who “needs” one more good season to ensure a major league paycheck for his family? What about the minor-league kid who needs that extra bump in performance to get that first taste of major league coffee? Given these scenarios and the myriad of others, who among us could “say no” to PEDs? The allure of playing professional sports is too great to be ignored in this mess, so as much as I dislike the usage of PEDs in sports, I can understand where the desire to use them comes from. From a purely outside perspective we should vilify the players for damaging the sport, but we should also understand there is much more at play than meets the eye.

Management
No group is more complicit in the growth of steroids than the various owners who knowingly turned a blind eye to the situation until it became a national scandal. In essence, this group has it the best. They can claim ignorance to the problem, yet indulge in the immense popularity the steroids era brought to the sport. The game has never been more popular than when the long-ball was sailing out of the park. Fans came out in droves to watch Big Mac, Sammy, and eventually Bonds break single-season records and the all-time home run mark. All the while, owners and management ignored Barry’s ever-growing dome and the Andro found in Big Mac’s locker.

Now these players who received untold riches and fame are being rightfully persecuted for cheating, but the owners and management who must have known about the cheating and received even more wealth face very little public condemnation. Bud Selig gets embarrassed in front of Congress for a couple of hours, while Mark McGwire goes into total seclusion, ostracized from public exposure. Owners continue to get rich and Bonds goes to jail. The owners fed off of players who strove for fame and fortune. Basically, these fortune leeches got all the wealth and none of the responsibility, which is a deal they would make time and time again. Who should we expect more from, the individual players or the architects of our game? After all it was the owners’ implied condonation of this behavior that helped create this mess.

Part II will document what I believe should be done to move the game forward away from the steroid era and its fall-out.