How to fix baseball
December 15th, 2007As expected, the Mitchell Report has created a buzz in the sports world after it identified 86 players who were accused of being users of performance-enhancing drugs.
For those who consider themselves to be diehard baseball fans, George Mitchell’s report hardly comes as a shock. In fact, in all likelihood, those 86 players are just a small sampling of the dopers infecting Major League Baseball.
Some will say that baseball is now at a crossroads when it comes to protecting the game’s integrity. But unfortunately, they would be wrong. Baseball is already about 18 stops past protecting the game’s integrity, and most people have known that for a long time.
Statistics compiled over the past decade are an inflated sham. World Series outcomes have been altered. Record books have been forever changed, and honest record-holders have been cheated.
So now the sport is no longer in the position of protecting the game’s integrity. What baseball has to do now is restore its integrity. To do that, here’s what needs to happen going forward:
1. Bud Selig needs to be fired.
This is so obvious it hardly needs to be mentioned. The rampant steroid use in baseball happened on his watch as commissioner, and he turned a blind eye to it. He liked the game’s popularity, and he liked the eye-popping offense, so he conveniently managed to ignore what was happening in every clubhouse in baseball.
There’s certainly enough blame to go around, to be shared by owners, trainers, players and other team officials alike, but Selig has failed the game so miserably that he needs to go. It’s time to find a commissioner in the spirit of Kennesaw Mountain Landis with the courage to stand up and do the right thing.
2. Cheaters need to be disciplined more harshly.
Hand out lifetime suspensions for those who have been confirmed as users of performance-enhancing drugs. It won’t take many lifetime bans for players to get the idea that if they juice up, they’re going to be shipped out permanently.
3. Erase the statistics of the users.
The names of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and every other confirmed user should be forever wiped from the record books, as if they’d never played the game.
Harsh? Maybe so. But not nearly as harsh as the damage they’ve done to their predecessors who played the sport with a fire in their belly, and not a needle in their butt.
4. Test more extensively.
Do it randomly. Do it unannounced. Do it to everyone. Do it repeatedly.
If players want the privilege of playing baseball for a living, they’ll know that heavy drug testing comes with it. If they don’t like that, then they can go to medical school, or business school, or hairdressing school, or whatever. If they want to do steroids, then they can try out for professional wrestling.
The answers to the steroid issue in baseball are not elusive. It is not a hopeless task to clean up the game. All it takes is a leader with the guts to do what’s necessary, and owners who will support him in that endeavor.
“As a Christian I also have one goal. I want to fulfill God’s purpose for my life. I constantly ask myself “What does God want me to do?” and “Where does He want me to go?” Those may sound like odd questions to ask in a book about purity. After all, doesn’t purity just mean sexual purity? Hardly. As I said in the last chapter, living a pure life means trying to please God in everything I do. And the best way to please God is living in a way He can work through me and use me in other people’s lives.” - Andy Pettitte
Does being pure and pleasing God include taking steroids, Andy? Taking steroids is bad enough. Lying about it is even worse. But when a player says stuff like Andy did, the hypocrisy factor goes through the roof!
Christians aren’t perfect, but I agree that the inclusion of Pettitte and other Christians in Mitchell’s report is troubling. I’m working on a piece about that, and hope to have it finished within the next few days.
I heard Bob Costas talking about #3, the statistics, which was very interesting. He said that you can’t wipe them out because stats are so intricate. If a 2-run HR is erased, it means that the Run for the guy on base must be erased. The pitcher who was facing the guy has to have his stats changed, even the resulting score of the game would be changed, which would change the standings, which would change . . . His articulation of this was pretty amazing.
The only winner in the Mitchell report: Barry Bonds. Now that the list is so long, he looks like less of a cheat and hardly anyone is talking about him.
It’s sad, sad, sad.
That makes sense, geno. I hadn’t thought about that. Maybe we just need a mass printing of asterisks to use.
No asterisks. Just notations of all the “eras” in baseball history. Greenies started in the 50’s.
Cocaine in the 80’s. Steroids from approximately
1991-2005.
There will never again be an independent commissioner of baseball as long as the salary is paid by the teams. Selig and his boys made sure of that when they fired Fay Vincent in 1992.
I think baseball needs to “get real” as far as steroids are concerned.
What is the current policy on players who are using steroids? Why are so many players using steroids, apparently with no punishment whatsoever? How can anyone even think about removing stats and records and what-not?
None of this mess can be undone … and, until Major League Baseball gets serious about actually DOING something about the apparently rampant steroid use, then items such as the Mitchell Report are basically useless.
Di -
The current policy on steroids is basically a joke. If I’m not mistaken, you have to get caught 3 or 4 times to even be suspended for the entire season. And on top of that, again if I’m not mistaken, the tests aren’t consistently given, they are random. Additionally, from reports I’ve read, its also a big problem that many of the “designer” steroids the players use can’t be tested for anyway.
There are many to blame in my opinion, obviously most of all the players themselves that make the choice to use, but I can’t stand how the MLBPA takes the stance to cover up for these guys and pretend to be acting in their interest. They are enabling these men to destroy their bodies for the sake of a dollar by not more strictly supporting testing and punishments. How frustrating does it have to be as a clean player to have your own “union” protect cheaters? Sad.
I won’t go into it here–already did on my blog. If baseball was serious about dealing with steroids, it would do what cycling has done. No excuses, you’re just gone. Out of the sport for two years. Testing any day, any time, in season and out. Refuse to be tested, and you’re banned from the sport for two years. Get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, and you’re out. That’s why Lance has withstood so many attempts to discredit his career–he is by far the most tested athlete in sport, and has come up clean every time. Baseball needs to do the same thing.
But baseball won’t do the same thing. Because the union, the league, the commissioner, and many of the fans don’t want it. Just keep smacking those home runs.
Jason brings up a good point. The reason nothing will change is because fans simply will not walk away. A couple of years ago we lead that the Carolina Panthers got to the Super Bowl and the entire offensive line was doing steroids. It was hardly covered in the news and there was no outrage. The only thing that will really drive change is the fans and their pocketbooks. If you don’t like the fact that baseball will continue to give lip service to drug testing, vote with your feet and your wallet.
I learned something today.
There’s apparently no such thing as an atheist who is a hypocrite.
Thanks, Cineaste, for enlightening me.
>Christians aren’t perfect, but I agree that the inclusion of Pettitte and other Christians in Mitchell’s report is troubling. I’m working on a piece about that, and hope to have it finished within the next few days.
Tim, this is a great opportunity for you to communicate God’s grace and how putting our hope in anything or anybody other than God will eventually lead to disappointment. Like our pastor preached this morning: 1) salvation, 2) sanctification, and 3) contentment are all found in Christ. We all know of #1, but we often forget #2, #3.
Great points Roger, especially about number 3. We often forget that Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ) speaks of contentment, not athletic achievement. Perhaps we need to be content with the fact that athletes are fallen human beings just like the rest of us. We should think twice before putting them or anyone else, on a spiritual pedestal.
“There’s apparently no such thing as an atheist who is a hypocrite. Thanks, Cineaste, for enlightening me.”
Let’s see… nope. I never said that. Looks like you are putting words into my mouth and then being sarcastic about it.
>We often forget that Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ) speaks of contentment
Joel, yeah - the pastor mentioned Phil 4:13 in regards to point 3. good stuff.
I think Costas is right on the stats - trying to erase the steriod-tainted numbers would create a lot more problems than it would solve.
I have no problem, however, with making guys like Bond and Clemens give back their MVP and Cy Young awards if there’s evidence that they were juicing.
Bob M nails it–there will never, ever be a commissioner that is so independent. The commish will always be under thumb.
As for the stats being erased, I find it highly unlikely, impossible to determine and unfair to the players. That’s right–not fair to the players–even the drug users.
Bonds and Clemens put up massive numbers, and were headed to the Hall of Fame long before they ever heard of the cream, the clear or HGH. How do you determine which numbers should be wiped out from their careers?
Furthermore, every era has it’s own “asterisk” if you will. The high mounds and huge parks of the 60’s. No players of color pre-1947, etc. And each era also has its cheaters who are now enshrined in the Hall.
I wrote this in 2005: http://zonersports.com/?p=99
Did you guys see Fernando Vina talking about when he took HGH today?
Man, even more credibility to the Mitchell Report.
It’s weird, when guys admit that the did it, I actually tend to respect them more b/c I know they are being honest about hard stuff. At the same time, though, it just tightens the noose around baseballs’ neck.