The blame game and a call for the banning of PED…testing.

It’s the summer of 1998.  Chicago Cubs Outfielder Sammy Sosa and St. Louis Cardinals Incredible Hulk impersonator Mark McGuire are locked in an epic home run race.  Both players are on pace to break Roger Maris’ single season record of 61 home runs; a record that has stood for 37 years.  Sosa would go on to hit 66 HR’s while McGuire would hit 70.  Baseball, which had still been struggling with revenue and attendance (revenue was at $1.7 billion and season attendance at 60 million in 1996) since a 1994-1995 strike had seen a revival due to the epic home run race.  All was right with the world.  Sosa would go on to hit over 60 HR’s in 2 of the next 3 years (63 in 1999 and 64 in 2001), and was loved by fans across the country and was well on his way to Hall of Fame status.

It’s the winter 2007. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, finally outraged with the tarnishing of baseball by performance enhancing drugs, had called on former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to investigate the PED issue further.  Dubbed The Mitchell Report, over 80 players are linked to PED usage…some very prominent (i.e. Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada, etc.).  Even with this revelation, baseball as a business had continued to grow with revenue and attendance topping out at $7 billion and 79 million respectively.

It’s the late spring 2009. Sammy Sosa had decided to retire from baseball.  PED issues plague the sport with an increasing number of players, Sosa included, having either being suspected of usage, linked to usage, or outright admitting usage.  Sosa, on his retirement,

“I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don’t I have the numbers to be inducted?”

“I always played with love and responsibility and I assure you that I will not answer nor listen to rumors. If anything ugly comes up in the future, we will confront it immediately, but with all our strength because I will not allow anybody to tarnish what I did in the field,” Sosa said.

It’s June 16, 2009. The New York Times reported that Sammy Sosa had a positive PED test in 2003, back when MLB decided to test their players…to see if they needed to test them in the future.

Its undeniable that the ’98 McGuire/Sosa HR battle saved baseball.  Revenue was in the tank, attendance was putrid…until ’98, when records were broken and everyone was happy.  That being said, both players are now strongly suspected of PED usage at a time when PED usage wasn’t even illegal in baseball.  McGuire has already had a few shots at the Hall of Fame, with dismal results, and Sosa will seemingly share the same fate.  The dreaded asterisk seemingly affixed to those former saviors of the game. Sammy Sosa (allegedly) used substances to help him get a leg up on the competition.  He enhanced his natural abilities.  He cheated.  On its face, he should be punished. Hence…Sammy Sosa*

And what of the commissioner, Bud Selig?  The man who has helped make baseball a digital media powerhouse? Who brought us interleague play? The wildcard team? Who was instrumental in turning around baseball’s yearly revenue such that it rivals, and may surpass that of the NFL’s?

He has to have an asterisk next to his name as well.

Each time another prominent player is connected to PED’s, Selig’s own reputation is tarnished.  With so many players using, how could you not know anything about it?  The sudden increase in home runs? the size of the players?  Maybe Selig pass out ‘roids in the locker rooms, but he knew or should have known that they were using, and did little to stop it.  Even the 2003 rounds of testing were nothing more than warning shots…

“Hey everyone, people are getting suspicious about drug use in our sport, so we’re going to test everyone and then if the tests come back positive, we’re going to start real testing next year.  Don’t worry, if we start real testing I will let you know ahead of time.  You can now resume your usage of creams and needles.”

How can you criticize the minions but not the leader?  How can you set the policy regarding player conduct for your sport, but then feign ignorance and outrage when those players continually get caught by the policy you created? How can you ever be surprised that someone is on PED’s when PED testing in 2003 made you create a drug policy to stop the usage of PED’s?  It would be like the principal of a school creating a no guns policy at school after seeing kids carry guns into school and then being surprised each time a kid got caught with a gun.  First, how are you surprised? Second, at some point don’t we have to start openly questioning the principal for being so in the dark about his students?  Bud Selig knew what was going on, but the money was too good, the attendance was too high…Why drag PED testing into this and risk losing baseball’s newly gained prominence?  While I disagree with his current take on PED issues (namely, ignorance) back in ’98, what exactly should Bud Selig have done?

But perhaps the more poignant question is this: Should MLB have ever created a drug policy in the first place? Was it not better to let that sleeping dog lie? Performance enhancing drugs give athletes an advantage for a variety of reasons, one being that they allow an athlete to recover from injury more quickly.  But how do you penalize a player for using something that does nothing more than return them to their original state?  What’s the difference between a doctor giving you PEDs to heal an injury and taking one to boost performance? They both enhance performance…See the grey area?  And furthermore, is it even possible for drug testing to be successful?  It’s costly, people are always figuring ways to beat the test you have in place, or creating new undectable drugs…Sure, you may catch some players for awhile, until someone smartens up, but you end up in a recurring cycle.

And how can you stop at just a drug policy, anyway?  If the purpose of the policy is to level the playing field then don’t you have to limit any advances in drugs or technology in general?  I’m certain that some baseball spikes work better than others, some sunglasses block out the sun better…aren’t these performance enhancers?  And what about people who get things like corrective eyes surgery…isn’t that performance enhancing as well?  Every baseball player would have to play naked, with no glove, and have everyone using the same bat to have a truly fair game.  Is that even possible?

At the end of the day, who’s to blame? Ever since the dawning of sports, athletes were always trying to become better.  We have a billion dollar sports culture built on using better equipment or technology, or supplements to make people better.  If the line between a PED and an air cushion sole is blurred as to trying to keep the playing field leveled, can you blame the athlete for taking the PED?  Especially while you’re playing basketball in your new Air Jordans and your competition is using 1950 Converse All Stars?  Or you’re drinking gatordade while other people are drinking water? Are you saying that these are not performance enhancers as well?  If you draw the line in the first place, do you ever stop?  And if your the commissioner, and let me reiterate, his ignornace now is appalling, and you have the job of making money for your sport,  do you kill the drama in 1998 that everyone had been clamoring for since 1994?  Should Bud Selig have let baseball die in the late 90′s?  Should he have started the testing in 2003? or the Mitchell Report in 2007? Is baseball really better for it? Has it gained something?

If the answer to those questions is “yes” I only have two questions for you.

Did you like baseball better in 1998 or in 2009?

and Now that we’re in 2009, what do we do now?

I was in the spot that you’re in now. Blaming Selig for not stepping in sooner, mad at my favorite players for being linked to PED usage.  At the end of the day though, I just can’t figure out what’s been gained by this whole thing.  Or what direction baseball goes from here.  How does baseball set out on the task of creating individual superstars when they could be linked to PED’s a week later?  How do they clean up the game when new drugs are continually showing up, or new revelations about old players that we may have thought were clean arise?  And how do you do all of this testing without a complete invasion of privacy? (warranted or unwarranted?)  Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is admit a mistake.  I’m to the point now where I’m waiting for someone to convince me that beginning PED testing was the right thing to do.

ESPN — Sammy Sosa planning to announce formal retirement

New York Times — Sosa is said to test positive in 2003

Category: Baseball