Congress is close to passing legislation regulating steroid testing and enforcement in baseball (and possibly all sports.) ESPN the Magazine is coming out this week with an issue covering the use of steroids over the years by players with squeaky clean images like Mark McGwire and Wally Joyner.
To hype the magazine, ESPN2's morning show, Cold Pizza, has been discussing the issue on its segment 'First and Ten.' But even though I am interested in the steroid issue, what moved me to write this diary was a comment by one Cold Pizza's analysts.
I am a huge fan of baseball, and to be honest, I could not care less about steroids. I think it's despicable how 'public opinion,' coached along by sports radio and TV talking heads has convicted McGwire of steroid use based on his testimony before the kangaroo commitee that discussed steroid use this summer. I don't merely think that it smacks of hypocrisy for commisioner Bud Selig to go public with steroid opposition, I think it is the very definition of hypocrisy, since the first 10 years of Selig's reign will probably be known to history as the steroid era. He kept his mouth shut while home runs were flying out at an historic rate, and only when Jose Canseco's book let the cat out of the bag, (and got Senators like McCain and Bunning into grandstanding mood,) did he act like he was outraged about it.
I think that talk of excising players' records is preposterous: some of these substances players allegedly took were not banned by baseball at the time, some were not even illegal, there is no way to tell accurately who used what and when, and even if there were, there is no accurate metric to tell how much such substances affected their game. Also, it is a fact that players have in the past used other substance that may have improved their numbers, yet there is no talk of wiping out records of players who used amphetamines, or of Doc Ellis' no-hitter, tossed while high on LSD.
I also think that the government has more pressing problems than the way baseball runs its affairs. It's not as though there are no tests. MLB is suspending athletes who test positive and also making their names public. This consequence has practically ruined the Hall-of-fame career of Rafael Palmeiro. Congress is apparently set to pass a bill that will impose a harsh suspension regime on MLB: a half season for the first offense, a full season for the second, and a lifetime ban(!) for the third. Whatever the merits of such a policy, (slim to nil IMO) the drug testing currently in place was part of the CBA between baseball and its union, and this would toss that out the window.
With that background out of the way, in the course of the discussion on Cold Pizza this morning, the show's two analysts, Woody Page and Skip Bayless, discussed the policy and both were in agreement that someone needed to take charge and that MLB's current policy was not good enough. (We disagree on that point) But while Skip seemed to be in favor of Congress' plan, Woody was not so sure: (paraphrase) I agree it has to be independent (ie, the steroid testing authority) but I don't trust this government to do it. Are they gonna put a guy who raised Arabian horses in charge of this? Skip: Oh come on... Woody: What about the weapons of mass destruction? Have they found those yet? Give me a break...
Comment: I was a little bit surprised to hear this on a sports show, since sports broadcasting is usually so staunchly right-wing. I might be making too much of this, but it seems to me that if guys like Woody are taking shots at Bush, then it must mean it's open season. At any rate it's great to hear non-political press asking questions critical of Bush instead of parroting Republican talking points.