Hypocrisy and Steroids in Baseball

Today, it was revealed that New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003. To some, this comes as no surprise but, ardent followers of the Yankees and/or A-Rod like myself may be a bit shocked. He has long been anointed as the "chosen one". He who would break all of baseball's hallowed hitting records and live to enjoy the accolades. Over the years he adamantly denied ever using any performance enhancing drugs and without proof to the contrary, we were inclined to believe him. Now, he will become the poster-child for all that is wrong in Major League Baseball. He will be branded a cheater, liar, and a fraud.

My problem with this branding is the hypocrisy that comes with it.

What has always been my argument in this epidemic of steroids in baseball is that everyone involved was complicit. Right down to the bat boys. I take special umbrage with the team owners who have never been called to the mat for their involvement with steroids in baseball. Along with league executives themselves, these were your enablers. For lack of a better analogy, let's say something you've invested in or someone you care about needs guidance or needs to be protected from outside influences whether it's alcohol or drugs. It could also be something as simple as food; we all know what its like to over-indulge. When the players actually needed the owners the most, they turned a blind-eye. For obvious reasons of course but, I will get to that later. Barry Bonds, yesterday's poster-child, would have his steroids dealer in the locker room under the guise of being a personal trainer. If I'm the owner of the San Francisco Giants, wouldn't I like to know who's in my locker room talking to my players? In the wake of the Pete Rose scandal, wouldn't it prudent to know if you had a bookie in the house? You have a player who has his own personal training staff and hats and shoes that are 3 sizes larger than when he arrived there 2 years before. Of course owners will say: "We didn't know.". And, of course, I don't believe them. Owners had a chance to protect their employees and the game and they whiffed.

Baseball was the first thing I ever fell in love with that wasn't related to me by DNA. However, I felt like the sport had changed when they expanded in 1993. The league was being infiltrated by businessmen and marketing people who had no vested interest in the sanctity of the game. It ceased being a sport for fathers and sons and simply became a business to be observed. Maybe it was always like that and I was the one who changed. It seems like the only thing that matters is that the stadiums are packed at all costs but what's left is just rhetoric. Shortly after expansion, we saw a boom in statistics that had everyone scratching their chins but happy to be present during such a historical time. From time to time, MLB has "tweaked" the game to suit its needs whether it was strategically moving in fences or using tighter baseball's but, the benefits from rampant steroid use required almost no effort on the part of the owners or league executives and their judgement became clouded. They knew chicks dug the long ball and their profit margins began to hinge on it. Owners were making (unsuccessful) all-star squads only to have a fire-sale the very next year due to lack of cash flow to sustain ever growing contracts. The idea was that if they could put bodies in all 48,000 seats of their new stadiums regularly, they could afford to field a good team (albeit a team of performance-enhanced supermen). It was the chicken and the egg. We need good players to get fans to show up so we can then pay those good players to stay so we can get more fans to show up. But once word got out that players were juicing, MLB was left with egg all over its face.

And what about the players? I don't give them blanket amnesty. Individuals felt they needed a competitive edge to obtain lucrative contracts and would obtain both at any cost. So they drank the Kool-Aid. Alex Rodriguez, apparently, is no exception. If these players did something illegal then they should be punished.



The feds can parade all the players they want in front of commissions and cameras but, until the team owners and the league itself acknowledge their part in this farce and forfeit all the revenue they obtained from it in the form of steroids education, I will hold them just as responsible. The league and the owners need to be on trial, not individual players. That only serves to make this issue linger. Owners fostered a competitive environment and then capitalized on the weaknesses of the players to push their agenda only to sell them out when the proverbial poop hit the fan. What happened to the game I fell in love with?

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Do you think your boss would fire you for using performance-enhancing drugs?