Digesting Baseball's Steroid Nightmare

Introduction:

I am a fan of Mike and Mike in the Morning. I generally enjoy their back and forth sports banter however on the issue of steroids in baseball I find the dialogue to be frustrating. Mike Golic has a habit of taking any idea to deal with the problem of past systemic use of performance enhancing drugs and picks it apart to find all of its flaws. This is a worthless endeavor in my opinion. The problem is that there is no real fair solution. That's because the mess that has been left to fix is too large, too complicated, and too widespread to ever be fixed fairly. No matter what, we will likely be left with those that cheated and got away with it and those that take the hit for the entire sport.

I believe it was Jayson Stark that said that he believes that about 80% of all award winners in the last fifteen years were cheating when they won. That should give everyone an idea of the systemic nature of the cheating that was going on. At this point, there is no fair solution and all anyone can do is come up with something that is as fair as possible.

Also, I get amused whenever anyone begins a diatrobe about how the Congress has better things to do with their time then investigate baseball. I agree. They do and there is no reason they should be forced to investigate baseball. On the other hand, they aren't left with much choice. Baseball, along with the other two sports, has become a vital part of our culture and our fabric, and the league allowed for systemic cheating for over a decade. While it may be true that they have better things to do, the Congress cannot very well simply ignore this problem. While the hearings are more drama than substance, they all serve a purpose. They exposed McGwire last time and ultimately Palmeiro's words came back to haunt him. While it would be nice for Congress to attend to other matters, the reality is that this problem is now too big for them to ignore.

I personally am in favor of any witchhunt. Only a nasty witch hunt in which reputations are ruined and players are turned into villains will have the sort of chilling effect that would really discourage future players from trying to cheat. What I would like is as many witch hunts as possible. Right now Roger Clemens is in the hot seat and that is fine, however there are many more. I saw Eric Gagne pitch in 2003 and he was lights out. I saw him start Eric Karros off with a fastball that was clocked at 99 MPH. He followed with a 74 MPH change and then a 72 MPH change. Was he cheating? The Mitchell Report raises a lot of questions about his own use of performance enhancing drugs. The only way to really drive the message home that this is unacceptable is for there to be a public spectacle of all suspected cheaters.

Furthermore, it is time for all sports analysts to stop muddying the waters on this issue. I hear too many rationalizations. Statements that go something like this,

he still had to hit the baseball

All of that is pure nonsense. Each player must accomplish their task. The pitcher pitches and the hitter hits. If one is getting an ufair advantage through performance enhancing drugs, the whole entire result is tainted and corrupted. Cheaters deserve no sympathy, rationalizations, or equivocations. They made the playing field uneven and that is the only thing that matters. Their results are beside the point. Of course, they are likely to be impressive because cheating likely brings with it impressive results. If cheating continues to be rationalized then it will also be excused. If we are serious about addressing it, then the time for excuses is over.

Again, there will never be any truly fair investigation or outcome, however I think the Mitchell Report is a good place to start. Every player mentioned in the report must answer for what is in the report and appropriate punishments should apply.

Now, the way I see it is that we have three things that need to be addressed: the records and awards, the Hall of Fame, and future potential cheating. Unfortunately, I don't see any reasonable way to address the previous championships. It is likely that multiple members of winning and losing teams were cheating and thus deciphering who did more is impossible.

As for the Hall of Fame, I believe the very difficult 75% threshhold will take care of most of the cheating on its own. In order to be voted into the hall of fame, the player needs to be included in 75% of the ballots. The writers have already shown what allegations will do to the hall of fame chances of players. Mark McGwire got only 23.5% of the votes. Clearly, the stench that he left after his appearance on Capitol Hill two years ago has cost him a plethora of votes. While no one can predict the future, it is also quite unlikely that he will ever receive the 75% necessary to enter the hall. The rules for entering the hall of fame are strict enough and will weed out most suspected of cheating on their own.

As for the records, I suggest that a committee be formed. The committee should consist of former players, advocates, administrators, and anyone else that would first and foremost be of unquestioned integrity and have an interest in the continuing success of baseball. This committee should hear evidence and make decisions as to whether or not those that broke records did it by cheating. The decision of the committee must be final concerning the records.

As for future cheating, the current testing system is a good start and so is the new punishment system. That said, it currently has one glowing flaw that needs to be addressed or the system faces total non credibility. The testing system currently has no test for HGH. While there is no full proof cheating system, and anyone that wants to cheat badly enough will likely pull it off, there must be a test for HGH. It is true that for every new test there is a new designer steroid that can beat it. That was the crux of the BALCO scandal and the clear. HGH is known and it likely has been used by countless players. Unlike a designer steroid not readily known or available, HGH provides any potential cheater with an obvious and simple tool. The first thing the testing must do is find a test for HGH. Second, the tests must be more prevalent, random, and include the off season. It is also pointless to have a testing system without an off season test. That is when most of the performance enhancing drugs are taken.

Conclusion:

Here is the thing that bothers me most about this whole affair. Baseball lost a huge portion of their fan base when the strike of 1994 cancelled the World Series. Attendance, viewership, and merchandising all went down dramatically in the aftermath. The sport was revitalized with the home run chase...a chase that is now likely to have been committed by two cheaters. The fans, the players, MLB all looked the other way because the excitement the chase brought was seducing. The chase and the subsequent home run explosion brought the fans back to the game. All of it was likely caused by cheating. While some players will face stiff consequences, the game itself will likely not suffer. The fans didn't much care when cheating was artificially producing all those home runs. They are likely to not give too much care now that the whole thing has been exposed as a fraud. Thus, a strike nearly caused the collapse of the game, and it was only revitalized through cheating. Worse than that, now that all is known most fans aren't bothered by any of it.