The PED era
Posted by Andy on December 13, 2007
Well, the era of Performance Enhancing Drugs in baseball has been officially defined. Time will tell about the possible repercussions for the players involved.
I, for one, have been shocked by the response to the Mitchell report. People seem to be focusing on the fact that certain players were dumb enough to write personal checks for steroids or HGH. These people seem to fail to realize that these are the only players for whom purchase of PEDs could be proven.
For each one of the players named in Mitchell's report, there are probably 10 more who acquired PEDs from other sources that Mitchell and his team were unable to trace or confirm. And yet, already today I heard two different media outlets wondering how Mark McGwire will do in the Hall of Fame voting now that he has been "cleared" of steroid use.
Frankly, that's ridiculous. We'll probably never know for sure about McGwire's use of PEDs, or about the use by other players of that era. Sosa, Juan Gonzales, I-Rod, even Sheffield--we'll probably never know. And there are probably dozens of other players who we never suspected who were users.
Only with the passage of time will the PED era get put into perspective. History will find a way to put this era into perspective.
I would imagine we all agree in the hopes of MLB putting an effective testing program in place and putting an end to this era.
December 14th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Dan Barreiro on KFAN-AM in Minneapolis and a member of the BBWAA said he is inclined to discount ALL players from the last 15 years in his HOF voting now.
Sad that the best hitter and pitcher of our generation will forever be tainted by this dark period in baseball history.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Baseball leadership from the Commissioner's Office and the Player's Union were intentionally asleep at the wheel on this one. With all the money coming in after the 1994 player's strike, why shake the apple cart? If no one knows it's broken, don't fix it.
I remember a game in 1998 in St. Louis when McGwire hit two home runs against the Giants. After the 2nd home run, there was a close up of Bonds, and I kid-you-not, there was an expression on his face that said "WTF, *I'M* supposed to be the greatest. Now I'm being outdone, and I'm feeling a lot of emotional pain about this." Sure, sure, it's conjecture, but when I saw his face at the time, that's what I thought he was thinking. There was pain and sadness and regret in his face.
Then the following year, Bonds got hurt and went on the DL, the writing was on the wall. He wasn't even selected for the All-Century Team, and many people were counting Bonds out and Griffey in as the greatest ever.
With drugs running unchecked in MLB, and with McGwire's success using the juice, and with Bonds' ambition and hubris, it's not surprising that Bonds started using - especially in his shoes, when he sees McGwire and Sosa do it without repercussions. If they can cheat, then so can I. And then the mind plays tricks and says "Well, it isn't really cheating, because baseball doesn't say it's illegal."
It is really sad and upsetting to see so many people gamble their health and integrity for money and glory. It is really sad and upsetting to see leadership choose record profits over drug enforcement. Hundreds of men wept in private last night, I am sure of that. And families are going through a lot of pain now. I worry that one of the players will kill himself. MLB should really be offering these men and their families serious counseling.
Mitchell's recommendations are sound. Baseball needs to move forward. Selig is fool if he decides to punish each Mitchell Report player with a different penalty. It would be a kangaroo court, ugly, chaotic, and endless finger-pointing.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Kingturtle, right on. Imagine what Barry Bonds thought when the All-Century team was being honored and Mark McGwire one of the 25 and Barry wasn't. Your conjectures in quotations marks make absolute sense.
The baseball owners and gm's and Selig and Fehr allowed this to happen, and we know that. Too late, they figured out how much of a problem they had allowed to develop.
There needs to be the best possible counseling and policing GOING FORWARD.
December 15th, 2007 at 12:47 am
i must say... im rather thrilled with the results of the report. it finally has a majority of people saying that it is baseballs fault (owners/management)... which is something a small minority have been saying since it first came up....