Over at the Sports Law Blog, they have posted a guest piece by Aaron Zelinsky and Benjamin Johnson of Yale Law School. Here’s a taste:
…. A-Rod’s comeback needs three things: First, he has to become the public face of baseball purists.
…. Second, A-Rod must devote himself to cleaning up baseball.
…. Finally, A-Rod needs to stay healthy and play as long as he can play well. He must put up Hall of Fame numbers for the next five years to make the case that he is a Hall of Famer without the juice.
Well, that’s an interesting take, but I like Mark DeVincentis’ backtalk even better:
…. I’m not upset with ARod or any of the PED users. I’m more upset about the way it is handled by the government, media, baseball, and the public at large. The hyperbole in the media that fuels the attitude that baseball is somehow in trouble because of steroids stems from a lack of understanding of baseball history.
…. As long as baseball has been played, players have turned to artificial means to enhance their performance.
…. I don’t think that steroids don’t matter, or that efforts should not be made to weed them out of the game, but they should be placed in their proper context. Few things grate on me worse than media sensationalism and playing down to the lowest common denominator… and this whole steroids thing that has been going on for the last 5 or so years is full of both.
Hear, hear! Echoing many of the sentiments that I have been screaming into a closet for those five years, Mark hits the nail on the head. A-Rod shouldn’t have to pander to the BBWAA, nor should Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds or, for that matter, Pete Rose. Few players can claim to have given more to the game than these superstars. Few players have been more dedicated to being the absolute best that they can be, few have worked harder, or brought more excitement and excellence to the national pastime.
I’ll say it again, if the BBWAA continues to hold these players hostage, if the list of players that they decide to exclude from the Hall of Fame continues to grow, then it won’t be a Hall of Fame anymore. It’ll be a place where baseball writers can celebrate their righteousness and hypocrisy.
Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.
italics, mine
Let’s not forget that the decision to consider more than just raw statistics or having played for a long time wasn’t happenstance, the idea that integrity and character mattered didn’t occur in a vacuum. At the time of the Hall’s creation, baseball was awash in crooked players, the scandals were what eventually led to the creation of a commissioner’s office, and Kennesaw Mountain Landis. The players who were caught, or just rumored to be involved, (a group that included Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb, by the way), were threatening the game’s integrity, in that the fans would wonder if the results of the game were true. The issue was whether a players or players on one team were in cahoots with the other team to throw the game for betting purposes.
Bill James wrote about baseball in the 1910′s in the New Baseball Historical Abstract:
…. baseball in the teens was collapsing, leaving the players and the owners fighting over the pieces of a shrinking pie. It was bound to get ugly, and it did. The third major story of the decade was a product of the unhappy marriage of the first two. The players started selling games.
It is not my intention to make apologies for the dishonest players. But you have to know two things to understand what happened. Number on, there was a generation of players to whom baseball made a lot o promises which it didn’t keep. And number two, every baseball headline in the decade had a dollar sign attached to it.
…. It is a hard thing to know that another man is making money off your labor, and has no intention of dealing fairly with you.
…. (Charlie) Comiskey held all the power in the relationship between owner and players, and he had to rub their noses in it
Commiskey wasn’t alone in being a miserly owner. By keeping the lion’s share of the profits from the game, the owners were, in effect, forcing the players to choose between being completely taken advantage of, or bend and break the rules of the game to find their own ways to profit on their abilities. (A situation, by the way, in which the owners controlled the game ruthlessly, profiting from the players skill and efforts while the players –even the stars– were forced to work during the off-season, which continued all the way until the end of the reserve clause, and into the birth of true free agency)
The integrity and character clauses were included in response to these conditions, conditions in which the number of players who were rumored or known to have been involved in throwing games was substantial, including stars and even icons.
For at least the last four decades, the majority –if not all– of the “cheating” in baseball has been directed towards winning. The mantra of winning at all costs has been etched into the consciousness of even the youngest baseball players. Defending the game from “cheaters” has nowhere near the same importance in the face of a culture that has consistently looked the other way at bending the rules in an effort to win. Spitballs, scuffed balls, amphetamines, painkillers, and performance enhancers have been used and abused during this time, right in front of the baseball sportswriters, who did and said and wrote nothing about it at all.
Until Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds. Until steroids, and huge, muscled-up players began breaking records. Only when steroids became the PED of choice, and the records started to fall did the writers get themselves all up in arms. Why is that? Why did decades of uppers and downers mean nothing to the writers, but steroids and HGH meant everything? Lack of understanding, fear, and more importantly, nostalgia.
These writers are victims of their own nostalgia. They remember Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, and some of them even saw Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra and Sandy Koufax play, and nobody was breaking their records on speed. Nobody was hitting more home runs than Babe Ruth on speed. Nobody was winning six Cy Young Awards on speed. Nobody was winning seven(!) MVP Awards on speed.
These writers are defending their childhood memories, and poorly at that. They are, in effect, saying that these players aren’t as good as their heroes were, therefore, they are cheating. Never mind that some of their heroes were drunk on the field, or abused speed, or used cocaine during games. Never mind that many of the records they were seeing fall were destined to fall for reasons far more obvious than the simple choice of strength training enhancers.
Their youth was being debased, and for that, these “cheaters” must pay. Remember this when you read Tom Verducci, or Mike Lupica, and remember that these self-proclaimed experts have forgotten baseball history, if they ever knew it at all.
The Other Robert asks “So what do you say to Roy Oswalt[...]?”
What would I say to Oswalt? I would ask him why he didn’t say anything until now, because I simply do not believe that he was unaware of the extent of steroid use in the major leagues. In 2003, under a testing system that was designed so as to be remarkably easy to avoid being caught, 104 players tested positive anyway. MLB and the MLBPA want to spin this as 94+% of players were clean, but that’s not really true… it just means that 5+% either didn’t care about testing or weren’t smart enough to stop using detectable steroids in time.
I just don’t think it’s possible that you can go through college, the minors, and a multi-year pro career and not know how pervasive the use of PEDs is. So when any player, or coach, or team executive, or owner, or commissioner, or sports writer… when any of them climb onto that high horse and begin to lecture the latest Cheater du jour… I wonder why they’re on a high horse, instead of standing in front of a mirror. Until everyone from Bud Selig to Roy Oswalt to Mike Lupica stop trying to feed us crap and “come clean” this issue won’t even begin to be addressed.
PEDs are the mote in our eye. Baseball’s see-no-evil approach is the beam in theirs.
great post, John, and very true, Mia. And (sigh), sans McGwire, and Clemens who seems like kinda a jerk, all the “evil PED users” have been men of color.
However, something John said pointed out the ludicrousness of it – what if someone discovers that extract of turnip does the same thing as HGH? Do we move on to forbidding the eating of vegetables? Shall we impose a limit on training over a certain altitude?
I read somewhere (I think Bill James) where he was postulating that Babe Ruth had some sort of mental illness, thus his excessive drinking, and if he had had modern medicine and been on Prozac or somesuch, his career might’ve been longer. Would that have been cheating? That’s fooling with “nature”, isn’t it?
Cheating is King Kelly, or the 1919 White Sox. Not this foolishness.
So Aaron Zelinsky and Benjamin Johnson, a couple of Yale Law School students have it all figured out. All Alex Rodriguez is required to do is keep his lips on media’s ass for the duration, and he will save his career, reputation, baseball, the hall of fame and the American way of Life. Rooty toot fucking toot!.
The sophistry of these two know-nothings continues to remind how much trouble this country gets into by actually taking seriously the hot-air buffoonery of Yalies.
Dick the Butcher’s famous line from “Henry VI part 2 — “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. ” — comes to mind whenever over-educated mouth-pieces like this, takes it upon themselves to lecture people they know nothing about, on subjects and occupations they know even less about. For the express purpose of self-promotion.
It is outrageous for these two to promote a lunacy. As if any clear thinking person would believe that the so-called writers who fabricated wrongdoings out of whole cloth in the first place, and helped transform the Alex Rodriguez’ and Barry Bonds of the world, into scoundrels in the process, know exactly how to make it all good, and in fact will make it all good.
If only they take the advice so generously proffered by Messieurs Zelinsky and Johnson. Apologize. Supplicate. Crawl. Slither. That will make it all better and they might get voted into the Baseball Writers Hall of Fantasy. These two sound like a couple of wannabe script writers. “Just do exactly as we say and nobody will get hurt.”
Wrong answer Yale boys. Its not about steroids. It is not about cheating. It is not about baseball. It is not about saving the children and it is certainly not about integrity.
This multi-front assault on baseball players is nothing more than blatant revenge, persecution, and continued humiliation of their physical and financial betters. It is how the small and the petty, get payback on those who they do not like and wish to judge according to some credo to which only they are privy. Envy and Greed. Major League Baseball has, is, and will continue to be an institution of exclusion.
The NFL has surpassed MLB in popularity and enthusiasm. Nothing better contrasts the two more than in the philosophy in which the two sports receive members into the hall of fame. While the NFL looks for ways to enshrine their most accomplished athletes, MLB looks for ways to exclude their best.
If my life depended upon winning a series of games, I sure as hell would want to pick from a pool that included Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez rather than Charles Commisky, Cap Anson and a bunch of umpires. Under Bud Selig, the Hall of Fame threatens to devolve into baseball’s version of Augusta Country Club. And membership has little to do with accomplishment. It has to do with fulfilling some envious hack media personality’s fantasy.
Why not legalize “PEDs”? Why not take a look at the whole picture of training and conditioning and aging and the care and feeding of the body? Imagine if the MLB or some other outfit organized a team of scientists, physicans, therapists, trainers, etc. that investigated ALL the things that could improve performance AND long-term health? What if steroids or hormones or other products of modern science and industry could be prescribed, that is, judiciously applied to HELP athletes train, perform, and heal? Would that be bad? Imagine if “PEDs” could be regulated and studied as a medical supplement, and thus used intelligently–proper dosages, oversight by doctors, the works. That would end the “risk” argument, and the “but-what-about-the-high-schoolers?” argument, and the “cheating” nonsense. Then we could get back to enjoying the fookin’ BALLGAME, and, in the end, benefit from the medical improvements the industry helps generate.
So what do you say to Roy Oswalt, who’s outraged that all these years he’s played without any PED’s, and was going up against guys like A-Rod that were cheating? Get with the program, risk your long-term health, just do what needs to be done?
You tell him to deal with it, it could have been worse. He could have been a black baseball player in the 1930′s for instance…
I say, do what you feel is right for you. I’m suggesting that the very idea of “cheating” needs to be re-examined. When I consider all of the types of things a player or a team might do to win on a continuum, from the most minor, irritating edge a player might try and get, say, talking to a hitter while he’s at the plate; to the very worst, I don’t know, throwing at the head of the best hitter on the team, it occurs to me that there’s no sense to the notion that using artificial means to improving your strength, stamina and conditioning is THE cheating.
I’d ask Oswalt how he feels about pain killers, or amphetamines, or surgery, or training in a hyperbaric chamber, or at altitude, or with natural steroid supplements, or with a doctors prescription for hormonal supplements. The list of things players do –and have done– to improve their performance borders on the absurd, and again, for whatever reasons you or anyone want to use, steroids has become THE scourge.
I’d ask you to consider why? Because they’re illegal? Horseshit. Amphetamine use has been illegal for most o my adult life, and baseball teams used to keep them in jelly bean jars in the clubhouse. Why wasn’t Roy Oswalt up in arms about that? Addiction to speed, which almost always includes an addiction to downers as well; ranks as one of the most debilitating and difficult to overcome. Meth is considered THE community killer, one of the worst drugs out there. Where is the outrage over all of the records that were set in the 60′s and the 70′s by players who would not have been able to take the field without it?
I’m asking you, asking all of my readers, to consider things differently. Instead of thinking about who was cheating, ask yourself why steroids has become THE issue? If all you want to do is blame and castigate the “cheaters” then you’ve come to the wrong place.
Let’s say you were Mark McGwire’s teammate. You watched him go through four consecutive injury plagued seasons, watched him suffer, watched the team missing him. And now Mark comes to you and says that he’s found something that is helping stay strong and healthy and able to play through pain –the mantra of the pro athlete– and now he knows that he will be able to help the team win the way he’s always wanted to.
What would you tell Mark McGwire? Would you tell him that you wouldn’t want to be his teammate? You wouldn’t want him hitting 50 or 60 home runs, helping your team try and win a championship? Would you tell him that he shouldn’t do whatever he can to be the best baseball player he could, and have the kind of career HE dreams of? Would you sacrifice YOUR dreams for HIS long-term health considerations?
It’s an extremely slippery slope to say that steroids are wrong, but Tommy John surgery is OK. People die in surgery all the time. Curt Schilling helped the Red Sox win a championship in 2004 by using massive amounts of painkillers, almost ending his career, and he was lauded as a hero. Why is that?
Ask yourself who has decided what’s OK and what’s not.
So, if Oswalt decides what is right for him is not to put his health at risk, and finds himself out on the mound staring down some hulk who who is bloated and wearing a uniform that is covering up an acne-scarred back and shoulders, along with hair loss and shrunken testicles, and who had to find a new hat and pair of shoes that fit, that’s just his tough luck – is that about it?
Yeah, pretty much. Considering everyone stood idly by while this went down and these same people now refuse to take any responsibility for what happened – from Selig and the owners to the union to the players to the media – where was the outrage when it was actually happening? Where was Oswalt’s outrage when this was actually happening? He could have tried to do something to prevent it and didn’t – maybe that’s what he should be angry about.
Other Robert,
I wonder if you even read what I wrote.
Oswalt puts his health at risk by being a professional athlete. The point at which he has decided he’s willing to go to is already a personal choice, and he makes it every day. The bloated hulk you describe doesn’t exist, by the way. The whole “Bonds has a big head” angle is utter horseshit. I’ve written about that some dozen or more times, as have many others.
Being a professional athlete is to be at risk. Many ex-athletes will tell you of the damage they’ve inflicted upon themselves in pursuit of their dreams, as will most construction workers, by the way. Taking risks is part of any pursuit of excellence, and for you, or by your insinuation, Oswalt to suggest that he is harmed because one player will take greater risks than you is patently absurd. Of course some players will go farther in pursuit of their goals. Is that a surprise?
John wrote:
“The whole ‘Bonds has a big head’ angle is utter horseshit.”
Sure it is.
http://tylerc66.blogspot.com/2007/08/barry-bonds-before-after-steroids-pics.html
Speaking of Tommy John surgery, and your analogizing it to PED use, tell me how many athletes who have had it would prefer their pre-surgery physique or post-surgery physique. And now I learn from another commenter that perhaps you can get the same kind of effect you see in these pictures of Bonds from simply eating your vegetables. Another commenter wants to justify present day PED cheating by pointing to racial discrimination back in the 1930′s.
Wonderful stuff, guys.