All 409 pages of the Mitchell Report are available to be viewed, and you need to skim through all of them to find the names we were all clamoring to see. There is no "list", as many hoped, but paragraphs dedicated to each player accused of wrongdoing. Among the major offenders, all the BALCO characters (Bonds, Sheffield, Giambi) appear, as well as Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. The report failed to include juicy names floating around this morning such as Albert Pujols and Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez. Aside from Manny Alexander and Brendan Donnelly, there is a startling lack of Red Sox. I'm intrigued to hear Senator Mitchell's reponse to the numerous questions directed at him for such omissions. There are several things to take in to account while reviewing the document, if you have the time. First and foremost, the findings are predicated largely on the testimony of former trainers who supplied the drugs to the athletes. Several of the players have paper trails, including checks to said trainers for large sums of money to purchase performance enhancing drugs, that pretty much seals their fate. However, there is a lack of support for several players included.
One player that I quickly followed up on was Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte. I'll be forthright in saying that my biases are difficult to hide concerning Pettitte, but take in to account the following. The alleged injections of human growth hormone administered by his personal trainer Brian McNamee occurred during the summer of 2002. MLB did not ban this substance until 2003. Therefore, he did nothing against the rules. Which brings us to the underlying issue in this "retroactive policing"; if there were no rules prohibiting the use of certain substances at the time, how can we punish players now for taking them? There's reason to believe that the drugs positively affected their performance and may leave some of their accomplishments tainted, but do we even know that for sure? It's an ethical dilemma that anyone can relate to. If there was a way for you to advance in your job that was morally questionable, yet technically by the books, would you do it? Almost everyone would say yes. Doesn't that make critics more than a little bit hypocritical?
Finally, now the question becomes, who to blame? Some will blame the players, some will blame the trainers, some will blame the coaches and executives. The report finds that everyone's to blame; one point I whole-heartedly agree on. However, I place most of the blame with greedy MLB executives. We've all KNOWN this is going on for years. The sport nearly died in 1994, and guess what saved it? The power surge of chemically enhanced Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire in 1998. If not for Victor Conte and BALCO, the startling details of the operation in "The Game of Shadows", or the increasingly accurate auto-biography "Juiced" by Jose Canseco, the MLB execs across the street on Park Ave would have never addressed this issue. Their league became flushed with cash. Revenues are soaring, attendance is through the roof, and baseball is second fiddle only to the NFL. They thrived on turning a blind eye to their problems and were hoping to ride the wave for as long as possible.
With that being said, it's not fair to put all the blame on MLB. Clearly the players who not only risked their own health, but set a poor example for America's youth, should not have gone down this path. But can you really expect some of the most competitive people in the world not to look for avenues to be more successful? Instead, I find the players union as culpable as the big wigs in Manhattan. For years they met drug testing policy with such resistance that it became impossible for any decent legislation to pass. It wasn't until 2003, when it became clear the sport needed to do something to save face, that they reached an agreement on a more stringent drug testing policy. Even then, players and trainers continued to find loopholes. Many turned to hGh, a drug undetectable by the league's testing procedures.
Sadly, there's one irrefuitble truth. No matter what laws get passed, or how sports attempt to clean themselves up, there will always be a market for athletes looking to gain a competitive advantage. That's why we think of them as super heroes. It's in their DNA. It's what makes them great. But it's also what makes them human.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Black Cloud Over Manhattan; Mitchell Report to be Revealed Today
Three hours from now, the sports world will turn its attention to midtown Manhattan where up to 80 players will be denounced for steroid use by former Congressman George Mitchell. At this point, it is tough to determine whether the list is comprised of players with failed drug tests or merely find themselves there by matter of heresay. Early reports suggest that the Yankees will suffer the greatest indignity with "several prominent players" being mentioned. Articles have already surfaced that cite a former Yankee trainer who has confirmed that Roger Clemens will appear in the report due to testimony given by the ex-employee. Herein lies one of the greatest flaws of this investigation, Clemens name will be run through the muck presumably without a failed drug test. I'm not suggesting he did not use performance enhancing substances (in fact, his body transformation would certainly provide evidence in support of these claims), but in the absence of a positive test result, the findings will have a lot of grey area. However, before getting to the more specific problems with this 20 month investigation, let's evaluate the man chosen to spearhead these efforts.
Senator Mitchell has been lauded for his superb congressional records and his knowledge of baseball certainly made him a prime candidate. But Mr. Selig, how do you possibly select a man with direct ties to an individual organization? Not only does he hold a cushy position with the Boston Red Sox, many reports suggest he is a passionate fan with strong allegiances to the ball club. I fancy myself as a man of integrity, but you better believe if I was running this thing that Derek Jeter's name would not appear on that list even if I had 10 failed drug tests in my pocket. For his sake, and the sake of the integrity of this report, there better be a fair representation of Red Sox on the list. Preliminary lists floating around the internet have pegged Jason Varitek, the Red Sox captain, as well as former Sox stars Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon. It is important to emphasize PRELIMINARY, and may not be accurate. If these hold to be true, it will give more credence to the report. However, Mitchell's ties to the Red Sox will be a tough obstacle to overcome. He's already come under fire for the announcement of Paul Byrd's abuse of hGh just prior to pitching a pivotal playoff game against the Sox. But since Selig decided to take the investigation out of "baseballs" hands and turn it over to "government", it is important to note how undemocratic this process appears to be.
First of all, where's the due process? Has every player whose been listed been notified and had a chance to plea their case before their names get sullied? What recourse will the players have to defend themselves? In the absence of a positive test, can MLB justify any suspensions or docking of pay? If this report is predicated on testimony from ex-trainers and clubhouse attendants, what if they just don't like someone in the clubhouse? Are these men of great character? Is a drug peddler like Kirk Radomski to be trusted? The findings of this report must be questioned and deemed credible beyond reasonable doubt.
The efforts of baseball to retroactively police themselves is shallow at best. It's still tough to rationalize this tremendous undertaking by Mitchell and his staff, especially given the lack of cooperation from players. Only one active player has testified before the committee, and it is widely believed he only spoke of his own drug habits. Despite one's personal feelings on steroid use, I personally despise it, it is unconscionable to hold people accountable for taking substances that weren't illegal in the sport until 2003. The executives at MLB just needed to give a "mea culpa", take all the heat for turning a blind eye to their sports perversions, and move on. Major League Baseball is flush with cash, generating over $6 billion in revenue. For them to try and become beacons of moral integrity to save face at this point is hypocritical at best, more appropriately depolorable. Let's just hope that no player is falsely accused because I sense a lot of counter-suits are in the making. Baseball should have just taken the money and run. By attempting to "take this issue head on", they will run in to a lot more problems than they can possibly solve. Bud Selig was hoping December 13, 2007 would read on baseball's epitaph as "The day the black cloud was lifted". It seems that the storm is just beginning.
Senator Mitchell has been lauded for his superb congressional records and his knowledge of baseball certainly made him a prime candidate. But Mr. Selig, how do you possibly select a man with direct ties to an individual organization? Not only does he hold a cushy position with the Boston Red Sox, many reports suggest he is a passionate fan with strong allegiances to the ball club. I fancy myself as a man of integrity, but you better believe if I was running this thing that Derek Jeter's name would not appear on that list even if I had 10 failed drug tests in my pocket. For his sake, and the sake of the integrity of this report, there better be a fair representation of Red Sox on the list. Preliminary lists floating around the internet have pegged Jason Varitek, the Red Sox captain, as well as former Sox stars Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon. It is important to emphasize PRELIMINARY, and may not be accurate. If these hold to be true, it will give more credence to the report. However, Mitchell's ties to the Red Sox will be a tough obstacle to overcome. He's already come under fire for the announcement of Paul Byrd's abuse of hGh just prior to pitching a pivotal playoff game against the Sox. But since Selig decided to take the investigation out of "baseballs" hands and turn it over to "government", it is important to note how undemocratic this process appears to be.
First of all, where's the due process? Has every player whose been listed been notified and had a chance to plea their case before their names get sullied? What recourse will the players have to defend themselves? In the absence of a positive test, can MLB justify any suspensions or docking of pay? If this report is predicated on testimony from ex-trainers and clubhouse attendants, what if they just don't like someone in the clubhouse? Are these men of great character? Is a drug peddler like Kirk Radomski to be trusted? The findings of this report must be questioned and deemed credible beyond reasonable doubt.
The efforts of baseball to retroactively police themselves is shallow at best. It's still tough to rationalize this tremendous undertaking by Mitchell and his staff, especially given the lack of cooperation from players. Only one active player has testified before the committee, and it is widely believed he only spoke of his own drug habits. Despite one's personal feelings on steroid use, I personally despise it, it is unconscionable to hold people accountable for taking substances that weren't illegal in the sport until 2003. The executives at MLB just needed to give a "mea culpa", take all the heat for turning a blind eye to their sports perversions, and move on. Major League Baseball is flush with cash, generating over $6 billion in revenue. For them to try and become beacons of moral integrity to save face at this point is hypocritical at best, more appropriately depolorable. Let's just hope that no player is falsely accused because I sense a lot of counter-suits are in the making. Baseball should have just taken the money and run. By attempting to "take this issue head on", they will run in to a lot more problems than they can possibly solve. Bud Selig was hoping December 13, 2007 would read on baseball's epitaph as "The day the black cloud was lifted". It seems that the storm is just beginning.
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