Friday, December 14, 2007

Juiced Balls


As a fan of other sports that have been massively rocked by steroid related scandals – I find it interesting how little attention/penalty is paid to “steroid cheats” by the major American sports leagues.

In Cycling if you are even suspected of doping you are likely to have your contract terminated, if you test positive you are immediately suspended ( before a confirmation test is run on the “B” sample) and if you are found guilty you receive a minimum ban of 2 years for intentional doping. Additionally the owners of the races can at their discretion disqualify a rider or team if they feel that they are not abiding by the rules like everyone else. Yes cycling has its problems, but they have challenged them head on and hopefully they will find a solution before the sport implodes. Olympic track and field has also taken the steroid fight head on – I am not sure what benefit there is in stripping Marion Jones of her medals after the fact but they did it to Jim Thorpe, and he was only guilty of getting paid to play baseball, so there certainly is precedent.

Now as long as there has been competitive sport there have been attempts to game the system, baseball is rife with legends (true and false) of spit balls, stolen signs, corked bats etc: -- These kinds of activities always led to punishment at some level, including public shame. Just this season we heard about the undefeated patriots stealing signals early in the season. I think the steroids issue is a direct reflection of us as a people, we have moved beyond a nation of integrity, why shouldn’t our athletes cheat after all its Ok for our leaders to alter intelligence and science, pull backroom strings in the election booth and jimmy voter lists. If we accept this from our elected officials with little dispute, why are we surprised, disappointed, angry, revolted when an athlete who stands to make millions of dollars by hitting a ball 10 feet further or throwing it 2 MPH faster resorts to unnatural means to get there? I am reminded of a short story I read some 30 years ago, in which a rookie baseball player comes on the scene with the most un-athletic build and yet goes on to set HR records. Everyone loves this player and the parks are jammed with fans, more players like him show up and the records are shattered in almost every category, eventually it is discovered that these new players are aliens. Humans lose all interest in sport and the stadiums sit empty.

I don’t see how altering the human physiology with growth hormones is truly different than recruiting aliens to play – we love to marvel at the feats of our athletes and the picturesque beauty of their performances, Will Clark’s swing, Mookie Wilson legging out a triple, Tom Seaver throwing a curve, Ozzie smith playing shortstop, Ralph Kiner lofting a HR, Willie Mays chasing down a fly ball. Now one of the intrinsic things that I believe we value in sport is the ability and difficulty of comparing modern day players to the heroes of our childhood and legend. So how does Roger Clemens now look when compared to Kofax or Carlton or even Cy Young? Can you make the comparison? Does Bonds really own the HR record or should it go to “The Cream” or “The Clear”?

Think back to 1919 and the scorn leveled at a group of underpaid players who opted to take some extra money to not play their best, even players who obviously did play but were aware of the scandal were punished. Careers were destroyed and reputations besmirched. In modern times we have opted for the opposite poll, it’s OK everyone knows you are cheating as long as you don’t get caught. Now what happens when the players have been caught, it seems a clear case of hearsay evidence, with limited exception none of these players has tested positive or been found guilty in a court of law. Yet I am certain that Bud Selig will be handing down penalties, suspensions and fines based on this “new” information. The same information that has been available to him for years, that he was happy to sit on while the stadiums filled up and the revenues increased.

I think baseball needs to look to the Olympic or cycling model, adopt a stricter testing regime and harsher penalties for 1st offenders, or we should all just get used to watching aliens play baseball.