If the era of steroids and performance enhancing drugs in baseball was a movie, today would have been the closing scene. George Mitchell is no Harrison Ford staring down the President before appearing before congress at the end of Clear & Present Danger, but his speech would be the Hollywood version of the end of this story. Alas for baseball fans, the story goes on.
I mulled this story over as I read and watched footage from many and various talking heads discuss punishment and asterisks. Within minutes of the report, there were already web-polls about the future of baseball and whether the Rocket would get into the Hall of Fame. The media loves a train-wreck, doesn't it?
As fan reactions seesaw from apathy to distrust, I notice the lack of self-reflection. Who is to blame when an iconic part of society falls apart? Society is. No, you and I did not hand the players the needles, but we certainly demanded it. The wrong that is the asterisk era of baseball is too similar to the wrong that is the mortgage crisis and the illegal immigration debate. We demand and do not ask how it is provided as long as it's cheap, available or (in the case of baseball) entertaining. When the dirt piles so high that we can not ignore it any longer, we ask with feigned innocence "How did this get here?" and then seek someone to blame. It's those damn immigrants. It's the mortgage brokers. It's the oil companies. It's Barry Bonds. We dare not ask, "Is it me?"
And so, for me MLB* becomes a new symbol of our fall from grace. It is proof that we can even take the joy of baseball and the ingenuity of science and pervert it. Sin finds a way.
Oddly enough, the sinners will probably not be cast out of the garden. Perhaps some will not see paradise (Cooperstown), but it's nearly impossible to punish any of these men without turning blame back to baseball itself.
And what of my own relationship with Baseball? Will these events mark the end of my love of the game? Will Baseball be shelved along with Hockey? No. Baseball is too much a part of my makeup to walk away from now. To abandon it would be to lay all the blame on baseball and ignore my own culpability as a fan. And frankly, the "news" of this story ended years ago. We've all known that there's CHEATING (there I've said it) in baseball for years. Now, the skeletons are out in the open. Hopefully, the healing can begin.
Still, the game for me will never be the same. And, baseball must change. The people in the business of baseball must fix the sport or many of us may say enough is enough.
Say it ain't so Roger!
1 comment:
Well said. For me the report has changed nothing. Maybe that is because the only one of my Baseball hero's on that report is Caminiti and we knew about his problems a long time ago. Since there is no Biggio, Bagwell, Ryan, Utley, Howard or Rollins the report has not hit me very hard. The question I see coming out of this is ...Where are the current crop of super stars? Guys like Pujols, Ortiz, Ramierez, Cabrerra, Utley, Howard, Santana, Oswalt. These guys are the future of the game. Are they clean? I certainly hope so. Maybe MLB edited the report. Who knows? I still love baseball, it is still a part of the fiber of my being. As a die hard baseball fan I will now act like a little kid and try to deflect some scrutiny. Why is it that everyone is all over Baseball about this? Why are we not complaining about football, where is congress in the investigation of steroids in football. You can not even begin to tell me that baseball has a bigger problem than the NFL. A simple example. A 6'4" 240lbs baseball player is a freak of nature and a 6'4" 260lbs football player is expected. Convince me that the NFL does not have a very serious Performance Enhancing Drug problem. Well off my soap box. Go Stros!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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