Baseball's Hangover

Baseball’s Hangover
An opinion piece.

As many of you awoke on New Year’s Day, you may have dealt with that groggy feeling that sometimes comes with a night of alcohol consumption and dealing with the aftermath. I hope that party went well. Sometimes things go so well that many of you may have had to purge yourself later that evening. I’m sorry if that happened to you, but maybe the good time was worth it. You will be paying for it though. Baseball is dealing with it’s own purging and hangover that a solid decade or more of steroid use and performance enhancing drugs will entail. And just like those suffering on New Year’s Day, they will also have to pay for it.

Let us start with the purging that should take place. As sad as it is, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens must go. They were both heroes of mine as I grew up and watched their Herculean efforts unfold. What made them cheat? Was it the competitive fire that burns bright and pushes men like this to the edge of reason? Was it that historic home run chase with Sammy Sosa’s chest thumping or Mark McGwire’s rendition of Paul Bunyan chopping down fastballs with his mighty axe? Was it the insult to their pride that a post peak decline would entail as they spiraled down to become “average” ballplayers? We may never know.

These men represent the best and worst of the steroids era. Yes, I know, innocent until proven guilty right? Even though we know that the human body general declines after our peak years in the late 20’s and early 30’s. Those of you that are older and had a good time on New Year’s know exactly what I am talking about. It isn’t like it was at 23 anymore is it? Bonds collected MVP after MVP award while Clemens collected Cy Young awards. These men were icons in a sport that desperately needed them after the strike of 1994. They have refused to take responsibility and have tried to maintain whatever is left of their credibility and good names by accusing, denying, and pointing fingers. And in order for baseball to move on and cleanse itself, these two icons must move on as well.

I have one other candidate that baseball should purge itself from. Mr. Bud Selig. How many people believe that Bud was oblivious to what was happening on his watch as commissioner? Yeah, I believe that as much as I believe Barry Bonds CLEARly did not know what was in the cream he was applying to his body that had magical healing and muscle building powers. Without the BALCO scandal, would Mr. Selig have even responded to this crisis or would he have continued to sit on his hands like he did for a better part of a decade? The Mitchell Report is nice and all, but came a little late in the game. Just like Bonds and Clemens, Selig has resorted to finger pointing and denial and has not taken accountability for what happened on his watch. Just like any captain that should go down with his ship, Selig too must move on in order for baseball to fully cleanse itself.

I don’t have the answers. I wish I did. I do know that when baseball faced similar problems in the past, it required a commissioner with a backbone to stand up and do what needed to be done. A. Bartlett Giamatti did not make a popular decision when he exiled Pete Rose for life, but it had to be done. Kenesaw Mountain Landis took similar action with Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other Blacksox Scandal players. They sent a message and did what was necessary. The current commissioner seems unwilling to send that message and doesn’t have the backbone to do something deemed unpopular. Sometimes inaction is worse than making an unpopular decision. Maybe he didn’t see the steroids issue coming just like Captain Smith did not see that iceberg on that fateful day in 1912. It didn’t matter, it cost Smith his ship and his life and the steroids scandal needs to cost Selig his job.

So, with the New Year ringing in with celebrations and resolutions, I have one more resolution for Major League Baseball. Hold the men accountable for these actions, including Mr. Selig. Clean up baseball and restore it’s credibility. It won’t happen under the man that bears some responsibility for what happened in this era. Baseball needs a fresh face and a strong leader to deal with this crisis. Unfortunately, that may not happen.

As baseball hopefully makes the transition to being a credible sport again, those of us that play fantasy baseball will be confronted with many dilemmas as we rate major league talent. Who was using and who wasn’t? How will it impact what we think we know about the game? My best answer is that we may never know. The scope of this was obviously much bigger than many people thought a couple of years ago. Many people wanted to call Jose Canseco a media grubbing louse, which probably is true in some respects, but he was obviously telling the truth in many cases as people turned a blind eye. Just because the source is less than savory, doesn’t mean that his information isn’t true.

The Mitchell Report was only a very small segment of Major League Baseball and did not turn over every stone as advertised. It busted a few distributors and that fishing net did, in fact, net some big fish, but there are huge sections of baseball that did not get touched as some trainers refused to talk. Just think, there is a nutrionist/trainer in every locker room trying to help men get bigger. The Mitchell Report only got a few of them.

As you approach your fantasy drafts, the best advice I can give you is to be aware of the names that have already been mentioned. Where there is smoke, there is fire. Did Andy Pettite just use it when injured? How will it affect Brian Roberts, Jose Guillen, and the many others that have been named already? We will have to wait and see. The next few years in baseball will be very telling as many players, some we don’t even suspect, cycle off of whatever they have been putting into their bodies. But baseball will live on, just as it always has. I remember a quote from Field of Dreams that I will leave you with,

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But, baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and could be again.”
-Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones)

And so, this era is forever marked, but baseball must cleanse itself and remind us all of what was once good, and could be good again.