Sit back. This could take a while.
The first major league baseball game was played on
5-4-1871, between the Cleveland Forest Cities and the Fort Wayne Kekiongas. Ft.
Wayne won, 2-0, behind the four-hit
pitching of someone names B. Williams. No, Jamie Moyer did
not take the loss.
Cheating probably began the next day.
We’re not going to spend any time here discussing
gambling or the fixing of games. Neither enhances the performance of a
ballplayer.
I guess we could say that alcohol and nicotine fall
into this category, though neither was ever banned. It was only when amphetamines
(greenies), and cocaine began to
dominate clubhouses, that baseball dealt with it.
In September 1985, a number of prominent (Lee Lacy, John
Milner, Keith Hernandez, Dale Berra, Lonnie Smth, Tim Raines, Lee Mazilli, Rod
Scurry, Dave Parker Willie Mays Aiken, Vida Blue, Enos Cabell, Jeff Leonard)
baseball players were called to testify in front of a Pittsburgh grand jury.
The subject was cocaine and greenies and all of the players were granted
immunity.
Then, the shit hit the fan.
Players testified about rampart drug use. Hernandez,
who admitted he had used cocaine for three years, said that he estimated that
40% of the active ballplayers at that time used cocaine. Raines said that he
carried a vial of coke in his uniform and redirected the angle of his slides so
he wouldn’t break the vial. And, Milner dragged in the likes of Willie Mays and Willie Stargell, saying they were two of the
players he got his greenies from.
Baseball had no idea how to handle the cocaine-era.
The Yankees Steve
Howe was suspended seven times
before he was thrown out for life, and even that was overturned. There was considerable time spent trying to
find players guilty of using it, but very litte attempt to ban it as a performance
enhancing drug.
And then, baseball turned to steroids. New words,
like Winstrol, Anadrol-50, and HGH, were added to baseball’s glossary.
Eventually, 129 ballplayers would be linked to steroids and HGH[i]
and it was getting hard to find a superstar that was clean. Baseball decided to
fight back.
In 2005, Commissioner Bud Selig was successful in
getting the MLBPA (Major League Baseball Players Association) to ban the use of
greenies (amphetamines). The
Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988[ii]
was implemented on November 18,1988 and steroids became a banned substance in
baseball. This was followed by the 1990 Anabolic Steroid Control Act. Finally,
the Baseball Hall of Fame has begun to address this problem, through an
education program entitled “Be a Superior Example, or BASE . The intention of
the program to educate teenagers and young adults about the dangers of
performance-enhancing drugs. Museum President Jeff Idelson said on 2-8-11: “We’re launching it now because
it’s taken that long to build the curriculum, the program elements, and find
the funding to launch BASE,” Idelson said. “We still need to find more funding
to sustain it, but we now have enough to launch it and keep it up and running.”
But let’s go back to 1990 when steroids were first added
to the list of banned substances.
What if a player, in 1989, went over to his doctor
and complained about something and he was prescribed a steroid. Then, 20-years
later, a reporter asks him if he had ever taken a banned substance. Naturally,
the player would say no, because in 1989, he didn’t. Next thing you know,
there’s some Balco scandal and someone finds records that this player did take
a steroid. Did anyone bother to mention it was legal when it took it? Did
anyone care?
Here’s a perfect example.
Mark McGwire was using androstendione in 1998. It
was not on the banned list so, in 1988, it was legal. Trainers considered it
more of a dietary supplement though the effect of using it was similar to
steroids. It became known as andro.
It is general knowledge that andro was widely used in baseball in the 1990s. Again, it was legal
and considered a dietary aid, though many trainers were recommending it their
star players to use to enhance their game.
The International Olympic Committee decided to ban
it in 1997 and baseball followed in 2005; however, let’s go back to 1998. Mark
McGwire hit 70 home runs that year. He also used andro which was legal for baseball players to use.
What exactly was done wrong here? Yes, the drug was
banned by baseball seven years later, but are we supposed to go back and change
the records for anyone that took a legal “dietary supplement”, sold over the
counter, and approved by the FDA?
Let’s use an analogy.
In 1984, I was arrested for a DUI, in South
Carolina. I blew a 1.0, which was the minimal illegal level in the state at the
time. Years later, the legal limit of BAC was lowered to 0.8. Does that mean
that the state can now go back and charge me all the times I would have a blood
alcohol count of 0.9?
Frankly, I wonder sometimes what the fuss is. I
mean, if you’re going to charge me $12 a beer, you better well be on something
out there.
Folks, some athletes will always do whatever it
takes to excel at their game and, if baseball teams are willing to pay someone
$20 million dollars a year, worrying about the long-term effect of some cream,
chewing gum, or ass spray isn’t going to get in the way of that paycheck.
The solution is simple. I wrote about this a few
years ago and called it ‘The Michael Vick Rule’.
Let’s lop all these infractions into one simple,
three step program. If you are a professional athlete and you violate any form
of drug or alcohol abuse, as deemed by baseball, or participate in other
aspects of negative activities like human or animal abuse, the penalties are
simple:
1st
offense – a one-year suspension from all sports activity plus loss of pay from
the team and sports endorsements.
2nd
offense – two-years
3rd
offense – lifetime suspension with no appeal process.
Done, kaput, over.
You can name this after the next asshole that breaks
a rule. Originally, I suggested Michael Vick. It could have been Plaxico Burress.
This month’s poster boy would be Ryan Braun.
Just imagine you’re a junior linebacker at Clemson
and your friends talk you into going to a titty bar in Anderson. You’re shit
faced and the dancer with the big headlights is sending the signs that she
would gladly take you home for the right amount of money and drugs. You’re just
about to put your projected second round pick in the upcoming draft up for
grabs, when one of your roommates remind you of the “Joe Blow” rule that was
implements a few years back.
You close your eyes, envision the loss of a seven
figure bonus because of one blow job, and you go back to your dorm where you
can live for another professional day.
This doesn’t work if the rules infractions are
similar to the Steve Howe fiasco of the past. No, this is like murder. You do
the crime, and you do the time, and you know this is going to happen because of
the guys banished before you.
I have no problem with a three-step penalty program.
Baseball shouldn’t either. They could even call it “three strikes and you’re out.”
2 comments:
Great essay, Mack (once again). The “3 strikes” Rule is so obvious it’s scary.
Lumping substance abuse and errant behavior in the same penalty scheme has merit too, albeit an independent set of criteria. Therein lies the conundrum: throwing your dog against the wall vs. punching out your girlfriend or some guy in a bar who taunts you for taking that 3rd strike in the NCLS; crack use vs. some prescribed ADD stimulant vs. over-the-counter stimulant(s).
And since the focus in mlb (and the Olympics) is providing a level field for competition, not necessarily long-term health, where do cortisone shots fall on the spectrum between corked bats and contacts improving eyesight to 20/15?
Conrad, trust me...
They aleady are doing the next three great drugs that aren't banned...
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