Baseball, Steroids, Bonds, and Balco

The Mitchell Report is on the way. By the time you read this, the report may be out. Undoubtedly it will show that many baseball players used steroids. Most people will be focusing on what we do now? How do we deal with the records (most obviously Barry Bonds' lifetime home run record and season home run record)? Do we strip Barry Bonds of his Most Valuable Player Awards the way Olympic medals are being stripped from track and field athletes? Do we take Pennants and World Series victories from teams if their players turn out to have been juiced?

Such questions will no doubt dominate sports talk radio. But, I believe there are more important questions to think about. I have just two. Should we really care if players used steroids? And if we do care, who is to blame for steroid use?

Baseball purists would drum Bonds and other steroid users out of the game, and the record book, on the grounds that he "cheated" by using steroids. They would at least put an asterisk after their records and names. I have talked to a few baseball writers - the people who vote on the Hall of Fame - who have told me they will never vote to put Bonds in the Hall, just as they voted against Mark McGuire, whose career stats, without the taint of steroids, would have made him a first round shoe-in last year.

But, how exactly did Bonds and these other players "cheat?"

The use of such substances was not banned by baseball when Bonds and the other juiced players started taking them. They may have been illegal, but that is surely not the test of who gets into the Hall of Fame. Every insider in baseball will admit, if pressed, that amphetamines have been rampant in baseball since the end of World War II. Most of the players caught by baseball this year for illegal substances were not busted for steroids, but for speed. We all know that Babe Ruth drank lots of beer during prohibition but no one ever thought that should stop his election to the Hall. Tony LaRussa just pleaded guilty to DUI, and the film of his arrest - with his inability to say the alphabet - is out there on the internet. This is surely embarrassing, but it won't keep him out of the Hall of Fame. Surely there are players in the record books and the Hall of Fame who smoked pot. No one is suggesting we remove the records of the great pitcher Dock Ellis, who in 1970 threw a no hitter while on LSD.

So the problem with Bonds and the other juiced up players can't be that they used an "illegal substance." It must be something else.

First, people think that steroid users are setting a bad example for our children and for younger athletes. They are poor role models. Second, people think these players "cheated" by juicing and thereby enhancing their bodies, which made them better players. Also, of course, they lied to their fans. Bonds and other suspected or admitted steroid users claim they thought they were just taking vitamins. But even the dumbest athlete (and no one has accused Bonds of being dumb) knows that your hat size does not increase from vitamins.

First, the role model issue. Isn't it time to get over the idea that athletes are role models? Too many professional athletes are college drops outs, substance abusers, rude clods, greedy snots who are rude to their fans, and just not very nice people. Nice stars, like Grant Hill or Derek Jeter, stand out because they are so rare. In fact, of course, great athletes have rarely been great role models.

Long before he juiced up Barry Bonds was a poor role model - rude, boorish, and totally hostile to those kids foolish enough to adore him. Next to Michael Vick it is hard to envision a less likeable modern sports hero. But is Bonds worse than the mean spirited, racist, and deeply vicious Ty Cobb? The drunken womanizer Mickey Mantle? The racist Dixie Walker who refused to play with Jackie Robinson? Or the Sultan of Overindulgence, Babe Ruth? Ruth ate to excess, chased women with a "Ruthian" appetite, and guzzled beer during prohibition, when it was illegal to do so. Ironically, Bonds may have used steroids before they were banned by baseball or even before they were illegal.

Now to the hard question: how exactly is it cheating to use science and medicine to enhance you skills and improve your body - especially before Major League Baseball banned steroids? Steroids made Barry Bonds stronger and perhaps gave him an edge in hitting home runs. But, as he points out, all the strength in the world does not enhance your timing or your ability to actually hit the ball. Steroids may have made great pitchers stronger and allowed to extend their careers, but the steroid did not affect control, accuracy, or the genius of knowing what to pitch when.

Steroids may have made players more physically fit, at least in the short run. But does that really taint their records? Does arthroscopic surgery taint the records of modern pitchers? What would Sandy Koufax's record look like if he had been able to get "Tommy John Surgery" on his elbow? Can we compare a modern pitcher, who wins games but never completes them, with the iron men of Walter Johnson's era who pitched till they dropped without modern medicine to repair their bodies or relief pitchers to save their arms?

Consider the great relief pitcher for the Yankees, Ryne Duren. In the 1950s and 1960s he scared batters half-to-death with a screaming fastball while wearing coke-bottle glasses. Everyone in baseball knew he drank way too much, especially before he pitched. Who in their right mind could dig his heels in and wait for the drunken, apparently half-blind speedster to throw at his head? Duren used a controlled substance - good old fashioned booze - to intimidate batters. Doc Ellis always pitched stoned on something. He recently told Sports Illustrated (July 2, 2007) that "the scariest time [in his career] was in 1973 when I tried to pitch completely sober." He couldn't get the ball over the plate as he warmed up, so "I ran to the dougout, got some greenies [amphetamines] and hot coffee, and a few minutes later I knew how to pitch again." Indeed, baseball insiders I have talked to say that the great "drug" issue of the major leagues has been "greenies" and "reds" - speed - that enabled players to make it through the long summer seasons.

Bonds and other players took steroids to be a better athletes and extend their careers. Is this any different than the men and women use plastic surgery, botox, hair dye, and other ploys to appear more youthful so they can hold-on to jobs or win promotions? Are the juice ball players really much different than the Hollywood idols with their face lifts, tummy tucks, or breast implants?

Before the Mitchell Report runs players out of baseball, and keeps Bonds out of the Hall of Fame, we should at least ask why Major League Baseball ignored the issue of steroids for so long, just as it ignored the massive use of "reds" and "greenies."

The business of baseball is entertainment. Owners love Bonds and other juiced players. They fill the stadiums. As he chased one record after another Bonds packed in the fans. He provided the thrills. If MLB really got serious about steroids there would be fewer home runs, shorter careers, and perhaps a lot less money coming into the coffers of Major League Baseball.

Follow the money. In 1992 - the pre-steroid era - total baseball revenue was about $1.2 billion. In 2006 - with steroids on everyone's mind - total revenue was just over $6 billion. (Sports Illustrated, 11/26/2007, p. 27) No wonder the owners and the commissioner turned a blind eye to Barry and the other guys who were bulking up on chemicals. All that bulking up had a very nice affect on the bottom line.

No wonder Bud Selig and his gang of owners ignored steroids for so long. It was good for business to pretend that Barry Bonds grew few a few inches in the 30s, and his hat size increased, because of some exercise routine that made him get taller and his head bigger. Thus, MLB - led (sort of) by a gutless commissioner - did virtually nothing to stop the use of steroids.

Why didn't the Players' Union step in and fight for very strict bans on steroids- to protect the members? This is one of the great mysteries of the Union. Unions are supposed to care about the health and safety of their members. But not the Players Union. The Union followed the money, just like management. The Union somehow forgot it was supposed to represent the best interest of the players. Instead, it just represented the ability of free agents and other players to make more money. In doing this, the Union encouraged players to risk their long-term health for short term, steroid induced gains. The Union encouraged a race to the bottom, not on salary, but on health and safety. There is rumor that Barry Bonds started juicing up because he was trying to keep up with and already juiced up Mark McGuire, who was beginning to look like the Pillsbury Doughboy with a bat. Had the Union taken a strong stand against steroids - even forced the owners to work hard at eliminating the problem - Barry Bonds might be headed for the Hall of Fame untainted by juice. Instead of protecting its members, the Union has fought against strict enforcement of testing for steroids and has been complicitous in harming players and the game.

So, management and labor turned a blind eye to steroids because it was good for business. Every time the ball went out of the park management and the players saw the bottom line increase. No one asked about the long-term health of the players or the game. The "integrity" of the game was about how many home runs were hit and how much the revenue increased. Meanwhile, the fans flocked to the stadiums to see the alleged cheaters knock balls out of the park. No one asked how old timers like Bonds remained strong enough to hit them. The fans wanted entertainment. Juiced up players gave them, quite literally, more bang for their buck.

Baseball is a business - it is the business of entertaining millions of fans by having incredibly gifted and talented young (and increasingly not so young) men do fabulous things with a ball, a glove, and bat. Hitting a round ball with a cylindrical bat seems to defy physics. It is the hardest sport to play and the most interesting to watch. It is a thinking fan's game and at the same time it is the game of the average Joe or Jane. Anyone can play baseball, but almost no one can play it really well. Watching great players - whether juiced or not - is an amazing treat. But for the past decade fans have flocked to see the juiced guys do even more remarkable things.

So, can we really blame it all on Barry Bonds and the other juiced up players? Soon the Mitchell report will doubtless denounce him and others for their steroid use. On December 7 he will face a court hearing for perjury, for allegedly lying to a grand jury when he denied he had used steroids.

I can't say I much like Barry Bonds. Nor do I even respect him. But, I doubt he is any worse a human being that the racist misanthrope Ty Cobb. The recent (and wonderful) biography of Joe DiMaggio (Richard Ben Cramer, Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life) paints a very ugly picture of an arrogant, stingy, greedy, and thoroughly obnoxious human being. Had people really known him he would not have been the pride of any Yankee fan. By comparison, Bonds seems almost nice. The Babe and The Mick were more charming, and more fun, and surely nicer guys. For more than 40 years they thrilled fans. But were they any better role models, as they ate and drank too much and chased far too many women?

I would love to see steroids banned from sports. They are unhealthy and physically dangerous. They are a Faustian bargain - offering immediate success for the price of an athlete's body, if not his or her soul. Worse yet, young kids who have no judgment and only see the glory of a Bonds home run are rushing to use them. In the process they are jeopardizing their health to make the team, get the college scholarship, and maybe make it to the pros. But, nothing in the Mitchell report will go to the larger societal issue of why we invest so much in sports - why national magazines like Sports Illustrated rank high school football and basketball teams and why colleges waste so much money on big time athletics. The Mitchell Report will just focus on professional baseball and a few players like Barry Bonds.

Barry Bonds is hardly the most likeable guy in sports, but he is not the worst sinner either. Nor are the other steroid users. Bonds may no longer be an American hero, and he may ultimately go to jail for his dishonesty. But, is this why as a society we are so worried about Bonds and steroids?

Perhaps our real anxiety is that far too many Americans see too much of themselves in the owners who greedily ignored steroids, in the Union that turned a blind eye to the health and safety of its members, and the players who sacrificed their bodies for a few more years in the big leagues and little bit more glory. In the end Bonds and his juiced up buddies may turn out to be just be a regular Americans trying to get ahead with whatever tools they can find, sadly risking their health for a few more bucks, while their employer and their union tacitly encouraged them to do so, and the public payed to watch it. The real reason we fear or loath Barry Bonds is because we may all be a little too much like him.

Read more news and blog posts on the Mitchell report on steroids in baseball here.

Comments

[larry278]

If baseball's fans get very irate the player's union & the lords of baseball will really work to take drugs out baseball by firing Bud Selig. If the player's union & the lords of baseball see that they can get away with the use of perfomance enhancing drugs they will fire Bud Selig. Mr Selig has failed to authorize & promote the use of advetising space on MLB uniforms too. Bud Selig has to go. Hire Alberto Gonzales as the new commissioner to clean up baseball.

[mamacat]

We used to condemn Nazis and Japanese for routinely using torture. Now our government wants to imitate those we waged a "holy crusade" to defeat.
We used to ruitinely criticise the East Germans for prescribeing drugs to their athletes for the sole purpose of giving their athletes an edge in competition with everyone else's athletes. Now we want to imitate the East German communists.
The name of the game is baseball. It is not called steroid-ball, or amphetamine-ball, and it is better that way. Are we going to start having pharmacies in the club houses? Are the best druggists going to get multi-million dollar contract offers to lure them from one team to another?
If some millionaire drug-using baseball player wants me to come to the stadium and watch him, he'd better be prepared to pay me a hefty sum. Otherwise, what's the point?

[DoctorDonut]

http://www.theweeklydonut.org/index.php/2007/12/10/remember-kids-its-good-for-the-game/

ITS FOR THE KIDS

[envirossf]

Maybe somebody will finally realize that the American public has been conned by the whole idea of calling steroids and HGH "performance enhancing drugs, PFD". As far as I know, you are not going to change into King Kong by injecting steroids and then going for a nap on the couch. You have to actually work out to receive the benefits (which reportedly are the ability to heal faster so you can work out harder and more often). The real PFD's are not only legal, but lauded by the same sports reporters, painkillers. How many times have we heard that so and so was heroic in his performance because his shoulder was hurt, but he took a shot and went back in the game to perform brilliantly. Whether football, baseball, basketball, tennis, or just about any other professional sport, this tale rings true. What does this say about us (especially since the "shot" that is most frequently administered is a combination of Lydocaine and Cortisone, which is a steroid) when we cheer for the very thing we are decrying. I don't know what is more performance enhancing than the ability to inject something that allows you to perform when you otherwise could not.
Finally, could we refuse to keep lumping professional sports together with any and all amateur sports. THEY ARE and NEVER HAVE BEEN THE SAME. All this does is allow the "for the kids" argument to trump any reasonable discussion. Professional athletes are entertainers, albeit highly skilled and trained ones, who in general, are extremely knowledgeable about their own bodies physiology. If they choose to use something to increase their abilities (regardless of whether you believe it's bad for them or not)or to stay competitive, its your choice whether to pay to watch them or not. Why is it bad to want to get an edge in sports (other than the legal issue), but good in every other profession. I can't recall the last time someone said they wouldn't see a movie because the actress had breast implants, or the actor had liposuction.

[UncleDave]

Ok Here We go again. ... Up there is The Cookie Jar. Momma says 'I'll give You a cookie IF you're a good boy.' But YOU can't resist and climb up and get a cookie and eat it. And the chocolate chips are all over your mouth and crumbs on the floor. And Momma comes in ,folds her arms and says 'Did You eat that cookie? IF You tell Me the truth,I won't be Mad.' But, You with the chips on Your mouth and the crumbs on the floor say 'No Momma I did Not eat that cookie.' And THAT is why Barry Bonds and Mike Vick got snagged. Simple.

[dragbunt]

Powerful piece. Well done. My only question is who decided 1992 is the beginning of the steroid era. The Canseco Shake goes back to 89 and Lenny Dykstra was already a balloon animal by 92.

This whole deal harkens back to Dylan's "Who Killed Davey Moore?" in which he points the finger at everyone involved in the sport of Boxing.

Our current crop of beloved sportswriters like Rick Reilly never peeped when Big Mac became inflatable or my beloved Lenny for that matter. The very same sportswriters who are shocked that cheating was going on in baseball voted Gaylord Perry, an avowed lifetime cheater, into the Hall of Fame.

Anyone who has ever played the game knows that cheating is inherrent in the sport. When Eckstein ducks a little on a high fastball on a three and one count, guess what? He's cheating a little by trying to falsely influence the call. Word count keeps me from listing all the other little dishonesties that go on in the sport.

That the American public gets their panties in a wad over Barry and not over cheating that went on in Ohio in the 2004 Presidental election is to me astonishing.

We are a pathetic culture constantly in need of scapegoats in order to avoid looking at the big picture. The big picture is is often complicated and apparently we don't like complicated.

[SkimaskBob]

Thanks for this HuffPo - this is the type of coverage, insight and discussion that needs to be happening regarding doping - the business, the law, the union, the owners and the fans. Barry definitely used steroids, but really, is it so unthinkable and terrible? And thanks to Mr. Finkleman for this piece.

[starboymikey]

Two completely separate points:

1) MLB is entertainment, a game played by grown men. It used to be called "the national passtime" because its fans (adults and especially kids) identified so closely with it. It was sold to us, initially by Walt Whitman, as something that made us uniquely American. It was thought to be character-building in some way, and team-loyalties, especially in 1950's NY where I grew up, where incredibly fierce. It waken seriously and thought to be as noble and true as Captain America. The truth is that it was never more than a game, and that few if any of the players were the heros we dreamt them to be. That was part of the grand illusion of "The American Dream."

Now, we see that coming apart before our eyes, see that the true character of these rich athletes is no better (and perhaps even worse) than our own. If our leadership is still selling the idea that we are uniquely blessed among nations, uniquely good and pure, how are the "believers" among us supposed to react at seeing their illusions stripped bare? Only pragmatic cynics like Finkleman and yes, me, look at this shit and say, "big effing deal. It's always been this way at heart."

2) A much briefer point: I thought Bonds was on trial for lying to the grand jury, not for taking steroids. The first has always been a crime, the second became one only recently.

[Johnnyblue]

A couple of points you might have missed: 1. Steroid use in baseball isn't just about bulking up, which can actually be a hindrance. Rather, steroids and HGH help players recover from injuries faster and play more games, which means more stats. Remember Rafael Palmeiro? . . . Yeah, the guy who actually was caught taking 'roids. Compare his stats to Will Clark's. Both were sweet-swinging leftie first basemen. For the 1st 10 years of their careers, their stats were comparable. While Palmeiro had more homeruns in the first 10 years, the stunning difference is the number of games in the *second* 10 years of both players' careers. Clark's # of game steadily declined (but his average didn't), while Palmeiro played a consistent 150 or so games a year. So, with very little time on the DL, he was able to amass over 500 homeruns. Do you think Palmeiro was better than Clark? I don't even think it's debatable--they were the top players of the game from '86 to '96.

2. The main reason Bonds hit so many homeruns was because of the way the league started to pitch him. I remember a game in Arizona when Buck Showalter ordered his pitcher to *walk Bonds with the bases loaded*, scoring a run in the 9th inning, bringing the Giants w/in 1 run of the lead! You just NEVER do that in baseball! That was in '98, and since then, anytime Bonds showed up with runners in scoring position, it was pretty clear what was about to happen: MAYBE he'd get one pitch to hit. The rest would be so far away from the strike zone, Bonds would never have to worry about what was coming; he could just relax and wait for his pitch. The reason most players hit homeruns is due to a technically correct swing. If your at bat is very low stress (i.e., "Oh, they're walking me again. I can relax now"), then can concentrate on that perfect swing. If you play golf, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

[jqcitizen]

OK. So "Babe" drank beer and Al Caponne went to prison for tax evasion.

When any person utters a falsehood it is a LIE.

Is Bonds lies the same as Clintons? Those lies destroyed themselves.

When Presidents, movie stars or other "Role-models" lie and GI's die that is indeed criminal.

[OkieMon]

Mickey Mantle hit the longest homerun ever...565 feet...when he weighed 175 pounds. Hitting home runs is a gift, to be able to have perfect hand-eye coordination to see and hit the ball right below its equator....steroids does nothing to improve this gift...and likely even detracts from it.

[Nommo]

Let's forget all notions of sports and purity. You want purity, watch a bunch of youngsters just playing their own game. No adults.
Let's suggest that the home run record was tainted from the beginning--how many of Ruth's dingers came from the short (290 ft.) porch in YS's right field? What if Josh Gibson got to play?

All those players who had to play in the Polo grounds, how many homers were caught in that vast outfield? Players before the sixties never had to go to Cali.
Look at the owners and the shenanigans that they have staged because the bottom line is only line that really counts. What about those careers that were hindered by the reserve clause?

Why does no one bitch about how long the seasons have become? What about the strain on
athletes that forces them to seek relief in not so legal or health beneficial means?

Ultimately, all of those players who juiced may pay for this at a point in their lives when they should be enjoying the fruits of a career in baseball. Will all you purists feel like "they got what they deserve"?

Barry Bonds has made it clear that he does not care for your likes or dislikes and somehow has managed to maintain a lot of people's more extreme attention. As if he owes you something for your curiosity or adulation.

Why does anyone think that it matters that they don't like Barry Bonds?
OJ Simpson was not convicted of murder in a court of law. Get over it.
What Michael Vick did had nothing to do with playing football. He is being raked over the coals. Surely there is something about that to make you joyous. Stop being such a grinch

[charlietuna11]

FOR THOSE THAT FIND NO PROBLEM WITH STERIODS AND OTHER FORMS OF CHEATING, I JUST WANT TO REMIND YOU THAT THE WORD FAN IS SHORT FOR FANATIC..FANS DON'T MIND PRODUCTIVE CHEATERS IF IT HELPS THE LOCAL TEAM..CHEATERS ARE LIKE THE GEORGE BUSHES OF THIS WORLD WHO ALWAYS SAY,I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG AND I PROMISE NOT TO DO IT AGAIN..

[OkieMon]

I am really more interested in whether bush and cheney are doing drugs than barry bonds.

[CitizenE]

Barry Bonds is the best baseball player I have ever seen play, and I can remember Willie Mays' basket catch in the Polo Grounds. Certainly if proven, which major league baseball never did, some accomodation should probably be made about his home run record. However, if he escapes conviction on current charges and it is never actually proven that he took steroids, whether he did so or not is irrelevant. The animus towards Bonds is so over the top, so obviously racist (I never heard Curt Schilling complain about Greg Gagne), and so much having to do with the press, the almost Jean ValJean persecution of him strikes me as a far greater crime.
The hypocrisy on this issue however is probably more easy to identify in the case of Rafael Palmeiro. Palmeiro everyone should remember, was major league baseball's poster boy for Viagra. America is obsessed by a bigger bat, so no one should be surprised since we are all looking for a performance enhancement in the bedroom that someone in professional sports might want to emulate your average Joe (say it ain't so) trying to impress his girl.