Steroids, Steroids, Everywhere

Now that the report is out, it's abundantly obvious that PEDs were a pretty common and unremarkable part of professional baseball culture in the late nineties and early years of this century. After all, most of the report's information appears to come from just two sources, former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomsky, and former Yankee strength coach Brian McNamee. Can we rationally conclude that just because these are the two that got caught, and spilled the beans, that they're the only ones (along with BALCO, of course) in all of baseball who dealt the juice? Or that the seven MVPs named in the Mitchell report make up a definitive list?

It's just as obvious that no one in baseball much cared about the presence of PEDs in clubhouses, just the way most baseball men ignored the bowls of "greenies" (uppers, speed) in many training rooms. No, let me change that. They cared plenty about what PEDs were producing on the field--so much so that they actively refused to do a damn thing about serious testing or seriously punishing players who used them. In fact, both the Commissioner's office and the players' union pretended to care about the "problem" of PEDs, and constructed an elaborate series of hand-slaps--no, hand-taps is more like it--to protect their golden-egg-laying goose from the few inquiring writers.

They acted a lot like the NCAA, an organization founded in the wake of the 1905 college football season (in which 18 players were killed) to polish the reputation of college football--and later all college sports--rather than make the game safe or clean. And like the baseball establishment in the wake of the 1919 World Series. Plenty of rumors circulated during the Series that the smart money had shifted to Cincinnati, and lots of sportswriters were convinced that the White Sox had thrown the Series. Most papers didn't want the story, however, and White Sox owner Charley Comiskey really wasn't interested in the story. The story only came out accidentally a year later, when a Chicago grand jury was investigating reports of a fixed game involving the Cubs, and one of the witnesses began to sing about the previous year's World Series.

Bill James argues that the nineteen-teens were the dirtiest decade in baseball history, in terms of gambling and thrown games, but it took the National League until 1919 to ban "Prince" Hal Chase, the well-known conduit for gamblers looking for a fix.

I've written a fair amount about fans' reaction to Barry Bonds, and just how much race plays into white fans' vilification of Bonds. The fact that PEDs were everywhere in baseball, in every clubhouse, while Bonds became the poster boy for (mostly) white fans to hate, ought to make us look a little more carefully at the Bonds affair. My blogging colleague Earl Ofari Hutchinson has nailed this--calling Bonds the "scapegoat." After all, most folks who didn't like me talking about Bonds and race, focused on what an "asshole" Bonds is. Granted. But could we please talk about Roger Clemens now? No one's ever mistaken the Rocket for a sweetheart. What about that broken bat incident with Mike Piazza that nobody has ever explained? Are we talking 'roid rage here?

At the very least, the Mitchell report should finally put a stop to all the talk about asterisks and Bonds' record. Unless someone is proposing to asterisk a decade. And I'd like to see Bud Selig's idiotic, supposedly moralistic reaction to Bonds hitting #755 replayed a few hundred times, alongside Mitchell's criticism of the Commissioner's Office.

Comments

[NURREDIN]

WHO CARES?

Since when is the use of performance enhancing drugs for athletes a national priority? With all the problems we have economically,poltically, and militarily, how is this a priority? It's just another ruse by the powers that be (both Democratic and Republican) to keep the people focused on b.s. while our economy is handed over to the Chinese, our wallets are raped, and we're hated by 95% of the people on this planet! Even though what he did is heinous, how was Michael Vick's running a dog fighting ring a priority for the F.B.I? How many agents could have been used to ferret out terrorists that were diverted to this important threat to our national security of dog fighting? The use of steroids and human growth hormone to create superior athletes is irrelevant to me! How about the same drugs being used by the C.I.A. to create "super soldiers"? Have they stopped that program, and do people want the military to stop trying to produce a superior fighting force? Sports fans are just a bunch of wanna-be losers! If you stopped watching and demanded that all the advertisers demand drug free competition maybe,maybe something might happen,but I doubt it. Too much MONEY involved and money always wins. Concentrate on making your millions and forget the dumb irrelevant stuff. What does this have to do with whether or not your 401k will be around when you need it? GET A LIFE!

[larry278]

Let's simply ban & destroy all sports record books in all sports, pro or amateurs, published before the use of 'roids & other PED's. That would stop the absurd practice of comparing the allegedly Simon Pure jocks with modern jocks. Restore the medals taken from jocks on flimsy pretexts from Jim Thorpe's era on. We will then gather to piss on Avery Brudadge's grave or on old Avery if he still lives.

[dannyS]

People hate Barry Bonds because of Racism - yeah, right.

[Fathoms]

Fine . . . Let's have a couple of decades of asterisks. I was in the house for the 62 Yankees Pennant run. Ahhhh . . . For the days when beer and cigars were performance enhancing drugs and our heroes really were supermen!

[Fathoms]

Fine . . . Let's have some Asterisk Decades. I was in the house for the 62 Yankees Pennant Run. Ahhhhhhh, For a return to the day when beer and cigars were the performance enhancing drugs of choice and our heroes really were supermen!

[rini]

My ten year old son is a baseball fanatic. I hate to have him learn about this as such a young age. However, unless we ban baseball in the house, it is unavoidable.

You know what he thinks? He thinks that steroid use is so rampant that is unfair to single out individual players. He thinks that Barry Bonds should be able to get into the hall of fame.

I guess my son has matured early.

[konopelli]

I will be fascinated to see if the folks who want Barry Bonds' head on a platter, and to strip him of his record, will be as adamant about stripping Roger Clemens of his 7 Cy Youngs.

My guess? mmmmmm...not so much!

[wrabbitt]

Baseball is on its last legs anyway,they all can take drugs, who cares our children have long since forgotten about any of them for role models, and look at their huge salarys as a joke,ever go to a game and count seats that are empty? if it wasn't for TV we wouldn't even remember that they are playing, the world series don't draw viewers like it did. can you name 5 teams? Congress could use performance enhancing drugs, maybe they could get something done.

[KikoLora]

What a waste of time! First off, is anyone who has ever been a sports fan or ever played team sports after the age of twelve surprised? Juice was everywhere when I was in high school 20 years ago, now it's a big deal!? (I did not take steroids) Second, who really cares & why has the media made this their new Anna Nicole? Besides these guys are just the thouroughbreds in the race, why isn't someone going after the billionaire owners & their giant money generating teams? Why is nobody asking about football? Jesus- look at those guys. Does anyone ask how hollywood actors really gain 35 lbs of muscle for their tough-guy roles? Do we really want to keep spending taxpayer dollars on investigating this nonsense? Does anyone believe that by castigating these sports idols we will somehow get our sons and daughters to not do steroids to get that sports scholarship? Come on. Congress has more important tasks at hand.

[NorCalNative]

Mr. Goldstein, baseball has a long history of being a mirror of American society. Because the role of professional sports in American society is primarily one of entertainment I'm troubled by an overly moral or legalistic approach to a solution for this problem.

Is the prohibition of PEDS realistic? Does prohibition prevent the use of PEDS? Can drug testing catch all chemcical substances that are known to be PEDS? Is the integrity of the sport harmed worse by a few players using PEDS or ALL players using PEDS?

It is fair to expect amateurs to play drug-free sports. Is it fair or realistic to expect professionals to be held to this standard as well? The widespread use of PEDS was good for the business of baseball.

[AMolinaro]

Baseball is boring with or without steroids, I just hope this doesn't spread into the NFL. Seriously, what would be the fun of watching whimpy little 200lb men beat the crap out of each other?

[jbcowan]

Excellent post Warren. Its about damn time that most of the sanctimonius bastards in and out of baseball can now admit WE WERE WRONG !
Sure Barry Bonds used PED's...but so did a helluva lot of others.
Mitchell's report did not even mention Sosa or McQuire, so you know that there are many, many more.
The biggest fish is of course 'The Rocket'. What an asshole. If anyone deserves an ASTERISK it is this guy. If for no other reason, he deserves his comeuppence for the Piazza beanball. Hall of Fame my ass !
Somewhere Babe Ruth is buying drinks for the house tonight.

[AdmNaismith]

I'm shocked, shocked to find that steroids are in MLB.

And I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on at Rick's Cafe!
(probably MLB, too...)

[Tremonius]

I think some are helped by today's revelation. Chuck Knobloch. He was the one who stood and jawed with the ump about not making an interference call while the runners were happily circling the bases, and this in a playoff game. Later, he forgot how to throw. What's the easiest throw in baseball? Right, the second baseman makes it. He was a second baseman for the Yankees. But he forgot how to throw to first. They put him in left field, hoping maybe he could remember where the infield was from there.

Strange. I don't know what drugs he was on, but I'd say they must've been mind-altering.

[toomuchtolose]

I'm not a sports fan, so whatever I have to say on the subject should take that into consideration. If I had been watching the news on TV and heard the talking-head say that coming up on Sports would be Bonds hitting home run number (whatever), I would stay in front of the TV, sit through all of the commercials, and wait for the replay of Bonds hitting that home run. I really didn't care if he used steroids. I assume he has some level of skill in the game that makes him better at hitting home runs. The assumption seems to be that ANY player could accomplish the same thing if that player used steroids. I find that very hard to believe. But what do I know?
I have more of a problem with the fact that some 7 foot tall basketball player is considered skilled because he can throw a basketball through a hoop that's about the height of his armpits. Why isn't there an
asterisk after his achievements? Where's the
challenge? Why don't they make him throw from his knees? I guess there's something to be said for watching a ball go through a net over and over again. But is it a big achievement if the guy is 7 feet tall? Maybe it's such an unfair advantage that he should have to play in a league of 7 foot tall players.