10
2011
MLB Needs To Finally Solve The PED Issue
An article by 
As all of us grow older, the players we grew up enjoying, emulating and idolizing, have since retired leaving us nostalgic for days gone by. I remember the first time I read the back of a baseball card and found a player born the year I entered high school. Age had finally caught up to me. Sure I wasn’t ready for shuffle board at The Villages or for dinner at 3, nonetheless it hit me.
The Baseball Writers Association of America comprised of over 700 active members of the media working for newspapers, magazines and web sites, last week elected Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar to the Hall of Fame. Along with Blyleven and Alomar, former General Manager Pat Gillick, elected by the Veterans Committee, will be representing the class of 2011 for the Hall of Fame.
Over the next few years Major League Baseball will come to a crossroads where players from the “steroid era” will become eligible for the Hall. With Mark McGwire barely skimming 20% of votes, down from 22% last year, players who ended their careers clouded with accusations, insinuations and downright admissions of steroid use are making life for Hall voters less than simple.
Jayson Stark in a recent article illustrated his concern over being what he refers to as the “morality police” , when voting for the Hall.
I can understand where Stark is coming from. With the exception of actual courtroom Judges, most of us find the act of judging others to be a difficult proposition that we would do anything to avoid, yet here we are mouthing off and judging in places like this every day; ironic I know. Maybe that’s a good thing that most of us are wary of casting judgement on others. The last thing I would want is for someone to have some deep, burning, life long desire to become a judge. To me it’s a position best appointed to and not sought after.
The core of the issue is two-fold, do players who have accumulated Hall of Fame type statistics over the span of their careers have to prove themselves innocent of PED use in the minds of the BBWAA voters? Second, to what extent do PED’s have on physically enhancing the skills of a Major League Baseball player?
In the United States we are considered innocent until proven guilty, Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, and the burden of proof is on the accuser. While it is not strictly stated in our Constitution, it is however embodied in the 5th Amendment.
Now there have been those who have admitted to PED use such as McGwire and there have been others who have not but have been targets of Federal investigations involving PED distribution and lying under oath such as Bonds and Clemens.
The best way for MLB to come up with a fair and workable approach to this issue, especially when it comes to Hall of Fame voting, would be to assemble the brightest minds in Medicine – commissioned by Bud Selig – to determine to what extent PED’s have on the already existing skills of a Major League Baseball player.
While we all have speculated that steroids makes an average player good, a good player great and so on, we really haven’t had a definitive, medically supported and dissected view of this, at least not one sanctioned by MLB. The point being, not all players who have taken steroids have become Hall of Famers and not all Hall of Famers have taken steroids.
The BBWAA writers clearly would rather not be placed in a postion to judge players on issues indirectly connected to baseball. Taking drugs – whether they are PED’s or not being one of the issues. If a study can give them a somewhat difinitive answer on what effects steroids and other PED’s can have on a professional baseball player’s skill level, perhaps then the writers can vote not so much with a clear conscience but at least with the facts on their side. It’s an idea that should be explored. Unfortunately it seems like MLB has had it’s share of PED discussion and deems the current standards of player testing to be the answer to just about every question posed to them.
Here lies the great problem with that. Over the next few years we’re going to see many players become eligible for the Hall of Fame who have the PED stigma attached to them, rightly or wrongly. And like Stark mentioned in his article unless the public and the people who run the Hall of Fame are willing to accept empty podiums (i.e. empty wallets as well) then the course of action is to do nothing.
While many of us are tired of the steroid, PED talk, the fact remains that this issue isn’t going away and to remain ignorant to it or wish it away won’t change the storm that’s clearly on the horizon.
About the Author: Joe Spector
I'm just your regular Joe. Staff writer @ Metsmerizedonline.com. Happily married and a father to a baby girl. I attended my first Met game at the ripe old age of 3 where my father scored a foul ball and had it signed by Lee Mazzilli, Joe Torre and Joe Pignataro. It was my Holy Grail - 'till I buried it in the backyard. I have my own website where you can read my drivel at your leisure @ www.thespectorsector.net
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That’s why I can’t understand so many sabermetric types who argue that the steroid era is no big deal. It is a huge deal, one that MLB stood by and looked the other way while counting the cash.
If Steroid usage by Major Leaguers wasn’t such a big deal why do the players lie under oath, lie to Congress, lie to the media and the fans. If it’s no big deal why do they risk going to prison in order to continue to lie about it?
The whole tainting of the innocents is part of the reason why it IS a big deal despite what many sabermetric oriented fans would have you believe. They don’t give a rats ass about players like Mike Greenwell who lost his one and only MVP to a cheater. F**k Mike Greenwell is the attitude, he didn’t want it enough.
Mike Greenwell, now there’s a name I havent heard in over a decade. What ever happened to him? And yeah he definitely got effed over by Canseco no doubt.
What I dont get is the fact that even an ADMITTED STEROID USER AND ABUSER like Canseco, hasnt been stripped of all his awards!!!! Like they do in the Olympics!
That’s because the Olympic committee was actively attempting to root out cheating. There also was no economic advantage or unions for the Olympic committee to consider like in baseball.
The whole steroid thing brought HUGE interest back to baseball at a time when other sports were gaining in popularity and people had gotten fed up after the strike.
Baseball (like most industry) has always been run by economic interest first and foremost and their after the fact decisions frequently a cop out.
For instance they lengthen the regular season to make more money and as a result single season records get broken, so what do they do? They slap an asterik on only one player. Makes a lot of sense to me.
What happened to Bagwell this year is a disgrace. 41% of the votes for a guy who’s numbers clearly deserved to be a first ballot HOFer because he was competing against cheaters who raised his era’s numbers and devalued his own and then cast HIM under suspicion. No one deserves to be tainted by other’s cheating but then again when they all lie about it how would anyone ever know the truth.
You hear a few people talk about this injustice but IF they ever address Mike Greenwell it will just be to excuse THAT injustice.
You can’t have it both ways.
Why doesnt the baseball commisioner define clearly what the criteria is for voting? Why cant he just tell the voters all they are voting on is the stats and impact in the players era? He should say if there names make the ballot then they are worthy of HOF consideration with no prejudice. Let MLB decided who goes or doesnt go on the ballot, but once they are on the ballot they should just vote without their sanctimonious judgement calls.
That’s why the BBWAA sickens me. 13 years ago, they were all SPILLING out of the Cardinals locker room to get a quote from the greatest home run hitter since Babe Ruth, knowing full well it wasn’t completely legit. Now they can’t vote for him because what he did was wrong? The writers are just as guilty as Selig or anyone else in MLB. They knew what was going on, turned a blind eye towards it and NOW are being ever so righteous just in case their heads wind up on the chopping block.
The writers weren’t as wishy-washy in the 70′s and 80′s when the players of the 60′s and 70′s and their amphetamine-and-greenies-laden careers were on the ballots. No one said squat when Willie freakin’ Mays of all people publicly admitted to taking pills. And now PEDs are a problem?
Stark is right, it IS really difficult, and not their place, to be morality police. That’s why they weren’t before. Why start now?
You’re blaming the writers for steroids? So basically it is your assertion that the writers should have been slandering the players without evidence or basis 20 years ago instead of today? Because they should have known what was going on even though the trainers, medical staffs, coaches and managers didnt? You wanted the writers to show guts and acts as prosecuters in the 80′s and 90′s? Maybe youre just a journalism droput and you have a grudge against writers, because your argument makes no sense.
If you think the medical staffs, trainers, coaches and mangers didn’t know what was going on, I have nothing more to discuss with you.
I’m saying they did, and they were the ones who should have said somethibng not the reporters! If they had said something, believe me, the writers and reporters would have done their jobs and reported the news.
You seem to think the reporters were supposed to be prosecutorial investigators when cleary thats not what they were being paid to do. You dont understand their resentment at being lied to by players and teams, and now that they hold a grudge you want to deprive them of it.
The FBI went to the Commissioner and he did absolutely NOTHING about it.
You cannot tell me that people who were in baseball for 50 years didn’t see things that didn’t look right to them. Please, give me a break.
No it shouldn’t have been left to the “journalists” when the hierarchy of the industry stood by and looked the other way while counting the cash, but they could have. One of them could have stepped up, actually done a little “journalism” rather than hanging on every word a demi god chose to utter in their direction. But no, We heard about the baseballs were being made in Haiti now and maple bats are much harder and Camden Yards is a HR hitters delight.
The whole era was a fraud and because of looking the other way we now have these other issues because of it.
To blame only the “journalists” who would have lost their access and therefore their ability to do their job, would be wrong when the players, union, owners, medical staffs, “personal trainers” and everyone else involved in MLB including the Commissioner all looked the other way would be wrong but then again they are, or were holding themselves out to be journalists.
“To blame only the “journalists” who would have lost their access and therefore their ability to do their job, would be wrong”
T Agee said it right there.
What we think of the journalists is besides the point.
I get what you’re saying, but my point is, the writers are hypocrites because NOW they’re playing morality police. I’m not saying they should have written an expose back in 1994 about what was going on, but if they have voted in the past with no regard to PEDs, why all of a sudden are players guilty till proven innocent in their eyes?
If I can jump in on this lively discussion. I think that one reason the journalists feel they have to be some sort of moral police as you called them, is because MLB has done such a poor job of doing it themselves. That’s my opinion. I’m not saying I agree with what the journalists are doing, but I can see where they are coming from. Selig thinks he addressed this issue 4 years ago, but the truth is that he left it in limbo and something needs to be done about it as Joe Spector wrote in this blog post. Baseball left it for the journalists to decide because they didnt want to dirty their hands and do the hard work that needs to be done.
I get that, but PED use was rampant 20-30-40 years ago. It just wasn’t anabolic steroids then, it was other things. The writers turned a blind eye then, and NOW they have what to say? That’s bogus in my book. Nothing’s changed between 1970 and 2000. MLB and all involved turned a blind eye to PED use. I can’t think of any reason why the writers are all of a sudden so righteous in their beliefs. It makes no sense to me and it’s a disgrace when such things cause such a severe lack of support for guys like Larkin and Bagwell.
That is a situation created by MLB not addressing the issue that THEY knew existed. THEY are the one’s who perpetrated this fraud on their consumers.
They knew back in 1995 and did NOTHING.
I remember reading about “greenies” back in the 1970′s. That wasn’t even close to being a secret. The only similarity those two things have in common is that you have to first have the talent for them to make any difference at all. It’s like comparing apples to apes.
And again, they weren’t a secret. I read about them many times in books written about baseball and by baseball players as a twelve year old.
No one risked incarceration by lying under oath about “greenies.” They were a well known part of the game. No comparison.
I think the sophistication of the PED’s have changed dramatically X. But I’m sure the writers weigh having access with revelaing EVERYTHING they see all the time. The problem is if the league wasn’t serious about it – what is the point?
Beat writers frequently steer clear of controversial topics due to having to maintain a relationship with the people they cover. In an Industry where everyone was hiding the dirty little secret AND their very ability to do their job would be threatened, why should their self interest take a back seat to every one else’s?
It wasn’t a beat writer who exposed McGwire’s casually strewn about little helper. It was a national columnist for the AP. The focus the shifted to Sosa’s cute little bottle of Flinstone vitamins, everyone had a good laugh and life when on unchanged, unexamined. Why? access. The beat writers then ganged up on THEIR collegue. How’s that for “journalism”?
I can understand X’s claim of hypocracy to some degree but when every group within the Industry is striking out looking then how can you only complain about the one’s who’s job is TO report on the Industry who happen to be the only one’s whose livelihood would be threatend by the disclosure it becomes a little unfair.
Basses juiced no one out, Bud and the owners whiff, the union whiffs and the press whiff’s and it’s only the press’ fault. Their the only hypocrites?
Pardon me if you’ve heard this before but the Commissioner’s job is to preserve the integrity of the game. Epic catastrophic failure Bud Selig.
I understand what you’re saying X. They all knew what was going on so enough of the mamby pamby stuff. The thing is the writers are now faced with a moral(?) dilemma of having to weed out those accused and those who have admitted to PED use in HOF voting.
I agree with t agee that there was enough blame to go around and the crux of it lay in Bud Seligs hands. Money was and is the bottom line and like Sandy Alderson says “Chicks dig the longball” and they generate revenue.
The fact is MLB chose to have one of their own in Selig run the show instead of looking to a neutral person who isn’t financially tied or sympathetic to any of the teams.
The idea that Selig as Comissioner is looking to “protect” the sanctity and honor of the game is hilarious. It’s all about money.
Joe and T Agee, the issue I have with this situation is that the writers are not faced with a moral anything, as far as I’m concerned. What’s the difference between Hank Aaron admitting he was using greenies and McGwire admitting he used anabolic steroids? I get the difference in the two PEDs are vastly different, but they’re both PEDs. They both were artificial. If writers couldn’t care less 30 years ago, why are they caring now?
The only morality issue the writers are putting into question is their own, not the game’s. What does that say about writer X who voted for Nolan Ryan and won’t vote for Roger Clemens? Clemens is undoubtedly a hall of famer based on numbes alone, but if the writer doesn’t vote for Clemens because someone said he took steroids (remember, he never failed a test), how is that different from when he voted for Ryan, another guy who played in a PED era who also has no evidence of taking anything, just the era in which he played.
When the writers flip-flop sides of the story and arguments, they’re just as culpable as MLB, who didn’t care one iota those years ago and all of a sudden in 2004 decided steroids were a disgrace and started testing more strictly and punishing further those who tested positive.
You’re right insofar that the BBWAA writers seem to have selective “morality”. It seems they’re ok with inducting someone like Gaylord Perry, an admitted, caught and revered cheater to the HOF yet they have this disdain for those who stuck needles in their asses.
Nobody in this whole mess is without fault but it’s MLB and Bud Selig’s responsibility to settle this and he’s been punting the ball for years and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.
Well, Joe, I disagree with your last comment. I think things are getting much better pretty quickly with the new testing and punishments. But MLBs inattentiveness during the steroid era is causing problems now when in my mind, it shouldn’t. Goose and gander and all that.
X, I can’t believe that you are equating “greenies” provided by the medical staff, in the clubhouse that no one sought to keep a secret about when half the adult population in the US at that time were taking prescription uppers and downers left and right, and the other half taking all kinds of unprescribed substances with people sticking needles in their ass in order to build more muscle to hit the ball harder and farther then it had ever been done before.
The “greenie” culture in baseball was a reaction to the drinking culture and the expanded travel schedule. A pick me up, like 5 hour energy or red bull. To equate that with injecting substances purchased in gyms, bars and shipped over from Mexico and the DR is ridiculous. Human growth hormone (part of another human being) something Joseph Mengele would be interested in experimenting with. Steroids for use on animals. Letting (asking) your personal trainer to inject your wife. Sick s**t X.
The players reactions themselves highlight the difference between the two things. On one hand they freely talked about it, on the other hand they risked prosecution and their very freedom in order to lie about it.
Not the same thing, not even close.
On the contrary, T Agee, PEDs are PEDs. If writers can look the other way when voting on players known for greenies and amphetamines, then they’re only making themselves look foolish when deciding who took steroids and who didn’t.
Could not possibly disagree more X. Lots of people in all walks of life took the greenie. Baseball players, College students, truck drivers ect. Probably wasn’t anything more than taking a few NO DOZ. Main stream people.
I don’t know anyone that would even consider putting part of a total stranger in a syringe, injecting them self in the ass then lying to Congress and risking prosecution and loss of freedom. Not even close to the same thing.
They are about as similar as Mario Mendoza is to Barry Bonds.
Ive been following the back n forth here and I have to say that because the media looked at players taking greenies differently as players takin roids in xtreem’s opinion.
I can’t say one is equal to the other so therefore the media are making themselves look foolish now in how they view those that took roids.
They may be the same technically but the impact greenies as opposed to Roids had on the game are vastly different in my opinion. I had this discussion with Jessep I believe once and I think he may disagree with me on this but still in my opinion I just see the 2 as being vastly different.
T Agee, your point is well taken, so we’ll agree to disgree. Perhaps Bill James can invent a statistic called adjusted PED+ to normnalize the generational gap in the drugs.
That’s a good one X. I’ll bet he would at least be able to set some sort of an adjusted PED weighted back to regression threshold to produce a HOF standard. Hopefully within the next 11 months.
I’m tired of this whole steroid issue.
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