14
2013
MMO Post of the Week: The Trouble With Hemi-Roiders
An article by 
I remember a guy in the service. He was a shitbird. A shitbird is what we called guys who didn’t press their uniforms and didn’t get regular haircuts. Our unit was real big on personal hygiene and polished boots, because, well they wanted us to look neat and clean if we ever had to go kill people. I was introduced to this guy by a friend and I immediately thought “shitbird” when I saw him. A few months later I happened to see him on an operation in the desert. It was our first couple of days out in the field and we were still getting acclimated and I remember it was very hot. I finally understood what it meant when people would say, “it’s like a desert out here today.”
So I see this guy walking not far from a mess tent and he was carrying 6 MRE’s — MRE is an acronym for “meal ready to eat.” They are beyond nasty, they contain stuff like desiccated pork patties that taste how you’d imagine a pig that’s been through a wood chipper with a stack of cardboard boxes might taste after being dehydrated and cut up into patties. So I say “hi” and he stops and looks at me with this wide crazy eyes look like he’s got several lbs. of hashish duct taped to his ribs. He says, “hey what’s up man.” I say, “what’s with the MRE’s dude?” and he launches into an epic diatribe about calorie content and how they are packed with protein and nutrients and they help him gain weight (never mind that they taste like the wrong end of an ostrich).
“Why do you want to gain weight?” I ask. “Oh yeah,” he says, “I did a cycle.” A cycle, I didn’t know what that meant. “Like a bicycle?” I said imagining him trying to pedal a Schwinn over the sand dunes. “No, dude, you know steroids,” said Private Shitbird dropping his voice to a whisper and shifting his eyes back and forth like someone was listening (there was no one within 1,000 feet of us). “Yeah man, I’ve put on blah blah blah …“ he goes into this litany of weights and measurements as my eyes glazed and I began to feel dizzy from the sun. He ended with, “I can get you some.”
I looked at him and thought, some? MRE’s? Oooooh, Steroids, the injectable kind. “I’m good, I don’t really need to gain weight.” I said, still under the impression you could pop on a urine test for using. “ Aren’t you worried about getting caught?” I said, knowing this guy had already popped on a piss-test for smoking weed. “Nah,” he said. I got a Corpsman buddy at Division, he gives me a heads up, besides they don’t even pick up on that stuff. “Aahh,” I said, thinking that’s what they all say. I’d reached that point in a conversation with someone you don’t really know where you’ve run out of stuff to talk about and then you’re just looking around wondering why you’re standing in the blistering sun. “Ok well, gotta go.”
I saw this guy a couple of times after that, each time he was noticeably bigger. Then I heard about it one day after returning to Garrison, everybody heard about it. He’d rolled over onto another operation (shitbirds spent a lot of time in the desert because no one liked them) and he got bit by a rattlesnake. That wasn’t the end of it. Apparently he went into a rage after the thing bit him and he grabbed it (whereupon it bit him again) and then he tore into this poor animal with his teeth and ripped its head off. Something you might imagine from, oh I don’t know, Ozzy Osbourne on steroids.
Needless to say he needed a Medevac pronto and legend has it they even punched a breathing hole in his throat because the venom got into his mouth causing his face and throat to swell up to several times their normal size (I would have paid to see that). It was one of these stories that made it’s rounds around the barracks and you ended up hearing several different versions from several different people before the day was over, and every time it got crazier. Eventually you’d have believed he chewed his way out of a pit of vipers and they punched a hole in his throat with a Ka-Bar and a ballpoint pen. What was clear was the guy was an absolute moron, an evolutionary throw-back who should have been thrown back into the pile of discards in boot camp like some sort of mutated trout. How guys like that made it as far as they did always amazed me. Shitbird survived only to get kicked out – bad papers and all – a few months later for failing a third urinalysis, positive for THC.
Anyway, that was my first real experience with steroids. I later actually worked for a platoon sergeant who was juicing. I began to realize that while they did supposedly check for hormone levels we never heard about anyone getting busted for steroids. They called this guy “the Beef” – as in “where’s the Beef?” He would eat like six cans of tuna for lunch, plain, no bread or mayonnaise or olive oil, or even a sprinkling of paprika and dill. Just gross tuna right out of the can. He was also moody like you wouldn’t believe. One day he’d be cool with three of us being so drunk at morning formation we’d literally be falling over each other, another day he’d have the platoon digging ditches because someone got some shaving cream on one of the bathroom sinks. It kind of sucked, in fact the entire steroid thing kind of sucks.
Sure, conceding that this batch of potential MLB HOF inductees is speckled with cheaters is upsetting, even though the Hall of Fame’s rolls are littered with drunks and rogues and not very nice people, but the statistical integrity of the game is another story.
The users have made it really difficult to figure out what’s what. What does 30 homers mean? What does 40 homers mean? How dumb is Manny Ramirez? Would he bite off a rattlesnake’s head? I could totally see that actually. But getting back to statistical continuity, these roiders (incidentally if you drive a Dodge truck while juicing does that make you a hemi-roider?) … anyway, Canseco & Co. have made it really difficult to put a finger on a baseline norm for offensive performance over the past 20 years.
How many of Mark McGwire’s gargantuan blasts were the result of testosterone? How many were due to improved nutrition and training? Ever look at a suit of armor from the 1500’s? They were tiny back then — like little kid tiny. I mean if I saw one of these munchkins coming at me in a medieval forest seriously I would laugh, thinking, “is this guy for real?” right before he’d run me through with a lance (not so funny now HA!). But athletes have been getting bigger and stronger and faster with every generation so there are multiple variables at work here when you look at the ebb and flow of offensive production.
I look at my kids sometimes as they hack my wife’s Amazon account and think “evolution” right there, I can barely get into my email. The improvement in training methods and medicine is another variable. A hundred years ago a broken leg was life threatening, you could be put down, like a horse. Now-a-days they’re talking about bionic hands and total knee replacements. So guys are coming back from injuries that would have spelled curtains for them in the not so distant past. They also get paid a lot more, and don’t think that isn’t a factor, I know people who would do some crazy shit for twenty-grand let alone twenty-million. The sad truth, however, is that the roiders did skew the statistical integrity of the game. There is simply no way to tease the effects of steroids from whatever natural increases we may have seen from human progress and improved nutrition and exercise. Professional baseball players (and all of their enablers) who took it upon themselves to use performance enhancing drugs have largely taken something away from the game that we can never get back.
I don’t really care for most of these guys who didn’t make it into the HOF. Bonds was a misanthropic grouch with a persecution complex and a head that eventually generated enough gravitational pull to support small satellites (saltshakers and shot glasses and stuff like that). I know several small furry creatures that I honestly believe are smarter than Sammy Sosa.
Jose Canseco is a like a parody of himself, an embarrassment in his own time lifted from a really bad Tarantino flick. Clemens is a fat and arrogant bully who appears to be living in a world of his own fabrication where he is and always will be the greatest man ever to breath air and eat pancakes – if he even is a man – there are days when he really wonders if maybe he’s some kind of god??! So yeah, I don’t care for these knuckleheads and generally feel like they had the HOF snub coming. I’m convinced each one of these guys has a rattlesnake somewhere waiting around a bend ready to bite them in the ass.
I do, however, feel bad for Piazza and Biggio. Two stand-up players who seemed to stay clean and never really hurt anyone or said anything terribly stupid. I don’t know for sure whether Piazza used but I doubt it. He doesn’t fit the “unbelievably self-absorbed and dumb enough to bite a rattlesnake” profile.
When I think of steroid side-effects, the moodiness also comes to mind. I remember “the Beef” and how incredibly different he was when he was in a Roid-Rage. Piazza as we all know was about as laid back and even keeled as you could be – maybe to a fault. Fans used to lament that he wasn’t enough of a “leader,” that he didn’t “get in people’s faces” and that he didn’t “turn the broken bat into a Roger-Popsicle,” and that he spent too much time playing air guitar, but Mike just never struck me as a roider.
Murray Chass may go on his witch-hunt and follow Piazza and his back acne into the very gates of Hades for all I care. Who knows why, maybe a young Piazza snubbed Murray in the locker room because he had to take a leak, maybe Murray’s wife called out “oh yes, MIKE!” during an intimate moment, maybe (like Lupica and Beltran) Chass decided to demonstrate the might of his pen by randomly destroying one of the most prominent talents on the NY sports scene just for the hell of it. I don’t know and I don’t care, I don’t have any Murray Chass journalist cards the last time I checked.
It is nevertheless something of a sad travesty that guys like Biggio and Piazza got lumped in with the swollen boils on baseball’s hindquarters — those who didn’t have the presence and wherewithal not to cheat are and always will be the snake-biter shitbirds.
About the Author: Matthew Balasis
I’ve been a Met fan since August 1969 when a fire resulted in the Red Cross placing my family on the 6th floor of a building in Willets Point. I could see Shea from our balcony and I knew something big was going on. I followed them through the dark years and the resurgence of the 80’s only (sadly) to miss the fall of 86 because I was in Boot Camp. I've been serving penance ever since in Minnesota where I'm an SLP. I've written a lot about the Mets in an effort to share with my kids (and anyone else who might listen), a sporting tradition that made much of my childhood worthwhile. Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewBalasis
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 23 | 18 | .561 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 19 | .548 | 0.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.0 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 6.5 |
| Marlins | 11 | 31 | .262 | 12.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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Excellent article.
What kind of bird dont fly? – that brings back memories. I guess the real shitbird here is Chass. By the way, From what I hear, Roids are rampant in the military now and also alot of cops use them too. How does that make you feel?
I’ve heard that too … kind of sad. I guess it’s too expensive to test for specific steroids (or that’s what they say) in the military, and they just check for hormone levels. Even way back when I was in there was a lot of that stuff going around. I’ve also heard that now that they’re scaling back they may begin enforcing the ban more.
Best written post, i’ve read on MMO, In fact, best written and entertaining article i’ve read in a long while. Congrats, man. (Showing my age by not using the ‘dude’ tag!)
And, i agree on Piazza & Biggio. They deserve to be in the HOF.
The problem is today’s voters are being hypocritical in keeping guys like Biggio and Piazza out. Just because they played with a user or some reporter saw back acne? The voters are playing the morals and ethics card, which is fine for Bonds and Clemens. But it’s hypocrisy to punish someone and say they’re guilty by association without proof they did anything wrong. If the voters want to use morals as an excuse they need to look at who’s IN the Hall already. How many racists, such as Ty Cobb, are enshrined? How many voters had qualms with those morals? Racism is different from cheating? They might say. But morals are morals whether cheating, gambling, or racism. It’s time to stop punishing the innocent who deserve to be in the Hall.
Some might even say racism is worse than steroids. Steroids devalue numbers, racism devalue people. But hey Ty Cobb never took steroids so he passes the morality clause. And that’s a shame.
It begs the old question, whether it’s fair to judge the past through the lens of contemporary moral norms or whether we should try to the extent we can to judge a person’s actions through the ethics of their own time. H.L. Mencken has been accused of being a racist as he’s been judged through contemporary sensibilities, (although I always felt he was irascible to one and all). There have been reasonable arguments that his racial epithets were primarily in private correspondence and heavily influenced by alcohol, and that his published legacy is not that of a racist — in his own time he certainly would not have been considered a racist. Many (Ty Cobb for instance), should have behaved better even by their own standards, but we have to keep in mind that things have changed and we have to judge people by the norms of their own time. Most men who supported women’s suffrage would be considered sexist pigs by today’s standards. It’s not an excuse for poor behavior (Mencken should not have made those comments in any setting), still, we have to interpret actions within the moral parameters of their own historical context.
I agree to this extent…it can be fair to judge a person within their era. However, there is such a thing as right and wrong in any era. Just because your era okays devaluing and dehumanization of a minority group does not make it okay. Using what I understand your line of reasoning (I’m probably wrong, but this is what I think I hear your saying) to be…if we judge the “steroid” users in their era where everyone turned the other cheek, then there is nothing wrong with keeping them out.
My point is, the morality clause is in itself subjective. If we ignore racism because of the era, then we should ignore steroid use because of the era. As for me, if I had a vote, I would take devaluers of numbers and the game (steroid users) over devaluers of people and their rights (oh you know the racists).
It’s a really tough issue. Yes there is right and wrong in any era, but consider for instance how there were prominent abolitionists who would have been considered racists by today’s standards. Then there were individuals like Thomas Jefferson who crossed the line into “wrong in any time or context” as an unrepentant slave owner and I don’t care what his “contributions” were. Plato by today’s standards would have been considered sexist because he considered men superior to women in virtually every way, yet he was radically ahead of his time in believing women (in an ideal state) should enjoy equal footing with men. With steroids i think there were a great many who relied on steroids for years and bulked up to the point where without them they would have been different players — players like Bonds and Canseco and McGwire … they should be asterisked, banned, kept out of the HOF, and stripped of honors to the extent they can be (after the fact). Use was so widespread, however, that someone who may have used once or twice (to rehab an injury for instance) would be relatively PED free by his own time’s standards, yet by our standards he’d be a user. Is that fair? I don’t know. I say this because I’ve read comments by both ex-players and journalists that imply use was a lot more widespread (as there were a great many more casual incidental users) than fans realize. I guess the distinction I’d draw is, if steroids were a big part of your success, if you would have been a markedly different player without them, then you should not enjoy any honorifics after the fact, but it’s an agonizingly tough line to draw.
The thing that nobody seems to get is that the general talent level of the game went up. NOT just the talent of power hitters. Taking steroids made utility infielders regulars, fringe starters decent mid-rotation guys, and obviously borderline superstars mega-superstars.
With this you can assume
1. Everybody had an advantage, not just power hitters, so with the power of logic you can conclude that nobody had an advantage. This is why you can’t just penalize the power hitters and ignore the definite effect steroids had on pitchers as well. The voters are leaving piazza and bagwell off their ballots because of suspicion that they took steroids. Then they’re definitely going to vote in Maddux and Glavine. Is there any reason to believe that there is a greater chance Bagwell and piazza took steroids than Maddux and Glavine? Somebody might point to the difference in their physique, but there’s no way to know how big and strong these guys were before and after steroids. Maybe everybody was on steroids.
2. There’s so much grey area with the idea of steroids helping certain players more than others, it’s just not worth arguing over. Impossible to prove.
Your logic is flawed and not very well thought out and not supported by the evidence. Clemens and even Schilling were punished equally and received about the same percentage of votes as Bonds did.
Should have made it more clear, I meant pitchers that aren’t suspected of using steroids. That is why I used Maddux and Glavine but whatever.
Understood, but then how do you explain Schilling who not only wasn’t suspected of steroids but spoke out against steroids. With a .600 winning %, career 1.13 WHIP and one of the best post season starters in the game’s history why didn’t he pull down more than 37% in a year when they were punishing steroids users?
This wasn’t really my point… Just read it like this:
“This is why you can’t just penalize the power hitters and ignore the definite effect steroids had on (other players with different skill sets) as well.”
That’s better. This site needs an edit function lol
Your bringing u somevalid points and Hank is too….
The quandry is your trying to find a solution that only could have been solved at the time and once the cat is out of the bag your pretty much stuck with it!
No way to get it back in.
While Batters were taking Roids to hit more HRs Pitcher we see were taking them too!
Should we lower the standards of players getting in due to thier being CLEAN but having to face cheaters?
The record book is ruined already. Only way to fix it is to punish someone UNFAIRLY in order to be sure you culled everyone who could be involved.
There is NO Surgical strike or cut that can clean up and restore that record book.
The best we can do is dismiss the record book or close it starting with the year Steroids were first invented. That means Hank Aaron is the last guy tho have a HR record and anyone after that has to go in a seperate book Never to be compared to the Maris’, Ruths and Williams’ ever again.
I say close the old book and start a new one from the day testing started.
All records achieved between the old and the new are wiped out and when the Players complain say well you brought this on yourself! Either by using or voting with your union to do nothing about it’s use when you all KNEW who was and wasn’t even without testing.
I guess what I’m saying is that by our standards someone who occasionally used PED’s to help get over an injury or something is a cheat, but during the height of the steroid era they’d have been considered relatively clean.
Awesome…and Clemens rattlesnake incident was when he threw a sawed off piece of Piazza’s bat back at him
I like how all of your articles make a strong point that is relevant to the Mets, and they’re also entertaining and humorous. Thank you for writing this piece. I’ll definitely be watching for more.
great piece.
I think you may have also hit on a distinction with the Roids era. There were the “huge” LT guys (bonds, Canseco, etc.) that did it to body builder levels over a long period of time, and became all puffed up and huge. The real “rager” types.
But, there were probably also a bunch of guys that did the light weight version. Maybe something less powerful, for a much shorter time. Maybe to help recover from a specific injury, or in 1 off season only. Maybe for a definite reason then stopped, or maybe they tried and did not like.
in any case, I would guess that the light weights really outnumber the ragers, but it was the ragers that really skewed the #s for a generation, and get most of the attention. and that a lot of pitchers were in the LW category.
The difference between the light weights and most of the heavy-weights is talent.
Barry Bonds was a hall-of-famer W/O the roids
also dont forget the balls themselves were changed in the HR era..
MLB did everything possible to bring back crowds after 1994 …coincidentally…although roids were around for years before that….the jump HR didnt come until the late 90′s ( as a response to the dwindling fan attendance )
Bud Selig had his hands all over that
bonds was. but plenty of other guys that had big output years on the juice weren’t.
It just skews the results for everyone.
SideNote:
This is why i love MMO
we discuss some meaty issues with depth
while Metsblog latest article =
“David Wright to report to PSL early, which is routine for him”
( yes, they have to point out the fact that its routine for him…because u have to know that David Wright is the hardest working man on the team…so if he hits .211 in the 2nd half of absolutely meaningless games, you will have a tad more sympathy for him )
LMAO! They are going to defend that $140 mil deal to the death.
Also agreed on MMO being the best. MB has become a completely irrelevant joke.
This was the best article I’ve read on here in a very long time.
Matt
Well doesn’t it seem rather logical that if you don’t have BRAINS you shoot for more BRAWN?
There is a bit of a misnomer about Steroids that should be pointed out (not that it should justify or make condoning the use valid)
Many folks think it is the chemicals that make you stronger…But thats not really the case!
As your example showed taking the roids wasn’t the ONLY thing they did. The roids allowed them to stay in the GYM longer and more often, Thier Diet provided the remaining chemicals the roids and workout required to build the actual muscle mass.
I wonder if a test had ever been conducted that looked to see if a guy was TOLD he got roids and did as much gym work and ate raw tuna all day would he show the same results.
I bet he would!
As for the statistical integrity I really could care less about the record books I don’t need something that happened 20 years ago to have a conversation on baseball to pass the time.
I go to the games to see what happened today not to compare what happened today to compare with 20 years ago.
The record book belongs to the players and if they want to ruin it and make it meaningless it’s thier loss!
The second we stop holding it up as the thing that will immortalize a player and the second re stop rewarding with money those who get close to those records the sooner you will get Roids out of the game!
Men used to have to die in a glorious battle to be immortalized….
Now they drink some lousy tasting milk shake or get a needle in the ass to become a legend…
Lets stop immortalizing them and ignore the record book they ruined, ban them from baseball or keep them OUT of those record books and the practice will stop!
Very entertaining read. I look forward to reading more of your stuff.
Just let them all in, it’s about statistics that get you in the Hall, not character. If so racists like Gehrig, Cobb, & others should not have been allowed in. It still hasn’t been proven that any of these PHD’s provide you with the skill level to pitch or hit a baseball. But Raines, Morris, Blyleven, McGriff, Murphy & others should be in also!
Random question / Argument.
Are pain numbing medications considered performance enhancing?
For example, Curt Schillings bloody sock game. The sock was clearly bloody because they had shot the ankle up with some sort of numbing/ pain killing medication. If he doesn’t get the injection then is he able to pitch that night? And isn’t this similar to the argument against steroids. A drug helping you achieve what your natural body could not achieve?
Yep, & greenies have been around a lot longer than steroids.
Great and entertaining article. Enjoyed immensely.
Hi Matt,
“The users have made it really difficult to figure out what’s what. What does 30 homers mean? What does 40 homers mean? How dumb is Manny Ramirez? Would he bite off a rattlesnake’s head? I could totally see that actually. But getting back to statistical continuity, these roiders (incidentally if you drive a Dodge truck while juicing does that make you a hemi-roider?) … anyway, Canseco & Co. have made it really difficult to put a finger on a baseline norm for offensive performance over the past 20 years.
“How many of Mark McGwire’s gargantuan blasts were the result of testosterone? How many were due to improved nutrition and training? Ever look at a suit of armor from the 1500’s? They were tiny back then — like little kid tiny.”
- That sums it up perfectly. Though the argument can be said that those of different eras had advantages over other (expansion years, the 1930 lively ball, dead ball era, smaller ballparks, development of the slider, travel, etc.) so records are hard to quantify, that is mixing apples and oranges. There are some things that are humanly impossible to do.
That’s a really valid point, the live ball and dead ball eras did skew statistical milestones, (some argue that amphetamines also had a big impact) however the degree to which the numbers exploded during the steroid era was (i believe) unprecedented. What’s true with both “shifts” is that the owners meddled with the game’s statistical integrity to line their pockets. I mean they clearly turned a blind eye to the rampant use of PED’s, now these same guys (starting with Selig) are supposedly on this lofty campaign to rid the game of steroids? It’s the height of hypocrisy.
HI Neek,
Yeah, that’s what really upsets me – the records.
Since the Olympics and even of late college football have stripped individuals of their records, I think those of that era can retain their individual totals for their own personal records but not have them appear on the seaton or career record books, i.e., Bonds keeps his 762 home runs in his own personal record but return the career record to Hank Aaron. Also from that list eliminate even Alex Rodriguez since we know some of his home runs had to be tainted and that is the not so much meant to be a form of punishment as it is simply the result of his own actions.
The Hall of Fame is a different issue and I think because of their actions whatever occurs they brought that upon themselves.
I honestly believe, however, that it’s the players taking the hit. They deserve it but the owners have no records to strip them of. So it’s up to the public to condemn the executives who turned a blind eye as well, and that includes Sandy Alderson, Omar Minya, Bobby Valentine and other Mets because their actions too brought that humiliation upon themselves. If anything, I think those executives should be the ones punhished most. Like Sandy, they all hide behind that there was nothing they could do because it wasn’t illegal against baseball’s bylaws.
T
“So it’s up to the public to condemn the executives who turned a blind eye as well, and that includes Sandy Alderson, Omar Minya, Bobby Valentine and other Mets because their actions too brought that humiliation upon themselves. If anything, I think those executives should be the ones punhished most. Like Sandy, they all hide behind that there was nothing they could do because it wasn’t illegal against baseball’s bylaws.”
Joe,
I could not agree more, in fact you could argue ruining baseball’s numbers game still amounts to messing up a pastime for grown-ups, whereas on the ugly end of steroids spectrum you have the likes of Caminiti and Alzado — ruined lives and absent family members. Not really the same. These guys were used as guinea pigs to boost gate proceeds. Also, lets wait and see what happens to guys like Bonds and Clemmens as they age, I suspect they won’t have the same trajectory as most of us.
Here’s a quote:
http://news.healingwell.com/?p=news1&id=521728
“One, steroid use raises blood pressure,” she said. “Two, it can also alter your sugar metabolism, so you have an increased risk of diabetes. Three, it makes the arteries vulnerable since, because of elevated cholesterol, you get cholesterol plaque buildup.”
Steroid abuse can also cause a dangerous thickening of heart muscle called hypertrophy — the same kind of heart-muscle enlargement seen in patients with congestive heart failure, experts warn.
“By revving the heart up with steroids, making it grow bigger, and then taking those steroids away, you end up with a heart muscle that’s enlarging and then contracting. It’s like putting [pitching great] Roger Clemens’ arm in a sling and then telling him to pitch,” explained Dr. Eric Braverman, a New York City doctor who has counseled numerous pro athletes on steroid abuse and other medical issues.”
Finally, for every major league player who used, how many unheard-of’s toiled in obscurity and desperately shot up in motel rooms in b-list cities only to be diagnosed with brain tumors or heart disease or diabetes 10 or 15 years later? It amounts to ownership creating an unsafe environment for young impressionable players coming up through a system. If you’re a factory owner and you willfully create an unsafe environment for your workers and they end up getting hurt you can be hauled off to jail if I’m not mistaken.
Hi Matt,
Outstanding point, one I just forgot about but had not overlooked. I brought up Lyle Alzaio myself about a week or so ago on another thread.
Yes, pehaps those on top can’t be condemened for what happened to the early users but by the time they saw enough players to have their “suspicions” and still did nothing about it they certainly will have to deal with that with their consciences and the blood on their hands.
Even if let’s say they talked to the team about the harmful effects of steroids and that was all – that in itself would not be enough to get them off the hook. But somehow, between you and I, I think they will deny their own personal responsibility in this – like it’s not the guns or bullets that kill but people….
“These guys were used as guinea pigs to boost gate proceeds”
But Matt has there ever been even ONE case where the player said the “TEAM made us use the PEDS to boost performance”?
If there was even ONE case like that we would have heard about it long before now!
Did they turn a blind eye towards it? YES! And so did a lot of other people…A List that includes the PRESS, The Players, The Agents, and The MLBPA!
It wasn’t until the last MLBPA strike that Congress used the loss of the leverage MLB had with the union (anti-trust exemption) to put the gun to the league’s head as far as cleaning up the sport. And that was years ago yet in all that time we are just NOW going to start testing for HGH wich is the thing McGwire was known to have used.
The blame here falls squarely on the Players and thier union. They have made it impossible to clean up the sport even AFTER the Owners and Congress decided it was important to do.
And not because of the extra turns at the turnstiles but because it’s the difference between getting paid 7 Mil and 17 Mil.
Hi Metsie,
Have to disagree on this one, friend. You are right, there was nothing the owners could have done officially – but at the least owner’s reps could have met with the Players Union to express their concerns – even if they knew it was going to be futile. Haven’t found anything on line that they addressed the issue any more than just asking some players if they were juicing it.
And the owners didn’t begin acting on their own accord – it was the public outcry that caused them to react – and for Congress to then jump on the bandwagon to grandstand themselves.
This does not let the players off the hook for their actions – it’s just not meant to let the executives and managers off the hook for their own indifference.
“but at the least owner’s reps could have met with the Players Union to express their concerns ”
But Joey thats the problem…THEY DID MEET! Twice for two seperate CBAs since the crackdown started and the Union flat out refused!
Two CBAs have been signed (Maybe a third I’m missing) and THIS is the first year the union has allowed HGH testing….
Hi Metsie,
That’s the point – “since” the crackdown. It’s not as if they initiated anything of their own free will. After that, yes, the Players Union completely, not the owners. But that doesn’t let them off the hook for not trying to at least attempt to take measures to stop it.
Of the media that turned a blind-eye to it, I think the worst culprit was ESPN that tried capitilzing on Bonds chasing Aaron for all they could get. I’m not talking about airing the games, but the relentless marketing that went on with it.
Joey what difference does it make WHY they started the conversation?
If they had done it on thier own (nearly 10 years ago now) would have made the players agree to it any sooner than NOW?
NOPE!
Takes two to make an agreement and regardless of WHEN the negotiations started the side that REFUSED to comply would have refused no matter WHO or WHAT made the owners decide to work on it.
They could have tried to get testing 30 years ago if the players refused it was never going to happen!
Hi Metsie,
To me, the question is not so much “why” as it “when” the owners tried to initiated some sort of dialogue. If they didn’t make an attempt as their suspicions were growing, they are as complicit as the ones who were taking it. I know, everyone is complicit in this thing and that is why even Mike Piazza is suffering for it today.
The players deserve the humiliation they are getting – just that the executives deserve a lot of the blame themselves. I’m not saying that the executives could have protected the players for they could not and, as we know – it’s just that they had no desire to restrain the players either.
Bottom line, it’s a moral question of hypocricy and not a legal one in my mind.
If they had tried to get it done the second it started uld it matter if the players refused until now?
Talking till your blue in the face of a partner who REFUSES to listen doesn’t mean when you started is something to be blamed over….
They could have started and said 50 years ago you can’t take drugs to get better….
There were ALREADY RULES about using a foregn substance to gain a competitive edge…
THOSE are the rules that were broken!
How can you stop someone from using somthing if you can’t get them to let you test them?
Lets for a second say the Owners HATED the use and wanted to stop it….
How do they do it?
Just suspend anyone who hits more than 40HRs because thats seems high and MIGHT be chemically induced?
Even if they wanted to do something they could not and for that reason they decided not to even try….Collect the money and let Nature put an early end the career of those who cheated.
You can’t blame the owners for not recognizing it as a problem before anyone else did.
But you SHOULD blame the folks who refuse to solve it for the last 15 years EVERYONE but them admitted it WAS a problem.
And who is paying the highest price?
Those players who refused to nip it in the bud, Not the owner not even the fans….
There isn’t an owner or fan that will be put in the record books, lose a record in it, Or be denied entry into the Hall over the use of Roids…..
The Players are the ones who REALLY suffer as they SHOULD!
They screwed up their Records, the integrity of thier accomplishments, their teamates ability to earn a decent living and stay in the MLB and thier own personal long time health!
And they deserve it!
Cause they started this whole mess no one else did!
Hi Metsie,
I’m just saying they were just as complicite in the situation as the players. Hey, if we can get a copy of some audio tape with them addressing the players in the clubhouse about the dangers of steroids, if nothing else for me that would take them off the hook.
Let’s face it, they all did us a diservice, though maybe not realzing it at the time.
Just to sum up for both you and Matt…..
When push comes to shove it was the players deciding to USE that made the issue and issue….
You can’t put the blame on the owners for not recognizing it soon enough and certainly can’t blame them for the lack of ability to stop it.
If the players had not USED then no one would have needed to recognize, act or say a thing and the record book and Hall Status would be left intact.
The players started it all! And if they hadn’t there would be no issue to act on PERIOD!
Metsie,
On this issue they were on the same side (the PA and MLB) because they were both making out like bandits, but that shouldn’t let the Owners off the hook. They are at least partially negligent/culpable (as employers) because while we don’t have a transcript of those CBA negotiations in question, I HIGHLY suspect the issue was not on anyone’s priority list. Ownership has a responsibility to it’s employees to provide a safe working environment. If you own a company and the workers are OK with working triple shifts because they love the triple overtime (even though the rate of accidents quadruples on those shifts) its up to you to do what’s right and ban the third consecutive shift in your employees’ best interests. If I’m a 17 year old out of the Dominican and Sammy Sosa is telling me I should shoot this stuff into my veins and I’ll make millions, I’d probably do it too. The tragedy occurred and was perpetuated because on this issue PA interests and MLB interests were aligned. They are both to blame (the players perhaps more so for resisting), but ownership showed their true colors in not looking out for anything but the almighty dollar — unscrupulous to the last penny.
They were not REALLY on the same side….They both benefitted from it but not a single owner spiked thier drinks, injected thier blood, or refused to do testing.
Yes they made money at the gate, Money they HAD to make to pay the players who demanded more money in pay because they now hit 70 HRs instead of just 40 thanks to a chemical boost.
Fans benefitted just as much are they to blame?
For the price of a ticket they got to see twice as many HRs, Enhanced Pitching etc etc…Are they as much to blame as the owners in this regard?
They profited not in money but in excitement and in seeing players play like Hall of Famers despite the fact it was chemically driven.
The fans realized it was bad first, Congress second, Owners third, and just this year the MLBPA has FINALLY allowed HGH testing which is what McGwire used and started this whole ROID BANNING ball rolling….
How long ago was that and how can you blame the owners for something they didn’t introduce, didn’t PERPETUATE, Fought against for the last 10-15 years and were fought tooth and nail by a Union who cared less for the record books and the health of it’s membership than it did about Agent commissions and higher payroll?
Everyone got something out of this except some players in a book many of whom have long since died and probably would STILL have thier records if Steroids was available back when they played.
The blame should fall SQUARELY on the Players and no one else!
Followed by the Union and the Press who covered it up and did everything to keep it hidden.
Then the owners for not caring if a guy killed himself and ruined his place in history (both) in the name of money….
Metsie,
You make some good points, and while I (begrudgingly) agree that the players shoulder most of the blame, I’d say ownership comes in a close second. Here’s a quote from the Albany Law Review:
“To illustrate, in his 2005 groundbreaking tell-all book Juiced, former MLB MVP and admitted steroid user Jose Canseco recounts how MLB allowed steroid-infused homerun hitters to resuscitate the game. (48) It was at this time, according to Canseco, when the game was experiencing a renaissance thanks to the power surge, that baseball’s leadership “made a tacit decision not only to tolerate steroid use, but actually to pretend it didn’t exist among baseball players” (49) MLB players have long been known to keep their teammates’ legal indiscretions under wraps. (50) It’s just that this time around, the owners and league officials were in on it too.
Call it willful blindness or conscious ignorance, MLB exemplified an unmistakably “laissez-faire” approach towards steroid use during the homerun era. (51) It is easy to understand why. The league had become more popular than ever before, and there wasn’t anyone affiliated with the game who wanted to risk derailing the momentum. (52)
At best, it seems MLB is guilty of turning a blind eye while players cheated their way into the record books. (53) At worst, they are guilty of protecting, (54) and in some instances, even promoting the use of performance-enhancing drugs. (55)
In the Mitchell Report, Senator Mitchell defends MLB’s inaction by noting that after the work stoppage of 1994, pressing bargaining issues persisted, and this is why “the use of steroids and other illegal performance enhancing substances in professional baseball received a lower priority than economic matters.” (56) The Senator’s assessment seems most generous though, considering that any attempts by MLB to curtail steroid use have come only on the heels of pressure from Congress, the FBI, and the media. (57)
In sum, it is not known whether there were ever secret meetings or memos where owners and league officials expressly agreed amongst themselves to allow steroid use to continue for the good of the game. But, in light of what is known, it seems clear that a tacit agreement crystallized over time, embodied by a collective silence and general reluctance to disturb the steroid-enhanced status quo. Steroid use in baseball may have indeed been a fortuitous accident, but it was one the league was happy to suffer for the better part of a decade.”
It’s a remarkable argument calling for a class action lawsuit for lost wages on the part of minor league players who didn’t use PED’s. Amazingly (according to the author Jonathan Gillerman), the premise is sound and and the argument is valid in that the “unspoken agreement” to turn a blind eye to steroids constituted an unreasonable restraint on commerce … unfortunately it would require evidence that the plaintiffs in the suit did NOT use PED’s and that is virtually impossible to produce. Also, the “willful blindness” argument is an extraordinarily difficult one to prove as Wilpon’s lawyers successfully argued not too long ago.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Calling+their+shots%3A+miffed+minor+leaguers,+the+steroid+scandal,+and…-a0226046763
“the Press who covered it up and did everything to keep it hidden.”
Excellent point — and many of these same guys are now electing to keep these players (who gave them their material for years) out of the HOF — talk about hypocrisy.
“Call it willful blindness or conscious ignorance, MLB exemplified an unmistakably “laissez-faire” approach towards steroid use during the homerun era.”
As did the rest of the planet as well….
Thats the problem here….
No one had a real problem with it until it dawned on them that OTHER things that ARE important to them was the price you had to pay to get it.
The Fans are to blame for inspiring people to hit more HRs in order for them to spend thier money….We are the ones who GAVE THE BENEFITS to the owner and as a result the players.
We WANTED to see more HRs and they gave us what we wanted.
If there were ZERO detrimental medical issues associated with Steroids we would not care ONE BIT about them no more than we care that they spend half thier day in the weight room now to get what ACTUALLY makes them stronger and Roids just lets them do more of to get the results WE want to see.
There is really NO ONE bereft of blame here….
Us for being so shallow that we value Athletic accomplishment more than competition…
Owners for being willing to give us what we want if it means they make more money
Press for hiding the issue until it became a story that they could write about and sell papers
And Players for pushing a record book and ruining thier legacy all for the goal of making a few million more of our dollars.
We drive cars now that are killing us with emissions when Horses used to be the way to get from point A to point B.
We always look for the easy path instead of the EARNED one…
They paid a price, We paid a price and we should just call it a lesson learned and get over it.
Everyone is to blame….
In you story I didn’t notice anyone seemigly willing to expose the guy on roids and get him listed as inactive…..
Why is that?
Because most people don’t really care if a guy is killing himself provided what he does might be a benefit to them….
Thats what happened with the Owners the Press and even many fans.
Maybe we should just blame the doctors for making them in the first place.
“and many of these same guys are now electing to keep these players (who gave them their material for years) out of the HOF ”
For the same reason they didn’t say anything before….
Because it is in thier own interests to do so now Where before having access to a 70 HR hitter was more important than the fact he cheated to get them.
We all act out of our own self interest and I can’t blame the Owners who at least got it right before the players did and had to fight tooth and nail and through 2 or 3 CBAs to get the testing we are only getting starting this year!
Metsie your argument would be stronger if there were indications that Owners made a real effort to root out steroids, on the contrary they not only tolerated them they all but sanctioned them for years and years. Claiming that they pushed for testing during CBA negotiations is a straw man argument — ownership didn’t really want it & they knew the PA would resist them and so were more than willing to let it go each time. In practice they did nothing to prevent the systematic and widespread abuse of PED’s because they were profiting immensely from it.
Who COMMITTED the crime though?
You want to blame the guy who failed to call the cops more than the guy who robbed the bank?
I mean really there is no ACTION they would need to take if the crime had not been committed at all!
Just because they were slow to react to bad behavior doesn’t make them more to blame than those who DID the bad things….
Owners are no more at fault than the Press who KNEW it was being done (not all owners knew as quickly as the press did).
So on the blame scale the owners don’t even make second place in my book.
it goes
PLAYERS
PRESS
OWNERS
and then us Fans who fell for the performance and didn’t care until we realized they were going to be banned and the record book we love to cite and HOF we love to gush over was in jeopardy.
Hi Metsie,
Perhaps it appears as I am blaming the owners more right now but that is only in reaction to the current focus being mostly on the players. I found the public statement made by Selig, avoiding the subject all together came across as thinking we were stupid. And the sports writers are only now getting their share of criticism for keeping such a story under wraps.
I bet if the public wasn’t so upset, we’d see Bonds, McGwire, Clemens and others already in the Hall and the politicians just going on with their other BS. And more important, teenage athletes would be juicing themselves up even more than they do already – thanks today to the Braun’s of the world.
To me, it really doesn’t matter who, what or when – they were all in on it and they all share the blame. Isn’t that what matters?
“that is only in reaction to the current focus being mostly on the players”
Well they commited the crime without any pushing or encouragement fom ANYONE but themselves and thier Agent….
They DESERVE the focus way more than any other person whose BIGGEST crime is not saying something and looking the other way!
Well, consider if you will the proposed class action lawsuit, the charges are that Ownership’s “willful blindness or conscious ignorance” constituted an unreasonable restraint on commerce — that is to say, owners created an environment (whether they meant to or not is almost irrelevant because as owners they are RESPONSIBLE for their work environment) where young minor league players had to break the law in order to advance and succeed. This constitutes an unreasonable demand on commerce — the freedom to do business, to ply a good or service (or talent in the case of ballplayers) for monetary gain. Consider also that if there were a way for these players (many of whom lost the chance at major league careers) to prove that they did NOT use, they’d actually have a case. So clearly there is some culpability on the part of Ownership even if its more in line with willful negligence charges in a federal civil proceeding. I’m not saying the players aren’t the ones mostly to blame, they are (we agree on that), just saying ownership definitely played a roll and should by no means get off scott free if we’re going to dish out blame.
Thats not a case anyone is going to win….
It’s about as rediculous as saying a guy comes to work on speed and because he works faster than everyone else the Owner is at fault for paying people based on how much they get done and as a result it forces everyone else into doing speed to keep up with what some drug user got paid.
Could the owners have weeded out the Users at the time?
NOPE!
And you can’t fire or suspend someone let alobe VOID a contract without proof and based solely on suspicion.
EVen if the MLB tested with all the tests they USED last year MCGwire still would not have faced any penalty or tested positive because what HE used was not allowed to be tested for until this UPCOMING season.
The PLAYERS forced those kids in the Minors to use because guys who should NOT have stayed in the MLB did stay due to thier use of an illegal substance….
ANY VICTIM you can point to was VICTIMIZED by the players that used not the owners.
All the owners are guilty of is shelling out money based on performance and they could tell what performance was real or false because they COULD NOT TEST even if they wanted to!
Now put the shoe on your foot…..
Someone comes into where you work and smokes pot…Causes an accident…
Should your boss fire you for smoking Pot without a test to prove you did? Merely because someone says He Smokes too!
You ready to pee on a stick and let them test for drugs, alcohol and maybe fire you?
Say your the boss in that scenario…A Guy gets drunk and kills someone at your workplace…
He’s forgiven but your prosecuted for not enforcing a safe enviornment because HIS UNION refused to allow testing of it’s memebers…
That fair?
How about a workplace where the “unwritten rule” is you have to do this illegal thing in order to get ahead, and the owner knows about it and does nothing to stop the practice because he’s making money from it? Would you want your kid working at such a place? Would you blame the owner or the workers? Or both? Again, not saying the players aren’t mostly to blame, but the owners KNEW about it and were making tons of money from it. If you can convince me that they really did their all to stop the practice you have yourself an argument. But saying they proposed some testing at some CBA negotiations is a straw man, they never really wanted testing and dropped the proposals at the first sign of resistance. They only really implemented real changes and real testing when the govt. & FBI connected MLB to major suppliers and pressured ownership make substantive changes & institute testing.
I think we’re going in circles. Bottom line is yes the players are mostly to blame but ownership is complicit in allowing it to fester under their watch. There are shades of culpability and blame that we can go on forever about but unless you can show that ownership really did their utmost to institute testing (the general consensus by most experts is they did not — ownership knew about it for years — they could have contacted the FBI but they didn’t) we’ve reached an unprovable premise.
“How about a workplace where the “unwritten rule” is you have to do this illegal thing in order to get ahead”
They did not force a single player touse Mayy…No more than your superior in the Military said use or else…
The key point here is even if there WAS an owner who wanted it stopped he could not stop it at all.
Because he couldn’t test anyone to see if they were using. So they couldn’t stop it even if they wanted to. and what do you do when there is nothing you can do? Look the other way….
They could have stopped it if they really wanted to. They could have informed the authorities and brought the Govt. in and then the PA would have had no choice. The media could have stopped it too for that matter. Instead the FBI was led to MLB through their own criminal investigations and a chain of suppliers.
Say I own a factory that makes widgets and I find out there’s rampant abuse of cocain among 2nd and 3rd shifters pulling overtime and double overtime, and say that while my productivity is skyrocketing I’ve got guys losing hands on the widget conveyor belt (but the workers don’t care because they love the overtime pay & are willing to take their chances), Do I bring in the cops and bust the cocain ring even though it means I lose money and good workers? Yes, Why? Because I don’t want to explain to someone’s parents why I allowed their kid to lose a hand working a third consecutive shift on cocain. It’s all about prior knowledge and it’s clear the owners knew. I think there was a Taxi episode about this exact thing where Bobby was using speed and he became Louie’s favorite driver because he was working all these back to back shifts but eventually he crashed his cab.
Matt as recent vents have proved the cops aren’teven allowed to stop and frisk you without something called REASONABLE CAUSE….
And to this day they can’t even take a blood sample from you without your permission nor can they do any chemical analysis of any bodily fluid without a warrant. And you don’t get a Warrant to search some guy because he hit 40 HRs last year it just doesn’t happen.
So no the Owners could not have called the feds, given any proof that would constitute REASONABLE CAUSE nor could they steal samples to test from thier players to get it.
And thats because of the UNION made up of PLAYERS not because the Owners failed to act they were prohibited from acting because they had ZERO RECOURSE to act!
What your suggesting here is that YOU should be held accountable for not outing the guy and commander of your unit for using…..
Is this really how you propose to solve the problem?
Prosecute the Witness who couldn’t stop the use and not the Perpetrator who used?
I think if the owners had taken any type of measures to at least get try to get through to the players that it wasn’t in their own best interests to take the stuff then we would get off the owner’s backs a bit more. One shouldn’t have stopped with just asking a player like Sandy said he did.
There were many small moves they could have at least attempted to show they were sincere which we have not heard a peep on which I think executives would try to exploit to show MLB made an attempt – even a half-hearted one -to address the situation instead of exploiting it for them own selves. Team sessions with the mangers, coaches and players with an expert addressing them on the dangers of taking such drugs would have at least looked good in the press. Not just on the major league level but heavily in the minor league chain. And for the parent club hitting them hard with how it could counter-effect the Derek Jeters and their “just say no” commercials with the youth.
No, saying there was nothing they could about it because it was not a banned substance in baseball is nothing more than hiding behind a set of bylaws. Again, if they had taken some small steps to urge players to stop it – even just with the suggestions which I don’t think anyone would be naive enough to think would have any impact – the owners could have covered their own rear-ends in this matter.
What measure couldthey take Joey?
PLEASE either you or Matt say what they could have done…
Could they test to stop players from using? NO!
They barely have testing now and only this year will actually be able to suspend someone for HGH…
Perhaps they were supposed to hire someone to follow each player around even into thier house and bedroom (where Clemons got juiced) and test every substance that came within 5 feet of thier body?
Is that or something like it the MEASURES you and Matt propose they SHOULD have done and because they didn’t are to BLAME?
Be realistic here….
If I knew you were snorting an ounce of coke an hour and I was concerned about you hanging around my kids there is nothing I could do to stop you, or expose you…Even if I called the cops they could not get a search warrant based on my testimony that I say you did drugs.
So there was nothing the Owners could do to stop the practice and since there was no course of action they looked the other way instead and took the money because they needed it to pay the players who had inflated stats thanks to their use of PEDS.
Hi Metsie,
Think you are missing the point I was making.
Of course, short of having the legal action on their side there was nothing they could do to really stop it. As I said, though one would have to be naive to believe any such behavior as I suggested would have accomplished anything, however, I think it would have looked better for Sandy (or Selig or any other owner) to have said before that Committee:
“I asked Canseco, he said no, I had my suspicions and was concerned about others so I arranged for medical experts at time to time to address the team privately about the risks and dangers in closed door meetings – no executives, no managers, no coaches – just the players themselves. As one who saw another Oakland athlete – Lyle Alzaio – lose his life to steroids it was on my mind a lot to do what I could within my power. There was nothing else I could do because it wasn’t banned from baseball at the time.”
When it comes to big business we know even that type of behavior doesn’t even enter the picture though they have no problem trying expressing their disappointment.
Another example is Tony LaRussa, who knew absolutely nothing and was shocked when hearing that disclosure (sic). And MLB or whoever goes out of the way to praise him last summer for the work he did as part of a trio of Cardinal managers? Does the hypocrisy ever stop?
Joey did you watch the hearings in front of Congress?
Cause basically what Selig and the other people who testified said is “We don’t condone it, We admit it may be happening but we have no way of testing because the Union refuses to allow it and if we insist there is no baseball and we lose too much money because we have bills to pay that won’t get paid unless there is baseball to pay for it.”
Could they have done more? Yep but not as much as others could have either…
If the press had done it’s job and told what they KNEW much more than any Owner did then the players may have caved under the pressure….
The only reason why they caved on things like HGH now is because they could see where things were going with guys like Bonds and McGwire and knew if they didn’t find some way of PROVING they were clean they had no chance at the hall at all!
Thats the ONLY reason why we have testing at all and the only reason why HGH is FINALLY being tested for this year….
Cause if they didn’t they could STILL be denied thier legacy by people doing what they did to piazza and say Well I heard he did HGH….
No VOTE!
Hi Metsie,
I’m not talking about the legal restrictions of what MLB could not have done but simple, attempts they could have iniated to show a personal concern on the matter. Did they need the player’s union to take even a small step like a half-hearted attempt at having a drug counselor talk to the teams in private meetings? Of course, as said, something as simple as that or the equivalent would accomplish zilch but at least it would have shown they were aware of their moral responsibilites as human beings.
All I’m pointing out is that there was a moral question to be addressed – not about the integrity of the competition, performances and records – but of health and drug abuse – and the owners did not really care enough to try and do something just as human beings.
Just like Vince McMahon and his wrestlers.
Attempts that would have done NOTHING to stop roids and just alienated the union that was holding up the CBA agrfeement BECAUSE they insisted on testing!
You wanted them to lose Millions to take a moral stand that wouldn’t have worked which is like flushing money down the toilet to fell better about yourself….
They made MORE than a half hearted attempt…They held up a collective bargaining agreement in hopes of getting testing….
Did the players make a half hearted attempt to stop it?
No they made a FULL COURT PRESS to keep the cheating going!
Hi Metsie,
You hit upon why the outrage toward the owners:
“a moral stand that wouldn’t have worked which is like flushing money down the toilet to fell better about yourself….”
Yup “flushing mone down the toilet” was what the owners did not want to do. I think we all agree on that.
Metsie, that was the only point I wanted to make – as long as it was not themselves doing the juicing they didn’t care at all as long as the money came in and nobody was complaining. It’s just a characteristic that is very important to me as a principle and one I would not want children to emmuliate
Joey why in the hell should they flush THEIR money down the toilet to protect a legacy that has NO MEANING to ANYONE but the PLAYERS who were the cause of ruining it in the firstplace?
All the Owners did was let them ruin thier own lives/legacy and made all the effort they should have by proposing to conduct testing which was flatly refused.
The owner had NO obligation or interests to even go that far….
But they did!
They sure did more than any other employer in the world would have done….
The rest of the world would have just fired you without cause and left you to your own demise…
That option wasn’t available to owners since the contracts were guaranteed and binding…
So they did the second best thing, gave the players the opportunity to clean themselves of the cheater and they firmly refused!
And thier refusal cost them everything…Long Careers, a Record Book, a Believeable Hall of Fame and long term health!
I don’t see why Owners should be forced to lose Million (Billions?) to solve a problem they did NOT create and TRIED to solve but whose offer was flatly refused and fought tooth and nail!
They did more than any other employer would have and thats to be appluaded no blamed as inadequate because there was no other option that was MORE adequate available.
I know the Rich are pariahs in this country these days but without them you know what we are?
HAITI! Poorest country on the planet!
And who do we rape to pay all our government spending if we take the position that rich people should lose thier shirt to do things we aren’t prepared or willing to do or solve for ourselves?
It was the players problem and the Owners did what they could to help them solve it…
They didn’t want to they WANTED to keep on cheating!
HI Metsie,
“Blessed are the peace makers”.
Matt,
WIsh yo used a different word than “Hemi-Roiders” since my whole family, including myself, suffers from them and at times they are a real pain in the a**.
Matt,
I thoroughly enjoyed your article. Thanks.
Hilarious addendum:
http://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2013/01/10/barry-bonds-and-roger-clemens-shut-out-of-hall-of-fame