3.19.2005
A Quick Damage Assessment
Since I've last posted the Congressional steroid hearings happened, and a number of pundits have come down with a wide range of opinions on the subject. This only confirms my previous point that steroids are great for MLB, especially during a time of the year when interest is just starting to ratchet up in the sport again. This is true in the same way that the Bush administration is good for politics: formerly apathetic citizens have their ire aroused sufficiently to get them to pay more attention to the process. In the meantime, papers are being sold, websites are being hit by the million, and I have one more thing to be sanctimonious about over my weekend Eggs Benedict.
Just to recap some of the slam-ees, we've got Canseco, McGwire (many, many, many times), Commisioner Bud, MLB's leadership in general, and Congress for holding the hearings in the first place. Pay close attention because you may not hear this from me ever again: I agree with all these takes. Everyone who put on a suit that day is at fault here: the players for cheating in the first place; Selig and his cronies for encouraging steroid use via their silence over the past fifteen years; Congress for some of the most shameless, hypocritical, and ill-informed grandstanding on record (which is saying something); McGwire obviously for reasons well-documented; Sosa for being Sosa; Canseco for recanting everything he promoted in his book; and even the pundits themselves, just for doing their jobs and blowing all this way out of proportion. I suppose that would include me as well, but whaddya gonna do. (I've got my priorities straight at least; much more important to me at the moment is getting my League filled in time for the draft.)
In response to those who wonder why these hearings are happening now -- as opposed to a decade ago -- I've heard rumblings that some lobbyist affiliated with the NFL has a stake in making baseball look bad. This is some brilliant conspiracy theorizing and not totally implausible, but I doubt it due to the chances it would blow up in the NFL's face. So far the Carolina Panthers steroid story hasn't gotten traction, though I can only hope that changes in time for the fall camps. I'd wager that most Americans doubt the NFL is any cleaner than MLB, but for some reason nobody seems to care. That's the real head-scratcher for me: why is the NFL getting a free pass?
That's the only thing we're lacking here: perspective. It's hard to stay calm when Congressmen and columnists are all going hysterical at the same time, but McGwire's Hall of Fame chances should stay intact (at 100%) because you can't remove him from context. Cheaters in baseball go back to before the turn of the 19th century. Senator (R-Mars) Bunning's ballplaying contemporaries had no problem with widespread amphetamine use. McGwire homered 49 times his rookie year, presumably before he'd seen his first syringe. And if we've learned anything from this current quagmire, it's that the depths of the steroid problem go beyond the handful of players who have been convicted in the court of public opinion. Singling out McGwire for humiliation is only reasonable because of his heavily lawyer-influenced testimony; his accomplishments are not any less worthy of recognition.
In April the season will start as always, and this too shall pass. The record books are not going to be altered in any unnatural way. The only fans who will stop following baseball are the sort of fair-weather scum I don't need to have around in order to enjoy my favorite sport. (These are the same people who claimed they would never watch baseball again after the '94 strike, and now here they are making noise again.) In other words, the total damage from this whole shebang will eventually add up to zero. Just how I like my scandals: juicy, worthy of endless debate, and harmless in the long run.
Just to recap some of the slam-ees, we've got Canseco, McGwire (many, many, many times), Commisioner Bud, MLB's leadership in general, and Congress for holding the hearings in the first place. Pay close attention because you may not hear this from me ever again: I agree with all these takes. Everyone who put on a suit that day is at fault here: the players for cheating in the first place; Selig and his cronies for encouraging steroid use via their silence over the past fifteen years; Congress for some of the most shameless, hypocritical, and ill-informed grandstanding on record (which is saying something); McGwire obviously for reasons well-documented; Sosa for being Sosa; Canseco for recanting everything he promoted in his book; and even the pundits themselves, just for doing their jobs and blowing all this way out of proportion. I suppose that would include me as well, but whaddya gonna do. (I've got my priorities straight at least; much more important to me at the moment is getting my League filled in time for the draft.)
In response to those who wonder why these hearings are happening now -- as opposed to a decade ago -- I've heard rumblings that some lobbyist affiliated with the NFL has a stake in making baseball look bad. This is some brilliant conspiracy theorizing and not totally implausible, but I doubt it due to the chances it would blow up in the NFL's face. So far the Carolina Panthers steroid story hasn't gotten traction, though I can only hope that changes in time for the fall camps. I'd wager that most Americans doubt the NFL is any cleaner than MLB, but for some reason nobody seems to care. That's the real head-scratcher for me: why is the NFL getting a free pass?
That's the only thing we're lacking here: perspective. It's hard to stay calm when Congressmen and columnists are all going hysterical at the same time, but McGwire's Hall of Fame chances should stay intact (at 100%) because you can't remove him from context. Cheaters in baseball go back to before the turn of the 19th century. Senator (R-Mars) Bunning's ballplaying contemporaries had no problem with widespread amphetamine use. McGwire homered 49 times his rookie year, presumably before he'd seen his first syringe. And if we've learned anything from this current quagmire, it's that the depths of the steroid problem go beyond the handful of players who have been convicted in the court of public opinion. Singling out McGwire for humiliation is only reasonable because of his heavily lawyer-influenced testimony; his accomplishments are not any less worthy of recognition.
In April the season will start as always, and this too shall pass. The record books are not going to be altered in any unnatural way. The only fans who will stop following baseball are the sort of fair-weather scum I don't need to have around in order to enjoy my favorite sport. (These are the same people who claimed they would never watch baseball again after the '94 strike, and now here they are making noise again.) In other words, the total damage from this whole shebang will eventually add up to zero. Just how I like my scandals: juicy, worthy of endless debate, and harmless in the long run.
