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Volume CXXXIII, Number 17 |
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MLB takes a hard hit
NICK LAROCQUE
STAFF WRITER
Major League Baseball took a major credibility hit on Tuesday as it was reported that a company called the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative provided steroids for several MLB players, including three of the sport's biggest names: Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi. With spring training just underway and fans gearing up for the season, these reports could not have come at a worse time.
Two weeks ago, I wrote an article about the problem of economic inequality, and how baseball must address it to make the sport more exciting. The issue of steroids is something much more serious. It is an issue that threatens the very integrity of the sport and one that has been danced around for far too long now.
The nature of these reports should not come as a shock to anyone. The amount of home runs hit in baseball has been at an all-time high since the last strike ended, and every year it seems more and more hitters are coming back with tremendous amounts of added mass that simply cannot be natural.
One only has to compare the Barry Bonds of today to the skinny guy who used to play with Bobby Bonilla and Andy Van Slyke on the Pittsburgh Pirates. The same can be said for Giambi, Sheffield, Sammy Sosa, Brett Boone, and a host of other MLB stars. Everyone knows about this. We just never had any confirmation before.
Whether or not these reports are entirely accurate is yet to be determined. However, this gives Bud Selig and Major League Baseball some leverage in dealing with the Players Union, which has been very hesitant to agree to strict drug testing policies, something that every other major sport uses.
In the last collective bargaining agreement, the Union tentatively agreed to an ineffective testing system, which is an absolute joke. The Union speaks about drug testing as if it is somehow unfair and unfounded. That has never been less true than right now, and this is the time for baseball to put its foot down.
Under the current system, the first offense earns a warning. If another violation occurs, there is a punishment, but the name and reason for punishment does not have to be made public.
What the league needs is a new testing policy that actually has some teeth to it. The league needs to send a message to all these guys that this is not OK. It needs to send a message that this will no longer be accepted as some unspoken agreement. It needs to send a message to the guys who don't use steroids that baseball is going to stand by them and not let them be outperformed by these guys who have no regard for the rules or for the integrity of the game.
The worst part of this is that players like Barry Bonds don't need steroids. He has always been one of the best hitters in baseball, and would probably have been a hall-of-famer without them. He hit well above .300 last year despite everyone trying their hardest to pitch around him.
Now, all of his records and all of his accomplishments will be tarnished, and all those young fans that idolize him will be disillusioned. He would have been just as good a player without steroids.
He might not have hit over 70 dingers in one season, but he would still be the toughest out in baseball.
From now on, Barry Bonds will always have an asterisk by his name. Unless something is done, so will this era of baseball.
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