I’ve just about had it. Major League Baseball has driven me to the edge and pulled me back time and time again. First they cancelled the World Series in 1994. Eight years later they came dangerously close to going on strike again. I still have the e-mail sent to MLB.com newsletter subscribers. The time the e-mail was sent out was 11:16 a.m. The deadline for a deal was noon. The text was simple enough, “Play Ball! Owners, Players reach a deal … Season continues uninterrupted.”
Money was at stake with each of these incidents. The image of the game was tarnished, but the game lived on. Now, we are learning that the game’s greatest players are using steroids. We’re not talking about Franklin Stubbs or Charlie Hough. We’re talking about Most Valuable Player types. Players like Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Ken Caminiti. What’s even more disturbing about this recent trend is that these players were setting records and changing the game. The strike of 1994 and the near-strike of 2002 tarnished the image of the game. Players like Bonds and Giambi are threatening to tarnish the history of the game.
Before the San Francisco Chronicle reported on leaked grand jury testimony, it was hard not to believe that Barry Bonds or Jose Canseco took any steroids. I mean these guys once had necks. Now it looks like their heads have sunken into their shoulders. Bonds was once a player who stole 40 bases and hit 40 home runs. Now, he hits 70 home runs and steals three bases.
It’s time for the Major League Baseball Players Association to realize the problem at hand and finally work toward a solution requiring mandatory testing. For years, Player’s union boss Donald Fehr has cited medical reports that say there is no definitive proof that steroids have a negative impact on a player’s body. Sound familiar? Didn’t the state of Wisconsin just spend nearly one billion dollars given to them by tobacco companies because those companies outright lied or understated the risks of smoking cigarettes?
It’s amazing how Major League Baseball and the Players Association have turned a blind eye to a bomb waiting to explode. You could just smell something big was going to happen earlier this year when rumors surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative or BALCO started becoming front-page news. The nickname BALCO Barry became commonplace.
What’s even more surprising is that Donald Fehr and Major League Baseball could honestly believe that steroids were not a health risk. By not implementing testing of any kind, the league and the player’s union were showing complete disregard for the health of the players. The vitality of the game is on the line. If you have a professional sports league where steroid use is common, then rookies and younger players are going to use those drugs to get any edge they can. Not all players are going to use them, but a lot more than you would think. Imagine all the great All-Stars consistently being on the disabled list with bodies that are literally falling apart and deteriorating by the time they are 35. Steroids are a drug that is an end in itself. Just look at the case of Ken Caminiti.
A collective-bargaining agreement on steroid testing was reaching in 2002 and called for players to be screened once a year and never during the off-season. The punishment for steroid abuse under this agreement is pretty harsh. After a mere five offenses, players could expect to miss no less than a few games.
Donald Fehr has said there will be more stringent testing measures for next season. The federal government says if Fehr doesn’t implement changes, Congress will enact measures making sure the game cleans itself up. The likelihood of the government stepping in and implementing reform is about as likely as Ricky Henderson finding a new team next year. Sounds like Major League Baseball is doing too little too late.
The steroids issue will be coming to a head early next year. Bonds will be on pace to surpass Babe Ruth on the all-time home runs list in late April or early May. Commissioner Bud Selig must get to the bottom of this fiasco and try to bring back some semblance of respectability to the most vaunted record in professional sports. If you thought the controversy surrounding Roger Maris was huge, wait until we have 756*.
Derek Montgomery ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science.
