Friday, December 14, 2007
Baseball Will Be Unchanged as a Result of the Mitchell Report
Commissioner Vows to Act Swiftly on Mitchell Report - New York Times: "This report is a call to action,” he said, raising his right index finger. “And I will act.”"
Yesterday, prior to the press conference, I was trying to think of what Bud could say that would convince me of his genuine desire to rid, really rid the game of this influence. I thought for quite awhile and decided that the only real way was to make each of these instances a legal matter going forward, coupled with a sincere nudge to lawmakers to up the fines and other penalties for both trafficking and using anabolic steriods and HGH. In my mind, the penalties would have to be high enough financially to bankrupt the biggest in the game and put into hock the up-and-comers along with serious jail time. Anything short of that would be ineffective. I say this because I was thinking in terms of being that talented kid in high school who had a legitimate shot at playing in the big leagues. If I were that kid, what would the penalty need to be to convince me that these drugs were actually not worth the risk. After hearing Bud and George yesterday, I can without question conclude that the kid in high school knows with certainty that the risk is still worth taking. There is no real penalty. There is no real risk to a career. In fact, it is still helpful. It won't likely keep anyone out of the record books, as the representative of Sporting News made clear yesterday (they are the owners and publishers of "the record books"). This report comes without any cross examination, so it is far from conclusive and would not stand real scrutiny. Because of that, these men cannot be kept from the Hall based on these simple allegations alone. The current players on this list are still in baseball, and are unlikely to be jettisoned from the game as a result of this investigation. In fact, a couple of the named players got huge contracts in the days leading up to the release of this report. This is very simple. While it was interesting to see the names listed in the report and to watch the parade of press conferences on the matter, there will indeed be no change in the number of users or the impact of drugs on baseball.
Yesterday, prior to the press conference, I was trying to think of what Bud could say that would convince me of his genuine desire to rid, really rid the game of this influence. I thought for quite awhile and decided that the only real way was to make each of these instances a legal matter going forward, coupled with a sincere nudge to lawmakers to up the fines and other penalties for both trafficking and using anabolic steriods and HGH. In my mind, the penalties would have to be high enough financially to bankrupt the biggest in the game and put into hock the up-and-comers along with serious jail time. Anything short of that would be ineffective. I say this because I was thinking in terms of being that talented kid in high school who had a legitimate shot at playing in the big leagues. If I were that kid, what would the penalty need to be to convince me that these drugs were actually not worth the risk. After hearing Bud and George yesterday, I can without question conclude that the kid in high school knows with certainty that the risk is still worth taking. There is no real penalty. There is no real risk to a career. In fact, it is still helpful. It won't likely keep anyone out of the record books, as the representative of Sporting News made clear yesterday (they are the owners and publishers of "the record books"). This report comes without any cross examination, so it is far from conclusive and would not stand real scrutiny. Because of that, these men cannot be kept from the Hall based on these simple allegations alone. The current players on this list are still in baseball, and are unlikely to be jettisoned from the game as a result of this investigation. In fact, a couple of the named players got huge contracts in the days leading up to the release of this report. This is very simple. While it was interesting to see the names listed in the report and to watch the parade of press conferences on the matter, there will indeed be no change in the number of users or the impact of drugs on baseball.
