Play Ball! (but please don't talk about steroids)

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Play Ball! (but please don't talk about steroids)

Posted Apr 1st 2008 3:08PM by Ben Mankiewicz
Filed under: Young Turks, Sports, steroids

Baseball 2008 has arrived. Here's what we've learned one day into the season (two days actually for the Nationals and eight days for the A's and Red Sox, but one day for the purpose of this column): Rich Harden would be a right-handed Johan Santana if he could stay healthy enough to start 30 games, which will never happen; the Phillies desperately need Brad Lidge back, a realization that ought to chill the opening day enthusiasm of Phillies fans everywhere; and Xavier Nady is on pace to hit 324 home runs, but he probably won't.

Oh, and one other thing – the steroids issue is over. Done. Settled. Whew, that's a relief. For a while, I thought it might linger for a few more years while base...OF COURSE IT'S NOT OVER. But a piece in the L.A. Times indicates baseball – and its players – believe it's essentially over and done with because fans weren't talking about it this spring in Florida and Arizona.

Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee says he's heard "not one word" from fans about steroids this spring. Former all-star shortstop Alan Trammell, also a former manager now coaching with the Cubs, calls it a "non-issue," says he hasn't had "one conversation with a fan about it." And Angels outfielder Torii Hunter says "the fans that know the game, they don't even talk about it."

Look, Derrek Lee and Torii Hunter are two of the game's true ambassadors. They're personable and great with fans. They're talented and they respect the game. They are also dead wrong. Fellas, fans don't go to spring training to talk about steroids. They go to watch baseball, drink green beer on St. Patrick's Day and sun themselves into acute dehydration in the Arizona heat.

To assume baseball has moved past the steroids issue is unbelievably naive – for a number of powerful reasons. One, Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee couldn't conceivably have been the only source ballplayers had for performance-enhancing drugs. Two, listen to Dr. Gary Wadler, an advisor to the World Anti-Doping Agency. Wadler tells the L.A. Times a new generation of designer steroids is in the pipeline – gels, creams and patches. And these new PEDs won't stay in the system for months, but only weeks or even days. With 60 off-season tests among 1200 players, Wadler believes players may choose the play the odds.

Third – and most significantly – the Mitchell Report concluded human growth hormone has become the PED of choice for players because there's no reliable test to detect it. And neither Major League Baseball nor the players union seems terribly interested in assisting the development of such a test. A urine test to detect HGH is reportedly "years away" and both the union and MLB have resisted blood tests, which the Times reports could be commercially available later this year.

Hey, I'm a union guy – as my father used to tell me, unions are the people "who gave us the weekend." I love weekends. There's more time to watch baseball. But the Major League Baseball Players Association needs to remember this: they're not coal-miners. Nobody ever got black lung disease for playing their home games on artificial turf. Union chief Don Fehr needs to take a cue from veterans like Derek Jeter and Jeff Kent and lead the way on aggressive blood testing for all PEDs, including HGH.

The commissioner's office can talk all it wants about record-breaking revenue, new ballparks and years of labor peace. But the overall image of the game has taken a big hit. And it will keep taking hits – and the authenticity of home run hitters and older power pitchers will continue to be doubted – as long as baseball and its union continue to act as if they've solved the problem.

This isn't a privacy issue. It's a baseball issue. And only when we get reliable testing will the steroid era be, in the words of Derrek Lee, "99% over."

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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)

1. The fans will speak and have spoken by the increased sales of tickets in spite of the negative publicty about steriods. The fans do not care about it or they did they would stop buying tickets.

Who was lame brain behind the House of Representative wasting one minute of work time or 1 dollar in taxpaper money on their witch hunt to find proof if some of the ballplayers took performance steriods. There are major issues that the Democrat House could have delt with, but chose to waste timeon basenall and steriods. Economy, oil prices, taxes, Iraq war etc etc, but no they took time for this duh "major Major League Problem". What a joke.

The Democrats control the house, so what ninnie was responsible for the fiasco of investigating steriod use in Major League BB

robert okane at 1:11AM on Apr 2nd 2008

2. When it comes to steroids in baseball, there is plenty of blame to go around. Every baseball, fan, writer, owner and GM should have known something fishy was going down when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire started to obliterate the one-season HR record book a few years back.

Then along comes Barry Bonds and simply responds to the market demand, giving fans what they wanted - which was more home runs. Of course, Bonds and Roger Clemens appear to be cheaters who cheapened their own accomplishments. I have no idea what the Hall of Fame Committee is going to do with these guys as well as Rafael Palmeiro. Good luck with that.

Dave at 5:11PM on Apr 1st 2008

3. Is it cheating to take antibiotics when you are sick? I would imagine that without them a player couldn't perform very well.

If I'm going to earn $millions$ a year playing a child's game- damn right I'm going to take every advantage available, I'd be a fool not to.

mac at 6:15PM on Apr 1st 2008

4. Hey Big Guy,

I'm not so sure I see the difference in athletes and Hollywood. One set injects themselves with performance enhancing drugs and the other with silicon. Not all of them, but some surely do.

And what did Howard Cosell say?.."why would anyone idolize an athlete"... that can apply to actors and actresses too.

To me, it's all about entertainment. A ball player smacks a ball into the next town..he's just damn good boss. A 65 year old Hollywooder walks the Red Carpet and looks 25...just aging well bossman, just aging well.

Willet at 7:07PM on Apr 1st 2008

5. Who really cares whether they take steroids or not? Just put asterisks on any broken records past the year 2000. Let 'em ALL take them if they want to shut down their kidneys, shorten their lives and look like freaks. The Congress has no business "investigating" steroid use while our borders are a frigging SIEVE for illegal aliens!

URKiddinMee at 7:52PM on Apr 1st 2008

6. The only people with egos bigger than major league baseball players live in Congress. That's why the Congressional hearing happened. It's because you've got dweebs in Congress like Henry Waxman who live for the idea of doing a Congressional smack down on a big star like Roger Clemens. Could there be a bigger waste of our time and money? Of course not. But, ask Waxman and friends if they care.

Dave at 7:32AM on Apr 2nd 2008

7. Obama strike 3, your out, baseball talk

Obama's new lie

Obama's new ad in Pa. falsely claims that Sen Obama does not take money from oil companies or lobbyists and I won't let them block change anymore.

BUT-Center for Responsive Politics says Obama recieved over $160,000 from oil and gas companies, most from two oil company CEO's, George Kaiser and Robert Cavnar. Just last month Obama accepted another $8400 from ExxonMobil, $12370 from Chevron and $6500 from British Petroleum.

Big oil now has Obama in its pocket.

And Obama caught in another lie.

robert okane at 11:33AM on Apr 2nd 2008

8. Robert, your post makes me wonder why you voted for Obama.

Captain Negative at 2:56PM on Apr 2nd 2008

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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.