Déjà Vu All Over Again
February 7, 2009Cavaliers Preview Game #49
February 8, 2009
Yesterday when the A-Rod steroid story broke, my immediate response was surprise. That lasted a second and then it occurred to me. I am not shocked by any of these stories anymore. In fact, I don’t know why anyone would be. I guess I would be shocked if I found out that Jamey Carroll was juicing. Or maybe, I might be surprised if I found out that Sal Fasano was slamming back doses of HGH. But the shock of some elite level player having gained an edge chemically is non-existent at this point. I think it is time to be honest with ourselves.
Now this isn’t to say that it isn’t wrong. It most certainly is. But that, in and of itself doesn’t have to drive our reactions. We have already gone through phases of realizing that the game of baseball doesn’t have a crystal clean background. How much more realization can we go through than having Rafael Palmeiro’s fake denial? We already saw a balding, slightly less bigger Mac sitting in front of legislators avoiding questions about the past. And this was way before his scummy brother decided to shop a tell-all book about how he introduced his brother Mark to the methods of juicing.
Then last year, we acted shocked again when the revelations about Andy Pettite and Roger Clemens came out. I think this was mostly because Clemens was the highest profile pitcher to engage in a practice that had been thought to be reserved for homerun obsessed power dudes who wanted to grind bats into splinters with their hands. Meanwhile, we were so obsessed with the sport and whether or not this dude cheated at a game that we like to watch, that the fact that he might have cheated on his wife with an underage girl became the secondary story. Now, if this story was touching your life, which would be more important. The fact that some guy cheated at baseball or the fact that he was (allegedly) having a romantic relationship with a 15 year-old?
So can we put a moratorium on shock and intrigue and officially move on? Yes, this includes if any of the Cleveland guys get named in that list of 104 players that was supposed to be confidential before A-Rod’s name popped into the news this week. Think about it honestly. Would it matter to you at this point if you found out that some guy cheated in 2003? The story is old. We assume with the drop in homeruns last year that the testing program is working for the most part and the cheating has been at least slowed down if not stopped.
The reason that I write this at all is that I really want to watch baseball for the game itself. Much like I have decided to stop caring about the year 2010 as it relates to Lebron so that I can concentrate on this amazing season, I don’t want to distract myself from a year of Tribe baseball. Certainly I don’t want to miss the natural storylines of division races, wildcard races, individual statistical achievements and the like just so I can help the (bored?) national media continue down the road toward tabloid-ization of all my favorite sports. On top of that, if the Tribe does have a chance to get to the playoffs, this state of mind will remove the ammunition from media guns that might, say, want to report Paul Byrd HGH results in the middle of the ALCS.
19 Comments
The only thing that shocks me is that, once again, Canseco was right.
Shocked? Hardly. ARod became unusually big several years ago, it’s been more than obvious for the longest time.
Not shocked.
I have grown to the point where I think almost any power hitter during the last two decades likely was juicing. There are few who would surprise me, mainly being the Thome, F. Thomas style that are just big guys, not completely ripped.
No way. The rumors have been there for a while now. Didn’t Conseco say as much in his book? I say pump em all full of as many performance enhancing substances as possible. What the hell, it would probably improve the most boring sport in the US.
If Bonds can wear a bionic elbow brace with no scrutiny, then let’s outfit everyone with hydrolic suits and be done with it.
Perhaps not shocked, but disappointed.
Look at pictures of Thome and Manny back in their early days with the Tribe.. then look at them now — both guys have bulked up considerably. I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t be “shocked” to learn that they were both using PEDs at some point in their careers.
I don’t think “turn the page” is the right attitude here. I say MLB needs to stiffen the penalties dramatically so that we can one day turn the page meaningfully. I understand Craig’s dismay at the whole pharmaceutical circus these past years, but the fault lies not with the press–though Craig is right to imply that the press can abuse such information to favor certain sides–it lies with MLB and the players’ union for not having clamped down earlier and more decisively.
not shocked..i dont care. this story shouldn’t be on here. they aren’t in our division and we beat them soundly in the playoffs in 2007. i wanna know more about the Tribe infield situation and pronks injury updates. WFNY, pls dont fall into the media hype that is the evil empire
You know Canseco said over and over that A Rod also took steroids. At this point this is nothing new, who didn’t take them back then?
It breaks my heart to say this, but Baseball is dead. It had rebounded so nicely from the strike with the McGwire/Sosa home run race, but that’s all been dashed with the steroids debacle. I still love and will root for the Tribe, but the sport as a whole is dying a slow, testosterone-addled death at the hands of executioner/commissioner Bud Selig. RIP Baseball, you will be missed.
Phil, I would like to think that after all the governmental intrigue over the past 5 years that baseball probably does have the right testing and penalties in place. And no, I don’t think it is the media’s fault per se, but they do pump the story full of dramatic headlines even when there isn’t much drama left to be had. They almost fool you into thinking it is a big deal, when honestly, I don’t care much.
Ryan, don’t worry about our coverage falling into the trap set by the national media. We have designs of expanding our coverage of the Tribe dramatically this year. TD, DP, and I are all huge baseball guys in addition to your WFNY founders. Also, DP is gearing up to expand coverage to our new Triple-A affiliate in Columbus so we can keep up with the Matt LaPortas of the world.
I know DP is really looking forward to being able to follow the pipeline of players from Columbus to Cleveland as well as the regular stories about the Tribe this year.
I for one am shocked and appalled. I thought that A-Rod only did Madonna and mannish hookers, but to think that he also did steroids? I’m shocked.
Just stop and think about how absurd this all is:
105 players tested positive for PEDs in 2003.
And there penalty according to baseball rules was…ummmm….
nothing?
It’s like the cops putting up a no-turn on red at an intersection today, and then retroactively giving you a ticket for a right turn you made there last week.
The whole thing is asinine.
To go along with the Bambino, but on a different tack, how badly is this going to reflect on the MLBPA Union?
Not only did players agree to this on the conditions that it be anonymous AND confidential, but most of them did so to root out the performance enhancers. Good. Job well done. The “fail” number was high enough that we got a mandatory testing program.
At that point, the Union should have had those samples destroyed. While I am upset that so many players were using, I’m also a little bummed for them because they did this thinking it would never be made public. And now, as the Bambino points out, they’re being destroyed in the court of public opinion.
Further, at the next labor impasse (which will probably be coming at some point), the Union probably is going to be hard lined about giving up ANYTHING. “Yeah, the last time we gave in on testing, and you screwed us on that one, so, no. No more concessions.”
This could have tough repercussions down the road, just from the stand-point of trust from the Players’ Union.
It’s good for baseball in the long-term these losers get out-ed. While MLB is not doing the outing, it’s still a deterrent to cleaning up the game.
I think it’s odd fans pile on the MLB guys but not the NFL freak-show. They both deserve equal shame… How is it there isn’t an HGH test yet?
Also, about Craig’s other thing, yes, we will be covering the Tribe better than ever before. I have a 20-game season ticket package for the Clippers, and am hoping to get a chance to see the LaPortas, Brantleys, Huffs, et al of the organization with some regularity all summer. Look for a weekly Clippers column/update, as well.
At this point, isn’t it safe to assume that anyone who has been accused of cheating did, in fact, cheat? Otherwise we’d be seeing a ton of libel and defamation suits against Canseco and Balco and McNamee, etc. etc. The very fact that these players aren’t defending themselves by the proper legal means (and getting more money, which, we can all agree is their ultimate goal) tells you all you need to know about how confident they are in their innocence.
how bad is the world when Jose Canseco is our moral compass?
more importantly, if all of these 104 guys were busted in 2003, why are we hearing about it six years later?
That there is no salary cap for MLB is no different than steroids….it gives some an unfair advantage over others. Bring on the replacement players. Bust the union once and for all.