With Alex Rodriguez coming out about his steroid use, it brings a lot more questions.
Events Up To This Point
How did A-Rod fail this test?
Back in 2003, the players union agreed to test players one time. If 5% of the players tested positive, a testing policy would be put in place. The union was in charge of conducting the testing and determined that 7% of the current players were on steroids.
The samples from the tests were coded with numbers and the names of the players were kept in a different location, as to keep people in the lab from leaking names. It worked in theory.
The union then requested that the lab destroy the samples.
At the same time, the government was looking to get 10 samples of players that were linked to Balco. The union filed an injunction to slow down the government from taking the samples. The government, in turn, got a warrant to sieze all the positive samples and the names from the other location.
Total time from the request to destroy the samples to everything being siezed – 6 days.
(This information was courtesy of Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus – he was talking about the topic on the Bernie Miklasz Show on Team 1380 in St. Louis)
Who’s to Blame
At first, I thought the players union was to blame for this. They didn’t destroy the samples as they stated they would; I just found out yesterday that they were in the process of doing it when the government stepped in. At this point, we really can’t blame them.
Of course the players have to take a bulk of the blame, as they are the ones who took the steroids. I don’t think I really need to go into this one.
The next group to blame is the owners. It’s almost positive that they knew what was going on, but they would have killed the cash cow if they would have stopped it. Why should a person making a ton of money off someone else care if they are doing something that could harm them in the long run?
The final group to blame is us – the fans. We’re the ones that like to see home runs and high scoring games. We like the big players – McGwire, Bonds, Sosa, etc. What’s to stop them from putting on a show for us? MLB was even marketing towards this in the late ’90s/early ’00s (Maddux: “Chicks dig the long ball”). Everyone bought into it.
A bit of blame also goes to the government. I don’t want to make this political, but why is our government worried about what a few baseball players are doing instead of worrying about our troops or economy? It seems like their priorities need to be re-evaluated.
A-Rods Role
While it’s a little shocking to hear A-Rods admit it (as we’ve had very few big name players named, and we’ve had very few players admit to it), we’re going to have to be prepared for who else is on the list. 103 more players have yet to be named, and I’d expect that more names will be leaked.
I will commend A-Rod for how he’s handled this. He manned up and admitted he did something wrong. Of course his justification seemed a little fishy to me (:I felt like I needed to live up to my contract”) and his reasoning for lying to Katie Couric was lame (“I was lying to myself about it”).
Roger Clemens could take notes from him.
I don’t think this will impact his chances for the Hall of Fame. If anything, it will help some of the other players from this era. Voters can’t justify voting for A-Rod, but not for Bonds, Clemens, or McGwire; all are suspected (or proven in some cases) of using steroids. Of course, it could happen; if it did, I’d hope they’d change the voting system (which I’d hope for anyways).
Where to go now
The game, players, and fans just need to move on.
Baseball, more than any other sport, relies heavily on stats. Some will be outraged that Barry Bonds is the undisputed Home Run king, but can we really say that it isn’t right? How do we know that the pitchers he faced weren’t on something? We really don’t at this point, and I don’t expect us to find out.
From Bernie Miklasz’s blog:
“if Roy Oswalt wants to erase A-Rod’s stats, then what about Oswalt’s teammates in Houston who have used the juice? Do we erase their records, too? If Miguel Tejada had some big nights when Oswalt pitched and got the “W” should be remove the win from Oswalt’s ledger? This is tricky business, kids…”
So, over the next few days, weeks, years even, we’ll hear people say modern records need asterisks next to them. Ok, but how far back does it go. One could make an arguement that players in the ’70s were on the juice. The NFL had a huge problem with steroids in those days, and how many baseball teams shared stadiums and workout facilities with NFL teams? You also can’t just draw the line at steroids. Amphetamines were huge in baseball for the last 30-40 years. Players would pop “greenies” so they could be ready to play day after day for 6+ months. While they aren’t steroids, they do enhance a players performance.
(Heck, people could even make the argument for alcohol; while it doesn’t enhance a players abilities, shouldn’t the players be held accountable as role models? You’ve had numerous players with alcohol problems that aren’t even discussed. I’m not saying yes, but some would say it’s a valid argument.)
I also think some of the players will be more willing to admit they did it now that A-Rod stepped up and federal charges have been filed against Miguel Tejada for lying to investigators. They’ll see that they will be more accepted to fans for coming clean and there will be less chances they’ll be held accountable.
