Baseball has dealt itself another black eye. And it is not the player’s fault.
Despite what the sportswriters and the owners what us to believe, the scourge of performance-enhancing drugs is a) not the worst thing to happen to the sport since pitchers started throwing overhand and b) shouldn’t be laid at the feet of the players, at least not solely.
The players — especially Yankee third-baseman Alex Rodriguez, an insufferable bore and poster child for the selfish-athlete stereotype — are convenient scapegoats for the failures of Major League Baseball’s corporate overlords, who created an environment in which it made sense for players to chase the illusive advantage, even if it came from a bottle, and then feigned shock like Capt. Renault in Casablanca when apprised of the gambling taking place at Rick’s place.
This is what we know, 12 players have agreed to 50-game suspensions, including all-stars Jhony Peralta and Nelson Cruz, and Rodriguez has been suspended, pending an appeal, through the end of the 2014 season.
What we also know is that baseball has spent the last two decades pretending to clean up the game, even as it has showered more and more money on players who hit for power. The big contracts go to the big bats, as do the endorsement money. Baseball, of course, has always been OK with this imbalance. Remember this TV ad?
Chicks dig the long ball and ownership has never been too worried about where the power came from — until the PED scandals hit with Barry Bonds and the Mitchell report. So, the players are now expected to stay clean and still hit homeruns or find themselves on the wrong end of a suspension (if they are suspected of using PEDs) or out of baseball (if they can’t reach the fences). The owners, however, who created the environment in which “chicks dig the long ball” could stand as the league’s motto. The issue is one of accountability and to make players bear the burden of that accountability lets the owners off the hook again.
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Hank Kalet 