Just Release the Names
Just got back from a few days in Boston at my first "academic egghead conference". Boston is a very nice-looking city, very walkable as I discovered when I went sightseeing the other day. I didn't get to see everything I wanted to see, but hey, just more incentive to go back, right?
The only thing that causes me to scratch my head about Massachusetts is the way people drive on the Mass Pike. You know me and my obsession with erratic drivers... anyway, on any other major highway when you approach an exit, the right lane tends to slow down because of people exiting and then entering the highway. On the Mass Pike, the PASSING LANES slow down. I do not even pretend to understand why.
Anyway, the big news in Boston these days is the leaking of positive tests involving David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Back in 2003, the players submitted to random drug testing in order to determine if there was indeed a steroid problem in baseball. Well, we all know how that turned out, and the result was a list of 104 players with positive tests. The tests were all supposed to be kept confidential, but in recent months, one or two at a time, names are starting to be leaked, and it's causing this whole steroid mess to dominate the baseball headlines this year. First Alex Rodriguez, then Sammy Sosa, both of whom were already linked to steroids so it wasn't much of a shock. The fact that Manny is on the list isn't a surprise now, in light of his positive test and suspension earlier this season. The presence of Ortiz, however, is surprising, given that he had pretty much told baseball to throw the book at anyone who gets caught in an earlier interview.
It also puts the Boston Red Sox' 2004 and 2007 world championships under a great deal of scrutiny. When the news broke, I immediately had visions of T-shirts rolling off the presses for Yankees fans, saying something along the lines of "Boston Red Sox: STILL no legitimate championships since 1918." I'm inclined to believe Ortiz after his press conference where he claimed that he got busted for a bad supplement; that's why today you have a pretty much universal policy where players have to go through their doctors if they want to try any kind of supplement. If you don't... well, Manny Ramirez is Exhibit A.
The big problem with all of this is the leaking, of course. Nobody knows who is leaking the information, but he knows what he's doing. Keep putting names out one or two at a time and we'll never stop talking about the damage that performance-enhancing drugs has done to baseball. This is why there has been a growing chorus of people who want the full list of 104 people released, for two purposes: 1) so that we can finally discern the guilty from the innocent, and 2) so we can get this whole damn thing over with. However, that is not likely to happen. Before and during Ortiz's presser, we were treated to the players' union issuing a bunch of legalese that pretty much says, "There's nothing we can do, there's a court order preventing the names from coming out, we have to just live with things as they are." Except it was the union that got the court order in the first place.
Therefore, it would be "in the best interests of baseball" (and when's the last time you actually heard THAT phrase used?) for the union to go back to court, tell the court, "Hey, we changed our mind, rescind that court order and let the names out," and get this whole mess out there in the open. The fear of people being "outed" is far outweighed by the suspicion that people who never tested positive have to face from a disbelieving public. Unfortunately, the union still to some extent seems to live in a Never Never Land where the public doesn't give a crap about cheating. Marvin Miller, the man who made the union what it is today, clearly showed his senility at 91 years of age by proclaiming during spring training that the union should have never agreed to a drug testing policy in the first place. Never mind that Congress was about to throw the book at baseball if it didn't institute one, and let's just ignore the fact that this issue almost resulted in yet another players strike in 2002 and we've had labor peace since then.
Sadly, there are a lot of people who actually don't give a crap about cheating, but I'd like to think most Americans still respect the idea of integrity in all facets of life, and if we can't get it from our politicians, can we at least get it from our athletes? Release the names!
And I close with an opportunity to pat myself on the back for being right yet again. The columns are coming fast and furiously now from liberals, all saying virtually the same thing: anyone opposed to the Democrats' health care reform plans is an extremist member of an angry mob and probably a "birther". Paul Krugman has said it, Ellen Goodman has said it, any number of letter-writers have said it. Could it be any more clear that these people all read from the same set of talking points? It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad... and completely untrue.
The only thing that causes me to scratch my head about Massachusetts is the way people drive on the Mass Pike. You know me and my obsession with erratic drivers... anyway, on any other major highway when you approach an exit, the right lane tends to slow down because of people exiting and then entering the highway. On the Mass Pike, the PASSING LANES slow down. I do not even pretend to understand why.
Anyway, the big news in Boston these days is the leaking of positive tests involving David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Back in 2003, the players submitted to random drug testing in order to determine if there was indeed a steroid problem in baseball. Well, we all know how that turned out, and the result was a list of 104 players with positive tests. The tests were all supposed to be kept confidential, but in recent months, one or two at a time, names are starting to be leaked, and it's causing this whole steroid mess to dominate the baseball headlines this year. First Alex Rodriguez, then Sammy Sosa, both of whom were already linked to steroids so it wasn't much of a shock. The fact that Manny is on the list isn't a surprise now, in light of his positive test and suspension earlier this season. The presence of Ortiz, however, is surprising, given that he had pretty much told baseball to throw the book at anyone who gets caught in an earlier interview.
It also puts the Boston Red Sox' 2004 and 2007 world championships under a great deal of scrutiny. When the news broke, I immediately had visions of T-shirts rolling off the presses for Yankees fans, saying something along the lines of "Boston Red Sox: STILL no legitimate championships since 1918." I'm inclined to believe Ortiz after his press conference where he claimed that he got busted for a bad supplement; that's why today you have a pretty much universal policy where players have to go through their doctors if they want to try any kind of supplement. If you don't... well, Manny Ramirez is Exhibit A.
The big problem with all of this is the leaking, of course. Nobody knows who is leaking the information, but he knows what he's doing. Keep putting names out one or two at a time and we'll never stop talking about the damage that performance-enhancing drugs has done to baseball. This is why there has been a growing chorus of people who want the full list of 104 people released, for two purposes: 1) so that we can finally discern the guilty from the innocent, and 2) so we can get this whole damn thing over with. However, that is not likely to happen. Before and during Ortiz's presser, we were treated to the players' union issuing a bunch of legalese that pretty much says, "There's nothing we can do, there's a court order preventing the names from coming out, we have to just live with things as they are." Except it was the union that got the court order in the first place.
Therefore, it would be "in the best interests of baseball" (and when's the last time you actually heard THAT phrase used?) for the union to go back to court, tell the court, "Hey, we changed our mind, rescind that court order and let the names out," and get this whole mess out there in the open. The fear of people being "outed" is far outweighed by the suspicion that people who never tested positive have to face from a disbelieving public. Unfortunately, the union still to some extent seems to live in a Never Never Land where the public doesn't give a crap about cheating. Marvin Miller, the man who made the union what it is today, clearly showed his senility at 91 years of age by proclaiming during spring training that the union should have never agreed to a drug testing policy in the first place. Never mind that Congress was about to throw the book at baseball if it didn't institute one, and let's just ignore the fact that this issue almost resulted in yet another players strike in 2002 and we've had labor peace since then.
Sadly, there are a lot of people who actually don't give a crap about cheating, but I'd like to think most Americans still respect the idea of integrity in all facets of life, and if we can't get it from our politicians, can we at least get it from our athletes? Release the names!
And I close with an opportunity to pat myself on the back for being right yet again. The columns are coming fast and furiously now from liberals, all saying virtually the same thing: anyone opposed to the Democrats' health care reform plans is an extremist member of an angry mob and probably a "birther". Paul Krugman has said it, Ellen Goodman has said it, any number of letter-writers have said it. Could it be any more clear that these people all read from the same set of talking points? It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad... and completely untrue.
posted by Dave | 1:47 PM
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