The issue of players who don't wish to partake remains a sticking point, however. They may be forced to resign themselves to careers without numbers as high as those of users. To reward proven non-users for their idealism, MLB can mandate the inclusion of a special clause in their contracts to bring their salaries up to par by use of a sliding scale.
Still, those with the most to lose would be the same as today: borderline players just trying to make the roster. But there's hope for them, too. Why not fund job training to expedite a career as coaches and scouts, which many of them seek after their playing days anyway?
Okay, it sounds fanciful. But one man's quixotic is another's visionary. The players want drugs, many fans require their heroes use them, and team owners and executives would like to see the issue go away.
Then what comprises the faction opposing performance-enhancing drugs? Self-appointed keepers of baseball's lore and legend like sportswriters. Legislators looking to score points off an easy issue devoid of the controversy of, say, immigration or abortion.
And, of course, former Senator Mitchell, in search of a second feather in his cap to add to his role in 1998's Good Friday Agreement, which helped bring peace to Northern Ireland. But, like Colin Powell going to bat for Bush on invading Iraq, he backed the wrong horse this time and upended the entire cart of his legacy.
Russ Wellen is the nuclear deproliferation editor for OpEdNews. He's also on the staffs of Freezerbox and Scholars & Rogues.
"It's hard to tell people not to smoke when you have a cigarette dangling from your mouth." -- Mohamed El Baradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
But they're sure as hell not gong to let Pete Rose in
the Hall--not because of any crime higher than betting on his team to WIN.
I don't personally care what sports figures are 'on' when they compete--mostly because it's such a slippery slope of testing inaccuracy and altogether too much a game of 'gotcha.'
One still has to slide into 2nd ahead of the tag, hit a 98mph fastball or throw a perfect sinker that just catches the outside of the plate. Win the Tour de France on something? Yeah--why not?
Because of the 'integrity' of sports? Give me a break. $250 million for A-Rod and you're going to preach to me about integrity?
"Selig repeated previous assertions that baseball leaders did all they could do to fight the steroid problem," except of course to set down their major stars like Clemens. Baseball 'leaders' have taken the sport to fraudulently financed mega-stadiums, impossible salaries and ticket prices that keep a dad from taking his kid to see a game.
There are no 'leaders' in major-league baseball--just co-conspirators.
And, in the face of all this dancing around the issues, Pete Rose--one of the game's most outstanding players--is kept out of the Hall of Fame. Because he bet on his team to win.
The likes of Bud Selig and George Steinbrenner have put the entire game on steroids, financial steroids. In the process they've taken away from the fans one of America's (formerly) greatest sports.
by
Jim Freeman (108 articles, 51 quicklinks, 221 diaries, 382 comments)
on Monday, December 24, 2007 at 10:27:09 AM
When baseball first started cocaine was legal. During the rest of the time we've had everything from meth, to LSD, to steroids being taken by athletes if they thought it would improve their performance.
If you want to purge the records you can go back and do autopsies on all the record holders and I'd predict you'd have a handful that were pure of any drugs.
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1425 comments)
on Monday, December 24, 2007 at 12:29:46 PM
It will be tremendously satisfying to me if Roger Clemens can take this to court, prove the trainer lied and win his case. Of course you know what the brainless jock sportcasters will do to him, do you not? They will OJ him. It does not make a difference if the government and baseball spends twice as much money as him to hang it on him and a jury finds him innocent. He is guilty no matter what the jury says because that is the way those in the press want the public to see him.
I will laugh my head off if Clemens can cram this report down Mitchell's and Selig's throat while speaking up for all those who are railroaded time and again by almost every DA in the US.
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 962 comments)
on Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 8:17:42 AM
3 comments
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