In the first of my "Two Minute Solutions" series to the aggravatingly complex problems in pro sports today, I feel compelled to weigh in on the steroid allegations dogging Roger Clemens and hundreds of other major league baseball players.
There's been lots of ink spilled since the Mitchell report connected the dots. "The Rocket" has been issuing not very convincing denials of his use of HGH and steroids as far back as 1998, attempting to distance himself from his former trainer Brian McNamee who allegedly injected him with steroids and HGH. Aside from not passing the "smell test", this slow-motion disintegration of Clemens' and baseball's legacy is not only shameful, it ruins baseball.
Similarly, Bonds' farce of a "victory tour" in the shadow of his own HGH allegations have made a mockery of America's pastime. The debate instead because "should we could the steroid era records the same as the real baseball records?"
People may still go back and watch and follow baseball after the Mitchell report. But through history the "athletes" of this generation - my generation - will always be tainted by the "did he or didn't he". An entire generation has been shown for suckers. We bought tickets to the games, collected the baseball cards, reveled in the records, put life-size posters in our rooms. And it's all a fraud.
For our generation, it is too late. Baseball has been one giant fraud from the mid-1980s to today. But there is some very small hope that for my son's generation, the sport can be saved from WWF-like freaks.
This is why Bud Selig - known for being a feckless, toothless commissioner - needs to ban Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds from baseball now.
Sometimes, you have to put people up as examples. Banning both from baseball would send the powerful message that the court of public opinion doesn't matter, the players' union, and the lawyers don't matter - sometimes, like in the Pete Rose situation, you have to simply ban a player to show people that you simply can't get away with cheating.
Folks say there's not enough evidence - they say McNamee is somehow lying about Roger Clemens, but was telling the truth about Pettite and countless others in the Mitchell report. They split hairs about Bonds, saying there is not enough evidence that he "knew" the cream would make his head one and a half times bigger - yet a book exhaustively details BALCO and the products Bonds took.
A house subcommittee is going to weigh in on this in February. But Selig doesn't even need to wait for that. Doesn't Selig know all he needs to do is issue this statement, and there's no need for congressional meetings and he is seen as the savior of baseball?
"I've looked over all the evidence, and I have decided to ban Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds for the good of major league baseball. Their presence in the sport is slowly killing it like so much arsenic. By banning them, it should send a powerful message to new and existing players alike: if you choose to run with McNamee and BALCO, be prepared to pay the consequences. Steroids and HGH have no place in baseball, and I condemn anyone who uses them or who ever used them."
There's been lots of ink spilled since the Mitchell report connected the dots. "The Rocket" has been issuing not very convincing denials of his use of HGH and steroids as far back as 1998, attempting to distance himself from his former trainer Brian McNamee who allegedly injected him with steroids and HGH. Aside from not passing the "smell test", this slow-motion disintegration of Clemens' and baseball's legacy is not only shameful, it ruins baseball.
Similarly, Bonds' farce of a "victory tour" in the shadow of his own HGH allegations have made a mockery of America's pastime. The debate instead because "should we could the steroid era records the same as the real baseball records?"
People may still go back and watch and follow baseball after the Mitchell report. But through history the "athletes" of this generation - my generation - will always be tainted by the "did he or didn't he". An entire generation has been shown for suckers. We bought tickets to the games, collected the baseball cards, reveled in the records, put life-size posters in our rooms. And it's all a fraud.
For our generation, it is too late. Baseball has been one giant fraud from the mid-1980s to today. But there is some very small hope that for my son's generation, the sport can be saved from WWF-like freaks.
This is why Bud Selig - known for being a feckless, toothless commissioner - needs to ban Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds from baseball now.
Sometimes, you have to put people up as examples. Banning both from baseball would send the powerful message that the court of public opinion doesn't matter, the players' union, and the lawyers don't matter - sometimes, like in the Pete Rose situation, you have to simply ban a player to show people that you simply can't get away with cheating.
Folks say there's not enough evidence - they say McNamee is somehow lying about Roger Clemens, but was telling the truth about Pettite and countless others in the Mitchell report. They split hairs about Bonds, saying there is not enough evidence that he "knew" the cream would make his head one and a half times bigger - yet a book exhaustively details BALCO and the products Bonds took.
A house subcommittee is going to weigh in on this in February. But Selig doesn't even need to wait for that. Doesn't Selig know all he needs to do is issue this statement, and there's no need for congressional meetings and he is seen as the savior of baseball?
"I've looked over all the evidence, and I have decided to ban Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds for the good of major league baseball. Their presence in the sport is slowly killing it like so much arsenic. By banning them, it should send a powerful message to new and existing players alike: if you choose to run with McNamee and BALCO, be prepared to pay the consequences. Steroids and HGH have no place in baseball, and I condemn anyone who uses them or who ever used them."
Comments
For that reason alone they shouldnt be banned.