We were inundated over the weekend with the news that Alex Rodriguez took two anabolic steroids in 2003. MLB Network interrupted their regular programming and handled the crises as CNN would if a national emergency occurred. Bob Costas was there to interview the author from SI who wrote the story. All and all, MLBN did a great job.
But as I watched and listened to the accusations, I thought crossed my mind. There is a lot of blame to go around. The players, who are most responsible, the player's union, and ownership all have contributed to this mess. Is it fair to exonerate the fans? How much of our expectations has helped contribute to the use of performance enhancing drugs?
Clearly the buck must stop with the players. No one is putting guns to their heads forcing them to juice. But baseball, like all sports, has become a huge business. There is much money to be made. It is a clear case of supply and demand. The better a player is, the more money that player will make. Careers are relatively short in baseball. Most ballplayers have no other skill. If they don't earn the predominate amount of money over their lifetime during their playing years, there is little opportunity to make it elsewhere.
We, the fans, have become more insatiable than ever. A good competitive team is no longer enough. From the winter meetings on, our team better win the World Series or else. Anything short of a World Championship is a failure, a disgrace. I have heard Derek Jeter, on more than one occasion, state as much further feeding our frenzy. The 2008 Tampa Bay Rays had a storybook season but became irrelevant as soon as the Phillies defeated them in the World Series. David Wright had another great season in '08 but went 0 for 4 on the last day and everyone wanted to trade him. The Yankees did not make the playoffs for a 14th consecutive year and Yankee fans screamed bloody murder. What kind of pressure do we put on these athletes when all of us expect them to perform flawlessly every time they step on the field?
Years ago, it was enough that our athletes gave their best effort. But as salaries went up, so did expectations. Suddenly it was okay, and even encouraged, to bash a ballplayer if they did not perform to the level we felt they should. In fairness, fans have the right to complain. We pay the ticket prices. We pay the cable bills. We deserve the right to demand much from the teams we support. Seriously, the fans could never be held accountable for the cheating ways of athletes. All I'm saying is that at some small percentage, we the fans have contributed to the culture of sports in America today. After all, it is money from our pockets that have made owners, players, and union leaders filthy rich.
The truth is, baseball players have cheated for years. Pitchers scuffed and applied foreign substances to baseballs . Hitters have corked bats or used excessive amounts of pine tar. The 1951 New York Giants devised an elaborate scheme of stealing signs from the opposition ultimately winning the NL Pennant as a result. Doc Ellis pitched a no-hitter while tripping on LSD. Dwight Gooden's early performances may have been the result, in part, to the invincibility one feels while high on coke. What makes the steroid issue so different is that these drugs allow the body to heal faster. They make the athlete stronger in turn enabling balls to be hit further or pitches to be thrown faster. Those things inflate statistics and that's what has everyone in a fervor.
Who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame is what it comes down to. Is A-Rod's entire career a fake because he failed a drug test once in 2003. Don't forget, at the time, there were no penalties in the game for failing these tests. The big story is A-Rod. But do not forget there are 103 additional players on that list.
And what about the player's union. What kind of union is it that protects some of it's members who cheat while the rule abiding ones end up earning less dollars? The fact that Gene Orza tipped off certain players when drug tests was about to happen speaks volumes. It is a system of corruption. One in which we fans looked away as long as the performances on the field captured our imagination. The owners looked away too as home runs left the yard at a phenomenal rate and padded their pockets with the result from the ticket booths and TV revenue.
When it will change? When the owners and the unions can seriously come up with a system that severely punishes those that cheat the system. To some degree it has started already. In the past year and a half we have seen a number of players suspended for being caught with performance enhancing drugs. As I mentioned earlier, we the fans foot the bill. If we want to see steroids go away, then we need to act by not attending games and following so intently from our couches. But as long as we continue to support baseball, than we must conclude that we, at the very least, are a small part of the problem.
