Steroids still the story
Posted: Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:34 AM
It only took two weeks to break my New Year's resolution not to blog on baseball and performance-enhancing drugs.
I watched “Meet the Press” last Sunday with Sen. Hillary Clinton. As the interview progressed, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her forehead. It never wrinkled. Nor did her eyes crinkle. Her cheekbones were high and puffy. Her smile lines were quite moderate. As the camera panned to host Tim Russert, I told my wife that Russert, three years younger than Sen. Clinton, looked 20 years older than her.
Then my mind flashed back to a conversation, which has been referenced in this space many times, with a prominent baseball player about five years ago. Just after we learned about BALCO, he asked me why anyone should care what any player did to himself. What business is it of anyone, he wondered, what a person puts in his/her body when it doesn’t impact anyone else?
I offered the obvious response about competitive fairness, but my friend was stout on his libertarian view. Then he dropped a good one on me. Look at your business, he said, and the number of people who have their faces, eyes, necks, breasts and waistlines cosmetically enhanced. What is the difference between a broadcaster making himself or herself more appealing to the camera and an athlete looking for an edge? That conversation has never wandered too far from my mind in the years that followed as more and more tales of the use of performance-enhancing drugs became public.
That conversation crashed into the forefront of my mind as I watched Sen. Clinton. Now I have no more proof of any cosmetic procedures undergone by Sen. Clinton that I do of Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens and performance-enhancing drugs. But a slight dose of deductive reasoning leads me to consider the possibility that Sen. Clinton -- breaking a ceiling for women and understanding how our society often judges 60-year-old women -- might have found a new way to have her face resemble a baby’s bottom.
I wonder if the overwrought politicians such as this week’s self-promoting champion, Rep. Betty McCollum (Minn.), will watch Sunday’s AFC Championship game in which Shawne Merriman, suspended for four games after failing a steroid test in 2006, faces off against Rodney Harrison, suspended for four games after admitting to obtaining HGH this year, for a spot in the Super Bowl.
Yes, I know it’s easy for Rep. McCollum to seize her C-Span moment by labeling baseball as “a criminal conspiracy to defraud millions of baseball fans of millions of dollars over the past 15 years.” Just wondering if she feels that way about the NFL this weekend?
The tone has changed dramatically from the St. Pat’s Day nightmare of 2005. Nearly three years of pain and agony have stripped baseball of denial. Now it’s open, acknowledged and regretted. The questions are where to go and how much to punish.
Meanwhile, I watched Tuesday night's debate and the various pundits, anchors and colleagues across the television spectrum -- many now highlighted as never before in high definition -- and my eyes see the obvious signs of cosmetic procedures. And I keep thinking of my friend, wondering if he is waiting for those people to answer the questions he asked me.
No surprise on the revelation Tuesday that more players have discovered a way to beat the amphetamine ban. This space wrote over a year ago of a top college tennis player in Florida who was pulled over on a traffic stop and found to have large amounts of Ritalin without prescription. The reason for use: short-term focus during matches. Wealthy families have discovered that, for the right price, they can obtain a doctor’s diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder which allows their children unlimited testing time. In the hyper-competitive college admissions environment, that provides an edge. Why would we think baseball players wouldn’t find a way to cope with the absurd schedule they must play?
Just wondering: Roger Clemens vehemently denies all. Beautifully worded in the New York Times, George Vecsey references Clemens “going out to pitch as if he were raising the flag at Iwo Jima.” Does Clemens’ fight to clear his name have anything to do with a wish to pitch in the 2008 Olympics?
There were actually player deals this week. And the Braves won big with their acquisition of Mark Kotsay. He’s a one-year, $2 million pug for centerfield. Atlanta took an inexpensive gamble on a veteran player that could be a terrific fit for a contender -- which the Braves hope to be this season.
Milwaukee also made a good move in grabbing Mike Cameron, a terrific clubhouse guy and Gold Glove center fielder. The Brewers will have to wait out his amphetamine suspension, but the experiment of putting Bill Hall in centerfield didn’t work and adding Cameron is a good one-year move for a team trying to win now.
Finally, a blogger wondered about the concept of a real “World Series” to be played in November. Let’s address the hurdles: How do you determine the participants? And how is it done in a timely manner? Is there enough money (re: television interest) to support this venture? Without money, there is no way to entice the players into such a venture.
The World Baseball Classic was an initial success, but throughout last season many major league teams felt the aftermath of the event which took place during spring training. Many teams will wait to see how round two (next spring) goes before signing on for further international play.
Now I know Bobby Valentine is a huge proponent of a series pitting the Fall Classic champions against the champions from Japan. That one series has a better chance, in my view, to succeed. But it isn’t a true real “World Series.”
