Column: Baseball doesn't want truth about steroids
Column: Baseball doesn't want truth about steroids, By: Mark Madden
05/27/2007
Jason Giambi doesn't get it.
Major League Baseball doesn't want the truth about steroid use. Giambi hopefully figured that out when - after saying he was "wrong for doing that stuff" - he suddenly tested red for amphetamines, had to deal with rumors that the Yankees want to void his contract, and got called in for a sit-down by the Commissioner's office.
The meeting lasted less than an hour, perhaps because there are only so many ways to say "shut up."
If you want the truth, you don't punish or harass those who tell it. You cut them some slack. You plea-bargain.
Major League Baseball doesn't want the truth. Baseball only wants to catch one guy, namely Barry Bonds. If baseball can nail Bonds, the holy protectors of the sacred record book will be placated and the steroid problem might go away for good.
Sure, that's idiotic thinking. But baseball, don't forget, is run by idiots.
Baseball looked the other way with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Baseball is looking the other way with Roger Clemens. Baseball wants the steroid controversy narrowed down to one man, Bonds.
Even if there's never enough evidence compiled to imprison, ban or statistically discredit him, Bonds will retire sooner, not later. Ignore Bonds setting the career home-run record and just let the bitter old so-and-so limp off into the sunset.
Baseball's handling of the steroid issue is a con. Do you really believe all those suspended minor-leaguers use steroids, but no significant big-leaguer besides Rafael Palmeiro has ever flunked a test? That's just putting the policy into play.
Do you really believe Giambi testing positive for amphetamines just days after he babbled about steroid use is coincidence? That's just firing a warning shot.
All this seems fairly obvious, but not to the musty and decrepit pseudo-journalists who serve as protectors of the game's record book, but not the game.
These drooping wax figures aren't concerned with health risks incurred by steroid users, or with any competitive imbalance that might be reflected in the standings. They're concerned with the so-called sanctity of the record book, especially as pertains to the mythical figures of baseball's glory days (i.e., their childhoods).
It's a narrow view, to be sure, a view that was inexplicably blurred when every single one of them ignored the obvious and heaped glory on McGwire and Sosa in 1998 even when the truth was as plain as the acne scars on McGwire's face.
Ask the Steelers how much a sympathetic/ignorant media horde can help.
This past March, team physician Dr. Richard Rydze was revealed to have purchased $150,000 worth of steroids and Human Growth Hormone. Team president Art Rooney said there was no evidence Rydze provided performance-enhancing drugs to players, Rydze is still on the payroll, and that's that. No newspaper, TV station, radio station or internet blog is investigating, because the Rooneys don't lie and even if they do, we know where our bread is buttered.
Bud Selig, meanwhile, sets new standards for buffoonery, actually adding credibility to Bonds' chase of Henry Aaron by no-showing key moments.
As commissioner, Selig's job is to put baseball in a favorable light in any and all circumstances. His attempt to slight Bonds' accomplishments is ludicrous.
No more ludicrous, though, than the "privacy" of baseball's drug testing. Players who test positive for amphetamines for the first time are not supposed to have their names made public, but those of Bonds and Giambi have been leaked. Not because baseball has axes to grind with those two, I'm sure.
The sad part is, baseball is on the right track. Baseball can't solve the steroid problem, because the chemists will always be ahead of the testing. So the most effective plan of action is ignorance bordering on stupidity.
Finally, a situation perfect for Selig.
Mark Madden hosts a sports talk show weekdays on ESPN Radio 1250. His column appears on Monday.
