Steroids score an unspoken home run for major league profits, By: Bobby Gordon

April 12, 2006, DAILY BRUIN REPORTER
 
Major League Baseball is a circus.

Any value of the old "American pastime" has been lost.

Fans value the skyrocketing grand slam over the pitching duel and watch reality shows like ESPN's "Bonds on Bonds." The fact is that the game has turned into just that: a reality show, an overly dramatized version of reality in which fantastic things that never seem to happen in real life occur all the time. People want to buy into that super reality.

With the steroid scandal threatening to reveal the script behind baseball's entire show, people need a scapegoat to blame. However, it is thoroughly ridiculous to pinpoint one or even several individuals in the investigations of a problem that rests at the heart of the modern version of America's pastime.

Every time a new scapegoat is chosen in the steroid scandal, the general public and the institution of baseball act personally offended and horrified that someone would disrespect the game in such a way. They act as if they had no idea this was going on and their whole world has consequently been shattered.

Maybe a random Joe from Pensacola, Florida can get away with that level of naivete, but coming from Bud Selig, the commissioner of the league, it is a little harder to believe. No, it is absolutely impossible to believe. When it is possible for baseball outsiders to see what a stick Mark McGwire was when he came up with Oakland Athletics and how he ballooned into The Hulk as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, it only stands to reason that someone who spends all day every day around the game should have some idea about what is going on. It's not subtle – baseball is bulking up left and right, from pitchers to sluggers like Barry Bonds. Baseball is beefed up. The situation reeks of hypocrisy, greed and people looking to uphold an image.

Major League Baseball is interested in one thing and only one thing concerning the steroid scandal: appearing in the public eye to be diligently rooting out the problem and making baseball "pure" again. In reality, however, those involved do not want to see everyone on steroids "come to justice." If that happened, a significant portion of the league would be suspended, there would be substantially fewer home runs, and decreasing fan interest would send revenues in the same direction.

As long as steroids were under wraps, they were great for baseball's business. Out in the open, they threaten it and jeopardize the "American image" of the game. The truth is that steroids make the game more American, not less so. Americans love a circus, both on the field and in front of a grand jury. They're getting one.

The situation is simple enough. Baseball is a business. An astronomically huge one. The way steroids got into the game is an A=B, B=C equation. Players on steroids equal more home runs. More home runs equal more tickets sold equals more money. Major League Baseball itself stood – and stands – to profit in a major way from the influx of steroids into the game. Having Bud Selig as any kind of authority on the matter represents a ridiculous conflict of interest.

This is a business with millions of dollars at stake every year. Baseball is as much America's pocketbook as it is its pastime. A professional baseball league with a steroid problem is the same league that plays its games in stadiums with names like Petco Park, Bank One Ball Park, and Comerica Park. Someone's going to be on the juice when there is not only a Minute Maid Park where the Houston Astros play, but also a Tropicana Field hosting the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

There is no doubt that players like Rafael Palmeiro and Barry Bonds will go down in history as scapegoats of the steroid era, but it is important to remember those who play a huge background role in the "scandals." Most notable is the little hometown boy from Milwaukee, Wisconsin by the name of "Balco Bud" Selig.