Baseball’s Night of Long Knives
The Sportscenter alert on my phone informed me that an a decision in the Biogenesis case involving Alex Rodriguez, Bartolo Colon, Jhonny Peralta, Nelson Cruz, and 8 other major leaguers will be announced tomorrow. It feels like this is Bud Selig’s Night of Long Knives. Or, to use a Hollywood analogy, Bud is Michael Corleone in the final scene of the Godfather offing the heads of the heads of the five families, and thus putting an end to it all.
It just feels different this time.
It’s not the baseball steroid debate of the 90’s when baseball was fighting for testing (because they knew the players were using) and the players’ union was fighting testing (because they knew the players were using). We have come a long way since then.
It’s not even the baseball steroid debate of Bonds vs. Aaron where there was a sense that everyone knew Bonds was cheating but we dealt with it as left over residue for the “steroid era” where everyone was doing it, there was no testing, reporters turned a blind eye, and we the fans cheered on the long ball. The Bonds situation was baseball getting what it deserved.
There is an optimistic part of me that sees this Biogenesis case as the Godfather finishing it. After Alex Rodriguez gets out of the game (which is going to happen, it will happen maybe even tomorrow, and, let’s be honest, not even Yankee fans will be sad to see him go), and now that Braun has been busted (raise your hand if you believed he was innocent the first time he was nabbed and got off - I see that hand Aaron Rodgers - anyone else? Anyone? I didn’t think so) there is sense that we could truly be moving past all of this.
And then there is realist in me that says that the drug manufacturers will always be one step ahead of the testers (notice that none of the 12 players being suspended tested positive - and they certainly have been tested). And that the monetary incentive to cheat will always perpetuate cheating. The reasons I am pessimistic mostly revolve around money. Ryan Braun is the perfect example of the financial benefit of PEDs. It’s not clear when Braun started on the juice but his 34 HRs in 2007 when he won the NL Rookie of the Year award were just the beginning of a 6 year run of putting up excellent and steady stats. His performance on the field earned him a contract which paid off $6 million last year. Because of his suspension-without-pay this year, he will only receive a little over half of his $8.5 million contract this year. No big deal, because next year, even if he cleans up his act and becomes a .250 hitter who can’t hit the long ball without PEDs, he will earn $10 million! Then 12, 19, 19, 18, and 16 million dollars from 2015-2020. As the current rules of baseball are, the Brewers are stuck with this gargantuan contract. How many people in this world would trade their reputation, their chance at the Hall of Fame, their integrity for $83 million (the amount Braun is due in the next 7 years)? The answer, unfortunately, is - too many.
Another money factor that makes me believe steroids will not be going away anytime soon is Latin American poverty. Last week I watched the baseball documentary Pelotero (available on Netflix, I would recommend it) which follows two 15 year old Dominican ballplayers. July 2nd is the day that MLB allows international players who have turned 16 years old to sign contracts with Major League teams. A 16 year old boy (who, by the way, can hit the snot out of the ball) who lives in a poor village in the Dominican Republic sign a contract with a $3.5 million signing bonus. It’s no wonder these kids, and their parents, and the hospitals in which they were born, lie about their age - at the risk of a one year ban if they are caught. If these kids are willing to lie about their age and pursue forged documents imagine the lengths to which they would go to make them better baseball players. These kids have no concept of respecting the game, the record book, the Hall of Fame, etc. - all they see is $$$$$$$$$.
But here is why I have an optimism about this day of reckoning - the temperature of the players is totally different now than it was 10 years ago. While the players’ union of McGwire and Clemens fought for years to not allow testing to enter their steroid infested sport, I believe the players’ union of today would possibly even approve stiffer penalties for those who are found guilty.* The culture has shifted.
Ten years ago we all knew that the biggest stars in the game were cheating. Sosa, Eric Gagne, Bonds - they weren’t fooling anyone. But let’s ask this question: If you take out ARod, Braun, and Bartolo Colon with his 40 year old that hasn’t been good in a while pitching a CG shutout last week, is there anyone left in the game that we all know is cheating? Sure, there will always be players that will continue to test positive, but my hope is that this will be the final time that a Hall of Fame bound player’s destination will be derailed by a PED scandal. Call me an optimist, but a guy can hope.
And of course, the Godfather night of reckoning only worked for a short respite - and then they made part II and part III.
Oh yeah, and Alex Rodriguez started at 3B for the Yankees tonight - the most bizarre thing I have seen on the sports field in a long, long time.
* For all the discussion about steroids in baseball it must be noted that MLB has the toughest testing policy and the harshest penalties of all the major american sports leagues.
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