Date posted: December 15, 2007 - Saturday
Title: The National Shame
Current mood: disgusted
The Mitchell report has been issued and baseball's dirty little non-secret has been chronicled. Everyone has known for years illegal drugs have been a part of what is laughingly called "The National Pastime" it just hasn't be put down in black and white and published.
I will admit I have not always been the biggest fan of baseball. It comes not only from being pretty bad at the sport, but being hit by a ball when I was about 12. I later gained an appreciation for the game, but I've never been what you would call a die-hard fan.
I find the revelations of the Mitchell report, the reactions to it and even the need for it disgusting.
I want to be totally up front. I have a deep and abiding distrust of the cultural mythos surrounding the athlete; both professional and amateur. I think they are accorded far too many privileges and allowances based upon their limited contributions to society. And thus my perspective on this whole matter is colored by my own perspective.
All that aside, I think what this report and its' aftermath tell us about the culture of sports should disturb everyone. This is evidenced by the reactions and comments (and sometimes lack of comments) which have come since the initiation of the report and through the time of its distribution.
The first disturbing thing should be the total lack of cooperation by active players in the compilation of the report. Underlying that is the 'leader' of the players' union, Donald Fehr, who blatantly told the players not to cooperate with the investigation into the use of illegal, performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Lacking a subpoena power, Mitchell had to rely on cooperation in his investigations. The lack of cooperation demonstrates the complete contempt the modern player seems to have for the integrity of the game and for its' fans.
This lack of cooperation contributed to the inordinate amount of time (20 months) it took to compile the report. It also contributed to the general feeling the report, for the most part, only covered territory which had been traveled over before and was important only for the names it didn't name as being offenders.
If the report wasn't disturbing enough, the reaction to it is even more problematical. The newspaper coverage of the general public reaction shows the attitude is one of indifference. How jaded have we become that a list of professional athletes cheating and the rampant use of illegal substances in sports draw an "indifferent" reaction? One major league player was quoted as saying that everything would "blow over" in two weeks and baseball would resume "business as usual."
Equally upsetting was the general consensus no punishment should be meted out to any of the offenders. The justification for this, as expressed by at least one ex-professional athlete, was since Major League Baseball didn't have a prohibition against the drugs at the time they were being used the use of the drugs didn't constitute an offense that warrants punishment. Completely ignored is the fact the use of these substances for anything other than prescribed medical treatment was prohibited by the Federal government.
At what point did the policy of Major League Baseball (or lack of one) supersede Federal law? And, since there is no specific policy or regulation in Major League Baseball against murder, child abuse or bestiality would that exempt players from laws against these acts? And why should we tolerate this attitude on the part of athletes?
The shame of this whole thing is baseball probably will go on conducting 'business as usual.' Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, will dither around for a while, issue some kind of watered down comment or even penalty and then kowtow to the players' union in the name of harmony and expediency. There's just too much money involved for everyone to take the high road when it comes to dealing with the issue.
It is time athletes were held accountable for their actions, large and small. It's time we stopped accepting excuses and bending the rules for one class of citizen based on their ability to hit a baseball, or throw a football. It's time we, as consumers and just normal citizens, told these people to clean up their act. And if
