‘Say it ain’t so’
By Patrick Kelley
Originally published 02:17 p.m., December 17, 2007
Updated 02:17 p.m., December 17, 2007
The young fan’s plea to disgraced ballplayer “Shoeless” Joe Jackson in baseball’s 1919 Black Sox scandal could become the unofficial motto of Major League Baseball.
U.S. Sen. George Mitchell’s devastating report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs by as many as 85 players fell on fans of the American Pastime like a piano dropped from a roof.
Not that drugs are a new story in baseball. The use of steroids and growth hormones has been rumored for years. Barry Bonds, the new Home Run King, is facing trial for lying to a grand jury about drug use. Two years ago, former slugger Jose Canseco published “Juiced,” his memoir of illicit pharmacology in the locker room. But Mitchell’s report, the result of a 20-month investigation, makes it clear that juicing is not just for a few bad boys or for insecure kids who hope that brawn will substitute for talent. Drugs are an integral part of baseball.
Mitchell speaks in his report of baseball’s “Steroids Era,” as if steroids are the most common identifying mark of the modern game.
The Associated Press reported that among the players cited by Mitchell for probable drug use are seven most valuable players, two winners of the Cy Young Award and 31 baseball All-Stars.
Faced with such numbers and such names — Roger Clemens, Benito Santiago, Lenny Dykstra and Chuck Knoblauch, among others — fans may be excused for thinking that, for baseball players and teams, drugs are not a problem, but just another sleazy business practice.
And it is a rotten business.
If professional baseball does not clean up its act soon, fans will find other sports to follow — sports with players the fans can respect.