Running Around!

Growing up, there were some seasons that I watched or listen to nearly every single Yankee game. That’s over a 160 games a year. Nearly every one I watched or listened to.

Baseball has steadily corroded my interest in it. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that that is possible at all, but that’s what has happened. It probably started with the growing steroid scandal. McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, Clemens — these aren’t just big names, they’re the biggest names. The biggest stars. McGwire and Sosa were once hailed as saving baseball following the crippling 1994 strike. Clemens was hailed as perhaps the best righthanded pitcher since Walter Johnson. Of course, Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. Now Manny.

It wasn’t even so much that they used steroids — though that was bad. It was how they handled everything afterwards. Andy Pettitte is a great example. Pettitte used HGH in trying to recover from an injury. Caught, he fessed up, went through all the details of what he used and why, and took full responsibility. I don’t even think about the fact he got caught using HGH when thinking about Andy Pettitte anymore.

Compare that to the PR playbook of McGwire (not here to talk about the past), or Plameiro and Clemens (utter, unbelievable defiance). Do people believe them? Do they even seem remotely credible? Are their statements inconsistent with what appears to be a mountainous amount of evidence to the contrary? Do they even try and explain that away rather than issue blanket denials with no specificity?

It’s easy to find people to blame in all of this. The player’s union, under Don Fehr, has taken an extreme militant position — an us vs. them mentality that has resulted in their own players becoming villains. Rather than ask, “What’s good for the game of baseball?” — they take the narrowest, shortest term view and ask how they can win an individual skirmish — as if their honor is constantly at stake. The game will be a much better place when Donald Fehr is no longer associated with baseball. The owners and Bud Selig share much of the blame as well. They can claim that they’ve tried hard and that the current steroid policy is the result of their efforts. The more complete answer is that this policy took way too many years to implement and is still too mild. Selig and the owners simply have been bullied by a player’s union that thinks it’s looking after it’s players but instead has literally allowed the reputations of its greatest players to be destroyed. Further, by allowing steroids to flourish for so long, they created a culture where players are frankly pressured to take steroids simply to keep up (see Tour de France.)

Manny Ramirez is probably the best hitter I’ve ever seen. I can’t even imagine holes in his swing. I don’t know how to pitch him. And I’m a Yankees fan. I rooted, year after year, for the Red Sox to tire of Manny and to trade him. I wanted the Yankees to sign him this offseason. He’s a hitting savant. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. I can’t believe Manny took steroids. I also can’t believe that he has apparently the same idiot PR firms that advise Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Clemens. Maybe he thought that the actual drug he tested positive for would never be released and he could claim it was for a “personal medical problem” and that was that. Sorry Manny. If that’s the case, normal people kick and scream and refuse to lose $8 million and have their reputation permanently tarnished. Oh, and the fact that the drug happens to be one that is commonly used to restart testosterone production after a steroid cycle is finished? Why couldn’t Manny just come right out and fess up? I’d be furious. In time, I imagine that I, like everyone else, would find a way to forgive him. We want to forgive Manny. But not like this.

This atrocious scandal. Ridiculous prices. (don’t even get me started on new Yankee Stadium and how much damage they’ve done to their fan base by the prices they charge.) Complete non-financial parity on any level. Major League Baseball is being collectively run by clowns. They should just hire Roger Goodell to oversee a complete transformation from Clown League back to Major League Baseball.