I'm sure most of you are just as tired of hearing about A-Rod and steroids at this point. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a television set with an A-Rod story. Everybody has his/her own opinion about baseball and steroids - should asterisks be put next to the "records?" Should these players be suspended for life? Should we not even care at this point?
I've heard quite a few players in the media say things like, "Well, just because this and that guy did steroids, doesn't mean everyone did steroids," or "I'm so upset with these players who admit to using steroids, because now everybody thinks I did steroids too."
Here's how I react to this - if those players who haven't been "cheating" have a problem with this, why not step up to the plate (no pun intended)? Seriously, stand up to the union that allowed this to happen, and have protected these players for years, even though they knew for a while about it. This union is for all players, right? It's not just for juicers, is it?
Better yet, why not put together a group of non-cheaters who voluntarily take blood tests to prove they are clean? This way, you guarantee to everyone that you haven't taken steroids of human growth hormones, right? Seriously, why isn't this happening? If indeed the majority of players are not "cheating," then why aren't they banding together to make sure nobody else cheats? Something isn't right.
Passing The Baton
10 months ago
5 comments:
UNION CREATED THIS MONSTER
When there are millions of dollars involved...
It certainly makes the record books a waste of time. Perhaps it would be better if people were open with it and two records: natural talent and assisted.
♺ All words used in this comment may be recycled. ♺
Players unions are all about high-earners at the expense of their memberships at-large. The NBA union opposed a rookie cap for years, and the NFL union still does, favoring high-profile rookies (marketable as future stars) over veterans. And the baseball union fought steroid testing because inflated numbers = inflated salaries.
Actually, some high-profile players and player reps did complain both publicly and to the union, at least in 1995 and in the early 2000s. The union wouldn't budge, and not enough people cared. Remember that 1995 was the year after a strike; baseball was in survival mode, the players' names were dirt, and the union tolerated no negative news.
Reporters didn't care until McGwire's 1998 HR record chase, and the McGwire stories were easily dismissed as hit pieces on a player the press didn't like. Especially compared to the puff pieces on Sosa.
Congress didn't care until the BALCO case broke wide open. Even then, gotta wonder if Congress would've noticed if Barry Bonds hadn't been involved.
So the union, public, reporters, and Congress didn't care. MLB may or may not have cared, but was powerless against the union. What else exactly were clean players supposed to do? Retire?
Here's a far more important parallel: state and municipal pension funds were floundering before the financial sector meltdown. Now many are in dire straits.
Public-sector unions will not accept retirement benefits cuts, and local/state govts won't confront the unions -- many pols need union campaign donations. Union growth -- by expansion or by govt growth -- compounds the problem. And any federal "assistance" would remove all cost containment leverage.
When was the last story you read about this?
But I bet we'll care a lot when pension shortfalls require massive tax hikes.
I just don't understand, if this issue is clearly NOT going away, Why do they keep using?
A-Rod is a Liar. I think that is the crime people are most upset about. Not that he used, rather his inability to tell the truth...
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