Enhancing Performance

Well it finally happened. On Monday, Major League Baseball set a group of PED using witches ablaze whilst tied to a stake and miraculously they all escaped unscathed. Witches!

In the latest episode of what has descended into a PED witch hunt, several MLB players, most notably Alex Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz, and Jhonny Peralta, received hefty suspensions after an investigation into the now defunct Biogenesis anti-aging clinic concluded. Ryan Braun, who repeatedly pleaded his innocence after testing positive for PEDs after an MVP season, was suspended as well last week. With all that was being reported in the media, this is hardly surpising as all the guilty parties were suspended for 50 game with the exception of Braun who received 65 games and Rodriguez who was in for a world of hurt.

MLB decided to assess Rodriguez a 211 game suspension, and it was widely speculated that they were pursuing a lifetime ban from MLB. Wait, can they do that?

Well as we have found out, they can certainly try. Although Rodriguez is appealling the decision, which will likely keep him in the Yankees lineup for the rest of the season, its very likely he will miss most, if not all, of next season. At the age of 38, he is essentially facing a career death sentance.

So why drop the hammer on A-Rod?

The reasoning given by Major League Baseball for the lengthy suspension is that Rodriguez attempted to cover up his use of PEDs by trying to buy documents and pay people off so they would not talk to MLB. But didn't all of the accused try on some level to cover up their usage of PEDs? Didn't Ryan Braun basically accuse the man who handled his urine sample of tampering with it? And didn't he get away with it for a time? What about Melky Cabrera who was caught last year, and set up a fake web site to try to cover it up? Why didn't these two in particular get 211 games?

The answer is plain to me: Bud Selig is trying to save face.

After the strike shortened season of 1994, baseball was floundering. A sport that was at the height of popularity was suddenly forgotten. Fans were furious and looked elsewhere to get their sports fix. That is, until the magical season of 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased Roger Maris' long held single season home run record. It was during this season baseball became relevant again as one of the most prominent records in all of sports was destined to be broken.

Behind the scenes, Bud Selig had to know what was going on. He had to know that baseball had become overrun with PEDs, but instead of doing something about it, he stood idly by and watched baseball gain back the popularity it lost.

Then the Jose Cansecos of the world brought the truth to the masses and after congressional hearings and the Mitchell Report and cries of the fans to bring these cheaters to justice, it suddenly became more important to appease the townspeople and burn these witches at the stake.

Who could resist a good ol' fashioned with hunt?

The names started pouring in. Palmeiro .. Bonds .. Clemens .. McGwire .. Sosa .. Pettitte .. A-Rod .. many of the most prominent players of the previous decade, and numerous not-so prominent ones, were thrown off the proverbial cliff. If they flew away, they were obviously witches. If they didn't, oh well, there's no way they would have survived the fall, so screw them.

Which brings us to Monday. Selig saw an opportunity to change his legacy, to erase the memory of losing a season to a strike and letting the PED epidemic reach epic proportions and replace it with that of a crusader who cleaned up the game of baseball once and for all. And what better way to cement that legacy in the minds of baseball fans than to kick a high profile, serial PED user like Alex Rodriguez out of the game for good?

It sets a dangerous precedent when Selig is able to do this unilaterally by invoking the "good of the game" clause in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Does this mean that any player with a bad public image can be tossed from the game for good after one violation of the league's drug policy? Few can argue that Alex Rodriguez is a rotten, dispicable, self-serving human being, but that is hardly a basis for throwing an extreme penalty like a lifetime ban, or even a 211 game suspension after one proven violation of the league's drug policy. Quite frankly, it's BS.

It's BS, and I'm beyond sick of hearing about it. I flat out don't really care anymore. I don't care who cheats and who doesn't, because I honestly believe the truth is that most players cheat in one way or another. This idealistic notion that the majority of professional athletes are "clean" is a load of whoey. I truly believe that it just doesn't happen. If it came out tomorrow that, despite what Don Cherry would have you believe, a majority of NHL players were using PEDs before they started testing for them or that they still are, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. The cheaters always have the advantage because they can't test for what they don't know about, and as long as you are ahead of the curve you're fine. Science is an amazing thing when you get it working for you.

And what does it mean to be "clean" anyway? Where is the line drawn? Should these guys be banned from drinking protein shakes or eating energy bars or any of that good stuff you can get at your local health food store? Does that not enhance performance? Learning that baseball players were doing steroids had about the same effect on me as learning that WWF wrestling wasn't real. It was something I suspected was true but didn't detract one bit from the entertainment value I derived from watching it. In short, they can juice all they want, I don't care. I'll still watch baseball and still enjoy it.

Is this the end? Certainly not, and that's a shame. I can only hope that this incident serves to take the torch out of the hand of Bud Selig and give all these witches the right to due process when it comes time to tie them to a stake and lay kindling at their feet.

-matt