The Mitchell Report. It seems to have taken on a nature of its own in recent days as some unexpected names found their way on the 300 plus page packet. Since then, pundits from ESPN to Fox News have weighed in on what is to be done about steroids in baseball. After all, that is why Commissioner Bud Selig had the report financed....isn't it? Curt Schilling said in his blog(wait...really?) that he thinks Roger Clemens should have any numbers from years in which the Rocket used PED's stripped and the 4 Cy Young's on Clemens' mantle should be also rescinded. The famous asterisk discussion seems to come back. What are we to do with the records in baseball if it turns out they're was foul play? The answer is simple:they ought to be in the books, but only as a footnote.
In other words, take a cue from track and field where numbers are everything. The fastest 100 meter dash time ever run by a human was Ben Johnson in 9.79 seconds in 1988. But if you look in the record books you'll see Carl Lewis is the Gold Medalist from that Olympics with a time of 9.92 seconds. From there semantics vary, but inevitably there will be a footnote of some sort. Looking down towards the bottom of the page, you see something to the effect, "Carl Lewis was awarded the Gold Medal after Ben Johnson of Canada, the original winner in 9.79, tested positive for steroids"
Ben Johnson's accomplishment stood as the fastest time on record until recently when Asafa Powell and then Justin Gatlin broke his records, presumably without the help of performance enhancers. Baseball fans expect, and now HOPE Alex Rodriguez is able to play long enough to break Bonds' record. In the same way people hoped someone would break Ben Johnson's record without the help of steroids.
This obsession with numbers seems to be a side effect of our culture. We constantly look for ways to measure greatness. If you ask any person over the age of 40 who the greatest home run hitter of all time, most people would tell you without much hesitation "Hammerin' Hank." The record books say Barry Bonds hit more home runs than any player ever, but since when does that matter? Nolan Ryan holds a number of pitching records and yet is not considered the greatest pitcher ever, but rather one of the greatest. Records do necessarily translate into greatness. Until Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl, he was considered "that" QB, who just couldn't get his team to the promise land. We all have our preferences on who the "greatest" is, but we have our own criteria. You can love Sammy Sosa and suspect he was juicing.
I am just as guilty. In an effort to prove Brett Favre is the greatest QB ever, I did a statistical analysis. But I can think Favre is the greatest ever, and you can think Marino is. That is the beauty of it. Baseball's fascination with individual stats in a TEAM oriented game simply proves baseball needs fixing.
One last point and it is something that has really bothered me about this entire process. I discussed it with a friend of mine and we came to the same conclusion. Athletes are being privileged in a way that is reprehensible. Professional athletes get paid millions of dollars a year to play something that is based on abilities God gave them(I understand it is more complex than that) They have plush locker rooms, access to whatever they need and celebrity status around the world. That is fine....I suppose. But that does not mean they are subject to the law any differently than anyone else.
A stock broker's job is to make money. He is to make money for him and his clients. If he breaks the law to gain an edge, assuming he gets caught, he loses his job and faces jail time and federal fines. Professional athletes get CAUGHT uses steroids, not only do they not go to jail, they play again that season. That is unacceptable, and that we, the fans, do not speak up louder about penalties for such actions is equally wrong.
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