Comments

First of all I think Congressmen SHOULD take time off from fighting terrorism and fixing social security to go to a hearing about baseball. Sometimes you need the perspective that only diversion can provide.

But I heard an interesting take on this question from Spaceman Lee while talking about his new book, "Have Glove, Will Travel" on NPR the other day:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4516268

Lee commented that in his opinion the recent steroids scandal fits the game. He said players have always pushed the limits--corking bats, slippery elm--anything to get an edge. To him, steroids fit the tradition of a back-pocket winning edge that's part of the game's culture.

Fans may balk at the reports, but ticket sales show that people want superheroes rather than moral heroes.

I think he's right at least in suggesting that this amoral must-win attitude is part of the game's culture. I think it's slipped in sideways into American culture as a whole. Not just in sports, but business, politics...

It's a hard reality, and it'd be easy to just deny it. But I really think a lot of the rest of the world views American culture as little more than an immoral, amoral, self-centered body of behaviors. This seems a very common outsiders view of the American Brand.

Posted by Jason Kerr at March 21, 2005 4:44 AM

Yo Steve...when is spring coming to South Haven? One thing should be a no brainer...when asked if steroid use was cheating, all panel members said yes. If they can show a credible link between record holders and steroid use, there should be no asterisk...instead the records should be taken away outright. It is, afterall, a result gained from cheating. I can think of no other business in need of reimagining more than professional sports (except maybe golf). Okay, throw US automakers in there also. And health care.

Posted by Mike Neiss at March 21, 2005 9:13 AM

What will it do to ticket sales and TV revenue? Anything?

Posted by Steve Yastrow at March 21, 2005 9:42 AM

Steve, I don't think it will have much impact.

Because baseball is bigger than sterioids.

Listening to Cubs spring training games the past two weekends...the comfortable rhythm of the game, the hope that winter might actually be coming to an end, the slowly unfolding drama of an inning, a game, a series, a season...it brings back anew just why baseball is great.

There are scoundrels, sure. And spitballers and batcorkers and steroid pumpers. And we'll find them out, purge them, and move on.

And this is the meta-rhythm of baseball, a decades-long cycle of identification, purging, renewal.

It's way bigger than Mark or Sammy or (gasp) Jose Canseco.

And get me a bratwurst while you are at the concession stand, will you please??
.

Posted by Joe Ely at March 21, 2005 10:02 AM

CANSECO IS RAT OF THE DECADE.

SOSA IS A diminishing brand - plus that weird kissing thing he does should be banned.

Only 1.5% of baseballers tested positive last year for all substances - so baseball is squeaky clean already compared to for example - Canadian citizens.

THE MAIN DEAL IS John McCain's giant ego - his craving of publicity - therefore the waste of USA taxpayers dollars to hold "IMPORTANT HEARINGS" FOR more TV face time.

Posted by John at March 21, 2005 10:28 AM

The indicator by which baseball makes all moral decisions, ticket sales, points to fan indifference on the issue. Ticket sales are strong.

My best prediction is that, in a couple of years, this discussion will largely be over -- except when some of the current sluggers become eligible for the Hall of Fame. Mark McGwire, for example, may have talked (err, not-talked?) himself out of the hall last week. He's the single biggest loser in all of this, in my view.

Posted by Matt at March 21, 2005 10:37 AM

Who cares? I gave up on those cry-babies the year they cancelled the World Series due to the strike. Maybe if more people did the same they would get their act together better. Baseball is a brand I just don't buy any more.

Posted by Mike at March 21, 2005 12:47 PM

Maybe the real brand problem is steroids.

As enhancing pharma, steroids have some seriously negative associations. Could it be that the real branding problem here is getting tied up in the steroids stigma?

But what happens when the majority of society is using performance enhancing drugs that help enhance intelligence, memory, creativity, and physical performance--with no side effects? Some leaders in the industry have this kind of a vision.

Will this discussion carry the same tone when pharmaceutical and technological human enhancements are widely considered necessary for competitive advantage? Is there room for a future that remembers cheaters as pioneers?

Posted by Jason Kerr at March 21, 2005 3:10 PM

Jason - That's a fascinating thought. If the drugs were safe and available to everyone, would performance enhancement be legal? Is caffeine allowed at the World Series of Poker? Carbo loading before a race?

One time's taboo is another time's accepted aid. Electric guitars and music sampling would have seemed like "cheating" to earlier ears. Special effects in movies, and the use of stunt doubles? Cheating?

To understand how much our place in time colors our views: We laugh when we think of Elizabethan age men wearing codpieces to enhance their look; we can't imagine that happening now. But we don't think twice about the purpose of the Wonderbra.

Posted by Steve Yastrow at March 21, 2005 4:14 PM

I grew up a St. Louis Cardinals fan. I was at World Series Game 1 at Fenway this last November. I was at Busch Stadium when Mark McGuire hit #62 in September of 1998. I am a season ticket holder of the lowly Colorado Rockies. I am incredibly disappointed...

I wanted so badly to believe in the charm of Sosa and McGuire during that magical season that brought baseball back. I remember thinking that the stars were aligning...LaRussa was managing...McGuire was coming...to the best baseball town in America. Shame on me for believing. Shame on them for not having the nutsack to tell the truth yesterday before Congress.

Jim Bunning, a Hall of Famer himself and Republican Senator from Kentucky said yesterday, "If they started in 1992 or 1993 illegally using steroids, wipe all of their records out,'' Bunning said. "Take them away. They don't deserve them. Go ask Henry Aaron. Go ask the family of Roger Maris. Go ask all of the people that played without enhanced drugs if they would like their records compared with the current records.'' The current players, even the ones that don't use steroids to perform wonders (see Todd Helton) are mum about the whole issue. They've benefited from the fans, the contracts, the money. The whole sport is guilty of being complicit.

Guess what Big Mac? America is actually kind to those that fuck up, admit it, pay the price and get on with their lives...look at Martha Stewart...hell, look at Marv Albert. Don't want to tarnish that "hero" moniker I guess. How about something like this..."I played baseball as hard as I could for many years. I took steroids. It enhanced my performance. The fans loved it. Baseball was better off because of it at the time. I'm sorry. It was wrong and it is incredibly bad for you. I don't take them anymore and I hope that my contribution to baseball isn't tarnished too much by it. Bud Selig and baseball's management has asked me to shut the fuck up about this in front of Congress but I'm going to come clean and tell you the truth because that's the kind of man I am." or how about something like this..."Fuck no I didn't take steroids!" How about anything but, "My lawyers have advised me that I can't answer these questions without jeopardizing my family, my friends or myself." What a pussy.

We Americans that go through twelve step programs and freakish diets and IRS audits and waiting in line at the Driver's License Bureau and all of the other annoyances of everyday life...we need heroes...yes we do. But we're even more interested (by a huge degree) in finding out that our celebrities are real people...that they make good decisions and bad...that they can't buy or lie their way out of trouble (even though they do all the time...). The ones that come clean...tell the truth...are the real heroes. I don't blame McGuire or any of those players for taking steroids...after all, baseball turned a blind eye and agents and general managers rewarded their performance with wealth that will provide for generations of their families. I do blame them for being cowards under the glare of the truth...

I remember the scene from "Ray" where he is visited by his mother in a heroin-laced dream. She says to him something to the effect of "boy, you've gone places I ain't never even thought of...but you broke your promise to me to never let nobody or nothin' turn you into a cripple." He went through rehab and never touched heroin again for the remaining 40 years of his amazing life.

Fuck Bud Selig and Major League Baseball for letting it come to this...congressional hearings. Fuck McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, Giambi and all of the others too cowardly to tell the truth. Canseco is a giant-sized freak and I've never liked him. But at least he's not afraid of the truth. viagra from canada

Posted by Dee Rambeau at March 21, 2005 6:15 PM

Our American pastime is indestructible! In a few years when the remaining few aging players of the steriod era such as Sosa, Bonds and Giambi have retired, the fans around the world will vaguely recall the specific details surrounding the maelstrom we find ourselves in today. I wish the guilty would come clean and help put the questions behind us, but Mark McGuire "is not here to talk about the past".

Baseball has survived worse including the 1919 Black Sox, cancellation of the 1994 World Series and the abomination of a Red Sox championship in 2004. Did baseball collapse when in August 1987 both Joe Niekro and Kevin Gross were caught scuffing baseballs only eight days apart?

Baseball prides itself on a strong connection to the players and statistics of the past, but there have always been anomalies such as with the height of the mound, size of the ballpark, altitude of the stadium, liveliness of the ball, number of games played in a season, segregation, quality of equipment, the military draft and the list goes on and on. There is no need for asterisks on today's records because the steriod era will be categorized and blended with the rest. These anomalies are one of the many things that make baseball such a great topic for debate and discuss.

Ticket sales, TV revenues and the like will be as strong as ever. In fact, MLB is growing its revenue opportunities through the internet, satellite radio and exporting its product to Asia and Latin America.

viagra overnight online The MLB brand may be tarnished... but what American brand isn't these days.

Posted by Roger Cunard at March 21, 2005 8:26 PM

Doping has infected practically every sport you can think of: Baseball, football, soccer, track and field, hockey, cycling, swimming, etc. Doping is no longer used to give a player an advantage, its what he/she needs to do to just keep up with the field. Spectators show no signs of walking away from these sports because of doping; we want to see supermen in action. We watch sports because we want to see outside human acheivement. For sports that take doping seriously (hint: not baseball) enforcement has become an arms race between the athletes and the doping control agencies. In the drive to win, its the athletes that have been winning that race. Congress will never be able to keep up with the athletes.

Posted by sdet at March 21, 2005 10:49 PM