What could we have done to deserve the lies, deceptiveness and cheating like this? Baseball is mired in so much disarray, that typical fans wouldn’t mind taking their hot dogs, ice cream, peanuts, souvenirs and six-dollars worth of beer back home, and wouldn’t care to stay as far away possible from the television.
Burnt out of the endless steroid crisis, the typical fan by now is eager to boycott the beautiful game of baseball, America’s Pastime that has mercifully died a long time ago, as many have even now staged a funeral for Major League Baseball. They are either upset with the notion that the game is falling on deaf ears, from the Steroid Era to a terrible competitive disadvantage. And with the latest performance-enhancing drug busts in the past week or so, baseball seems threatened by a flurry of players juicing the sport.
A sport that was thought to be long past a wrenched era, and clean from a mess surrounding banned substances, had learned there was no truth to that. As it happened again, and keeps occurring over and over, we were struck by a surprise again when Major League Baseball announced that San Francisco’s Melky Cabrera was suspended 50 games for testing positive for testosterones, and then a week later the league discovered that Oakland’s Bartolo Colon had also Juiced It Up. It is a perfect example, involving two players from the Bay Area, of how deeply horrendous steroid scandals are these days, and embarrassment still exist in the age of contamination — to be exact.
And just like that, gulp, we are talking about steroids, a common dialogue between a couple of fans. The culture of baseball, sad to say it, is syringes and pills unfortunately, and so we must realize that nothing has been taken into action to mitigate a crisis. For over a decade, Bud Selig has been among the inept commissioners in American sports, an explanation for why MLB is slowly dying and no longer is a national pastime, no longer on top of the national pedestal.
Selig is an apathetic, soft-minded fool who thinks he’s not the problem when, in fact, he’s responsible for baseball’s drug scandals. If a popular MLB player or anyone for that matter should be busted for using performance-enhancers, the player or wannabe slugger must be banned indefinitely from the game.
What’s so hard for Selig to understand is that banned substances ruin the beauty and integrity of the game. What’s so hard for him to understand is that illegal drugs are a turnoff for loyal fans, for which the vast majority have already stopped investing in baseball cards and teams, not showing any interest in a game poisoned by con artists and cheats. I never thought we’d see this day come in Major League Baseball, but it certainly has come to disappoint, deceive and hoodwink us all, as we find out the truth behind baseball.
It’s a league that runs a drug emporium, staring into those eyes, without keeping a straight face as players are eventually caught red handed after living a lie. So we thought Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan, two America divas who’ve made more headlines than other starlets in the past decade, were bad for human society. Apparently, we were wrong. Baseball is bad for human society, and you’d think by now that Selig would have a solution to resolve the messes in the game.
Should he turn the opposite way, and fly home to Milwaukee and lock himself in a dungeon forever, ashamed of his failures as baseball commish? Or should he not relieve himself of his duties, though the average person is waiting patiently and kindly for him to surrender his role?
It’s just another episode in one of America’s most popular games, and Selig is still the man in charge, but, sadly, unsure of what needs to be addressed and has no clue what’s going on in a league with no credibility and no hope at this very moment. He’s the head honcho in the majors, holding the position during an era where he’s regarded as the scapegoat for baseball’s dirt of performance-enhancers, but, respectfully, Selig ignores the scandals and plights, in utter denial about drug problems.
Selig is still haunted by scandals in the past, for which he can refresh our memories and recall the moment that Barry Bonds arrogantly remained too quiet, the moment Alex Rodriguez‘s rear end poked out, the moment Sammy Sosa was sneaky and conniving, or the moment Mark McGwire declined to talk about the past.
A part of me is disgusted with Selig, a man who never imposed harsher disciplinary actions to curtail the number of episodes regarding drugs. A part of me is trying to figure out whether I want to punch him silly or call for his job. Like before, this is the same kind of guy, who allowed incidents to turn worse and worse as time flew by, who allowed drug fiascoes to occur periodically without trying to jettison the humiliation, publicly seen on front-pages of well-known websites.
The face of baseball, Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO Laboratories who spent time in prison for distributing steroids, could be Selig’s successor, no doubt. This is where he’s more credible than Selig, willing to share thoughts and provide his side of the story by telling the truth, and believe there are major loopholes for baseball testing.
All around Selig, players have pulled one over on him, foolishly getting away with their wrongdoings and were allowed to stay on the juice as long as possible. The majors are dealing with the madness over baseball’s drug testing program, following all the positive tests — from Cabrera to Colon to Ryan Braun, whose doping suspension was overturned. Years from now, we still will be talking about steroids, as more and more players continue to beat the system.
It’s the age we live in, a time when a number of athletes — and not all — but a number of them find a competitive edge and then end up cheating. These players are playing for a mega contract, not only to win World Series titles. These players are playing for a living, not only to become a famous personality, even though most people dream of fame and riches, from which many sluggers and Cy Young winners have underachieved once they were given enormous deals to swing the bats or throw a fastball across the plate.
All of this makes one wonder about the state of baseball for years to come, especially if the drug program is flawed, as PEDs are used commonly in the game today. The league is punishing its stars, for sure, but the league is failing to view other options or come up with other solutions to rid PEDs. It’s troubling enough that Dominicans can go to their native country and buy illegal drugs over the counter for $30, with an understanding that those from the Caribbeans have better access to drugs, unlike in the United States.
It’s also troubling to know MLB ran 3,868 drug tests last season, including one in spring training and one random in-season test per player, along with an additional 1,468. Unfortunately, it’s not good enough, not enough to put the Steroid Era to rest. Time to find another idea. Time for geniuses to think alike. It all starts with Bud Selig.
Now, he’s in denial about it all. He’s up there in age, too, having to deal with the scrutiny and criticisms that he’s brought on himself, and no one else. For a long time now, he’s done nothing but hurt himself and baseball fans who have spent much money on games and merchandise to embrace the home team.
If Bud doesn’t care, someone has to be concerned with this.
It’s imperative for baseball to test more frequently and seriously.
