PEDs

[JohnU]

Colabello, Dee Gordon ... just the latest. Turns out they aren't just targeting NDFA Dominican kids now.

 

[Redsfan1507]

You all know my stance on this...I believe at the PED apex, everyone earning a paycheck playing baseball, under 40 years old, had or was currently used them. I also believe the VAST majority of current MLB players either has or are still currently using SOME type of PED- possibly in college or high school, or in the DR, Cuba, or in US minor leagues. Few were as rampant as Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Canseco, etc., but even Bronson Arroyo admitted periodically using PEDS as a heal quick remedy kept him from missing starts, without the massive bulk guys chasing power records gained.

I do believe the PED curve is on a downward profile, more because the pay structure has already been inflated due largely to PED's and has served it's big picture purpose, more than any sort of increased integrity in the game or it's participants. I also a downstream impact of decades of PED's has lead to LESS respect of the game, by not only players, but the media and fans, too.

IMO, it was never impossible to determine who was using, what they were using, or how much they were using, but those invested (Commissioners, owners, managers, coaches, trainers, players, scouts and agents) had NO motivation to admit knowledge, much less do anything to prevent, PED's. Bud Selig refused to acknowledge the issue at all, until Congress threatened to step in, and IMO, there has been only token steps taken since. For several years, Federal investigations were finding PED users that MLB testing policies somehow couldn't discover, other than a few sacrificial lambs, or MLB players with inconvenient contracts they wanted to suspend.

Personally, the only reasons I give a shit, is because of the mockery these inflated stats make of Hall of Famers non-PED stats, and because the fame and money involved guarantees thousands of kids that won't ever earn that fame or money, will still use them chasing the dream. It isn't just baseball, PED's have been rampant in ALL sports, and still are.

I don't think it's ok just because "everyone is doing it". If so, might as well do away with DUI laws, speed limits, littering fines and tax evasion penalties. Unfortunately, if there are rules against PED's, someone thinks like I do, or there would not be rules against PEDS, and so much of their ancillary works wouldn't be illegal.

Just saying.... Enforce laws if they make sense, or remove them if they don't.

 

[JohnU]

To be honest, I think teams are OK with the PEDs thing. If you win games and they find out later that one of the players was using, you don't have to give back the wins. You just let the player pay the penalty. If you don't win ... oh, well.

 

[Redsfan1507]

If you don't juice, and can hit .265 with 18 HR, you make $9M/year, or may get a 3 year deal worth $40M.

If you can juice up to hit .330 and 40 HR, for a couple seasons, you may get a 7 year deal for $200M.

You you do, and fail a test, you serve a 50 game suspension. It costs you $8.8 M in "penalty", but they still owe you $191.2M...and if you smile and sell the MLB product, and keep producing, you may not even get tested, or if you do, it may get swept under the rug...

The only FINANCIAL penalty is NOT using, in that scenario. Players know this. MLB knows this. So does the FBI, and Congress, back when they gave a shit about laws for a minute.

If it's ok, then change the rules. If it's not, enforce them.

Pro Wrestling doesn't have this issue...but it's profitability or arguably entertainment value, doesn't hinge on "integrity" or if someone has an unfair advantage or if it's fixed...they know it is. "Thug" mentality isn't always a bad thing in the NFL, according to most of the league, even though they finally recognize concussions, but refuse to take liability for them, the NFL still raises more Hell about how much air is in the ball, than how much HGH is in the blood.

Everyone that is rich because of it, or unaffected by it, is cool with it all...

The real PED penalty may be kidney failure or brain cancer at 59 years old to ten thousand guys that made a living outside sports most of their short lives.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

There's a entire generation of fans that have grown up during the PED era. It's pretty much synonymous with baseball to them. Sadly they probably could care less if their favorite player is enhanced or natural. They like their sport's star the same way they like their boobies...... the bigger the better. They enjoy the WOW factor when it comes to both.

I like the boobies, but the wow factor is gone for me when the latest overnight sensation goes from mediocrity to Super Hero in a single bound. With what we now know....Whenever I see a player have a bust out season it's difficult to not be skeptical.

The candidates are many, but Dee Gordon is the most recent to have his mask unveiled.

From a historical statistical reference the game has always been skewed throughout the eras. From the dead ball era to the beaning of Ray Chapman...from the berth of the Bambino to the rightful integration of blacks into the game....from advancements in medical technology to the obvious implementation of Ped's the past 30+ years. The moment we first heard the term "Modern Era" applied to statistics we knew historical achievements come with a disclaimer. Future baseball fans will view today's game in the same light after we're all dead and gone as well.

 

[JohnU]

Baseball's first mistake was in 1920 and hiring K.M. Landis to run the White Sox into the ground in a bid to make the sport relevant in the Bronx. Another rant, another history lesson ... all the same, the moral ground that was established to make the sport appear slightly more on the level than boxing ... it sort of worked.
But it set a trend it couldn't possibly know was coming. What resulted was a faux moral outrage over "cheating by chemistry" because, after all, we are a sport that's on the level. Chemistry didn't have anything to do with baseball, so the wise old white guys who ran the sport didn't pay any attention to it -- and still have no idea what it's about.
Instead of just doing like pro football, and assuming that everyone knows about PEDs, MLB pretended that "cheating" wasn't going to be condoned -- at least in the public forum.
The owners don't care who cheats, the agents clearly don't and I'd imagine the clubbies and trainers don't either. There are a few who posture that they care and there are some ex-players who say that the players union needs to step up.
The union isn't concerned with it. It's the lowest thing on MLB's agenda list, so long as they can trash a couple of players here and there to sustain their faux moral outrage about "cheating."
Fuck it, just hand the players a list of acceptable 'roids and give them a list of doctors who can administer it. Warning labels, optional. I want the Reds to win, not give me some form of 100-year-old song and dance about integrity.
But players who are 'roiding should also be responsible for the consequences of that and if the day of the 5-year, $50m contract is gone, then that's what became of it.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I hate to cast aspersions on advances, but baseball in it's heyday of the American Pastime, fans could relate more to players that maybe only made 4 times what average Joe made, instead of 400 times, hometown favorites often played most of their career in the same uni and didnt mind signing autographs without a fee. I betcha owners did very well then, but made a lot less profit than now too. They did all that without the DH, a bullpen of 8 guys of situational relievers, time clocks, replay, cable TV, rules against impact slides, interleague play, expanded playoffs, google shock journalists, fantasy sabermatricians, and $9 beers.

So, has baseball truly changed to accommodate the fans, or have the fans just been left to take what MLB decided to change for their own purpose ?

I've often said that no matter how dysfunctional your childhood, it seemed normal until you grew up and saw another way. So, I understand people who never knew another baseball before what it is currently. I also recognize that a quality product is often simple and uncomplicated, and inferior ones are often hidden behind distractions. Change, isn't always better, but it's usually more expensive.