"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
Yes, it is 100% the responsibility of the media to act as a "watchdog" for the league and report stories it finds immoral. The media acts as a regulator. How can these same writers take a moral stand against PEDs now when it didn't during the players' careers? It was in the players best interests to be using PEDs--how was it in the best interest of the sportswriters?
"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
Seriously? 14 pages about this?
Is Fay's opinion really that important?
I have 7 in my browser settings.
FWIW Tj Quinn also gave up his vote
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/87...hall-fame-vote
And yes it's a baseball subject and evidently it matters.. crazy stuff for baseball board eh?
I agree. These sportswriters didn't have a problem with steroids at the time when they were writing widely-read articles that glorified these PED abusers during the height of the steroid era. The writers made a lot of money singing the praises of the cheaters back then, now they want to make more money by vilifying those same players now.
The sportswriters should have exposed the scandal 15 years ago, but they chose to ride the wave of baseball's resurgence after the lock-outs and strikes had the game in the doldrums. All the people who are now decrying the use of performance enhancing drugs are the same people that benefited from the cheating. The Commissioner, the Hall of Fame, the owners, the media, the managers and the players (and even many fans) all knew about the cheating while it was going on and did nothing about it because they were all indirectly benefiting from it too. Now they all pretend to be outraged.
The cheating players got away with it because they were permitted to get away with it by the watchkeepers turning a blind eye. Steroids fueled a gravy train that fed a lot of hungry mouths. Now some of those mouths are speaking out in a holier-than-thou fashion and acting as if they themselves weren't complicit in the perpetration of the crimes they now decry.
"Boys, I'm one of those umpires that misses 'em every once in a while so if it's close, you'd better hit it." Cal Hubbard
All my posts are my opinion - just like yours are. If I forget to state it and you're too dense to see the obvious, look here!
While there is some level of self-righteousness and hypocrisy, it really does not change the debate regarding the players. Just like a lot of people cheat on their taxes while yelling about tax shelters for the rich, it doesn't mean that the tax shelters for the rich should be considered acceptable as a result.
"Rounding 3rd and heading for home, good night everybody"
I certainly wasn't arguing that steroid usage was acceptable.
My point was that everyone involved with baseball is to blame for the steroids fiasco. The players bear more blame than anyone else, but the commissioner, the managers, the team owners and the media were all aware of the abuse of PEDs but they allowed it to continue and in effect encouraged it by rewarding the players who cheated. It was a league-wide systemic cancer that infected every facet of the game of baseball. Isolating a few star players and pinning a pathetically weak penalty on to them is just another way to gloss over the problem.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens didn't ruin the game all by themselves. They were merely pawns in a much bigger game of chess. It just strikes me as short-sighted to single out a few stars for punishment. The biggest beneficiaries of the steroid era were Commissioner Bud Selig, the owners and the media (especially TV networks) who enjoyed the financial windfall generated by the spike in baseball's popularity during that era. They would never have done anything about PEDs if the US Congress had not forced their hand. If all we ever do to punish the criminals who cheated the game and the fans is deny a few stars induction to the Hall of Fame then most of the worst offenders of the Steroid Era will have gotten away scot free.
Last edited by AtomicDumpling; 01-04-2013 at 11:37 PM.
I think here is the conceptual diversion on the issue, IMO. Some consider excluding some of the players from the HOF as "punishment" or "denying" them some right they have "earned" with their performance (a part of which, is from cheating, we can speculate how much but never know until we send McFly back to steal Barry's syringes).
No, the induction is an honor. Its totally optional.
The argument that because we can't get Selig or the writers or the others who had a part in this, we should HONOR Clemens and Bonds (and the others...), doesn't make sense to me.
And yes, people who played a big part in the phenomenon and the cover up will get away. But maybe someone will think twice about cheating or covering up in the future.
People forget that the Black Sox Eight were acquitted in a court of law. The participation of several in the fix was debatable. And there was a cover-up that supposedly involved many others (yes, writers too).
Judge Landis kicked them all out of baseball. He didn't get all the players who threw games before or after. He didn't get the writers or the owners who covered up all the cheating. By all accounts, gambling was an epidemic then much like steroids were recently (steroids may still be).
Landis didn't get all the cheaters and he may have even banished an "innocent" or two and/or a "not totally guilty" one. But he was right.
If all we get from the steroid cheating epidemic is Bonds and Clemens looking at the HOF from the outside in, it won't be much at all.
But the alternative is nothing.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
http://dalmady.blogspot.com
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