Baseball stooges
Commissioner Bud Selig has always been a kind of cartoon character (picture Elmer Fudd wearing glasses and sleeping at night in a business suit), and he has slipped further into caricature this season attempting to mock up public support for his "independent" steroid investigation and his chief investigator, former Senator George Mitchell. This week, Selig reportedly threatened to suspend Jason Giambi for what was considered by most observers to be the Yankee firstbaseman's implied admission last month that he used steroids during the late '90s and early '00s.To begin with, the Commissioner's capacity to suspend or fine a baseball player-- because of a tacit confession of steroid use during a time when the substances weren't specifically banned by the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement-- is virtually nil.
But further, slugger Mark McGwire was crucified by the media in March of 2003 for expressing, before a Congressional committee, his desire "to talk about the future" of baseball, instead of the past, in reference to steroid abuse. Today, his words ring with more resonance than ever, as Selig continues to try to wipe clean the slate of monumental errors made by Major League Baseball on his watch. He wants desperately to connect the issue to pre-2002 player behavior that violated no league policies existing at that time. It's a microcosm of the problems with our national drug policy at large-- treating the issue as a "law and order" problem, with public shaming, retribution, and largely symbolic legal prosecutions, rather than as a public health matter, involving corporate and government culpability.
Meanwhile, Selig still refuses to declare whether or not he'll be in attendance when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's all-time home run record later this season. What message will that send if he refuses to show, or even as he simply continues to prevaricate? This one-- Major League Baseball's product is illegitimate, and it has been for the last 20 years.
And if that is indeed the case, we should all expect large refunds on our financial investment in the game during those two decades. Think we'll get them?
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Newspaper passage of the day #1: From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bernie Miklasz, this morning:
"(Tony) La Russa may be able to beat the DUI charges filed against him in Florida. There was an interesting item in the Palm Beach Post earlier this week about the conduct of the law-enforcement officers on the scene of TLR's arrest; a video reportedly shows the cops laughing, joking around and talking about how to "scare" the driver (La Russa) inside the vehicle. And, according to the newspaper, two officers supposedly "prepared" La Russa for jail by teaching him gang signs. If these accounts are true, the seeming lack of professionalism will be exploited by La Russa's attorney and could work in La Russa's favor if the case goes to trial."
Palm Beach Post item here, with more gooey details.
Newspaper passage of the day #2: From the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan, yesterday:
"Mark Buehrle still gets heat for wearing a St. Louis Cardinals cap at a World Series game last October, but Carlos Zambrano one-upped Buehrle before Thursday's Cubs game. Zambrano motioned to reporters standing around the clubhouse and pointed to a box that contained a pair of red shinguards. "It's a gift from my next catcher, Yadier," Zambrano said. Zambrano was referring to St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina, although he didn't specify whether he was going to St. Louis or Molina was coming to the Cubs."
Molina's not going to the Cubs, as no one believes Zambrano intended to imply, but after watching Carlos mix it up in another ballpark brawl this afternoon, I'd say Zambrano's next catcher is most likely to be a fellow inmate in the yard of a psychiatric prison. The guy's a nutcase.
posted by CM @ 12:37 PM
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