Let’s face it: baseball was just asking for a slap-down. The sport is perpetually wrapped in a grainy Ken Burns mythos of America and apple pie, somehow elevated above other pursuits. Now that the baseball union has grudgingly agreed to steroid testing, it looks like every record book will be thick with asterisks. Except this time it won’t be for Roger Maris’ extended season but for the particular steroid a player has ingested to achieve a tainted benchmark. Here’s Harvey Araton in the NY Times with “Baseball swings and misses on accountability in drug testing”:
Believe me, Palmeiro pleaded, after a decade or more of the entire baseball industry lying to the public and even more to itself. When no one from the commissioner's office disputed the anonymous report identifying stanozolol as the steroid for which Palmeiro tested positive, suddenly the diversionary crime was the betrayal of confidentiality, the grounds for a potential grievance on Palmeiro's behalf - still being explored, according to a spokesman yesterday for the players union.Baseball will soldier on, however, because the money is flowing in. Bud Selig will turn a blind eye as the syringes are unsheathed. But already the older players are wondering what’s become of the game:
"One high-profile player tests positive, and look at the chaos," Dr. Gary Wadler, a professor of medicine at New York University and an expert on performance-enhancing drugs, said in a telephone interview. "The problem, once again, is in the system."
And yet it remains to be seen what the eventual - and long-term - impact of the Palmeiro affair, and any future steroid revelations, will have on the business of baseball and the game itself. Now, Hall of Famers and other former stars seem to be taking more of a hard-line stance, boldly questioning records and statistics perhaps achieved under the influence.Baseball will still pull in viewers but let’s not shrink from the result of the steroid scandal: America’s pastime is dead.
These voices have impact.
Guys like Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Joe Morgan, who told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Claire Smith: "The game doesn't belong to these players today. It belongs to all the players who have ever played - Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Frank Robinson - the guys who helped build the game, not guys who have hurt the game. Now these great players' numbers are being pushed back."