David Gonos

Sick of Hearing About the Hearings

Sorry to bring it up, but I watched part of the congressional hearings today and thought it couldnt have been more of a joke. What I am referring to is these politicians attempt to speak and relate to something they know nothing about. At one point an elderly female congressional memeber showed pictures of Clemens in his uniform on each team that he had played for, and the pointed out for Roger that there was no significant difference in his size. At any point can we get someone in that courthouse that actually knows something about steroids and HGH. THere are different types of roids, ones for muscle gain, ones for leaning up and cutting body fat and these politicians have no buisiness investigating something they know nothing about and it seems they havent even done their homework on the matter, cause they are too busy going to lunch with Roger. Can we kick Selig out of his commissioners chair as well, cause this used car salesman is a bum and hasnt done anything to combat this.

Sick of Hearing About the Hearings

I agree, Bud Selig has to go.  When baseball was reeling from several strike seasons, baseball was in bad shape.  The NFL had just been named as America's favorite pass time sport and baseball was sinking fast because greedy miillionaire ball players and  greedy millionaire owners couldn't agree on an equitable split of the pie.  Fans were being turned off because no one appreciated their sacrifice.  After all, it was these poor stiffs who fork out a huge chunk of their pay check for tickets and concessions, and inevitably get stuck picking up the tab for this battle any way. 

Along came Bud Selig.  It wasn't enough that becoming commissioner was a HUGE conflict of interest, given that he was also an owner, but Bud was the perfect man for the job because he owned a magic set of blinders.  It seems that these blinders would allow him to manage and direct a billion dollar enterprise, being responsible for it's growth and well being, but also possessing the ability to selectively use his magic blinders to mask issues that would stand in the way of him and the brotherhood of owners. to making more money than they had ever dreamed possible.

Even though everyone in baseball was aware that steroids and performance enhancing drugs were  widely used, Bud's magic blinders allowed him to pretend that there was no problem.  Before long, everyone was pretending they couldn't see the problem either.  Coaches, trainers, managers, general managers, owners, the players association, league presidents and the commissioner himself.  merely chose to not recognize that such a problem existed.

Why, you might ask?  Well, once players got pumped up, they began hitting Home Runs at record paces.  Before long, they would challenge all time records that no one had gotten close to in years.  Fans turned out to the ball park in record numbers.  It was easy for trainers, coaches and managers to turn a deaf ear to the problem because their job was to win, and that was exactly what was happening.  It was easy for GM's and owners to look the other way, as their job was to put fans in the seats and that was happening too.  It was easy for the player's association to ignore the problem because everyone was about to get rich and the good times were just starting to roll. 

Finally, the commissioner's office and league presidents pretended their was no problem because baseball was once again the chosen sport, drawing record numbers of people thru the turnstiles.  It would have been too easy to add Performance Enhancing Drugs to the list of banned substances that baseball ALREADY tested for.  Bud's magic blinders just hid the fact of exactly how easy this problem would have been to solve.

Fast forward ten to twenty years and now who is all of this coming back onto?  It isn't the owners who have made more money than anyone had ever dreamed.  It isn't the managers, coaches and trainers, who enjoyed more job security during the era because they won.  Finally, no one, and I mean no one, has dared to point a finger at Bud Selig, who could have stopped this whole mess dead in it's tracks, HAD HE CHOSEN TO DO SO! 

The ones who are taking the brunt end of all of this are the every day players, who sacrificed their bodies to gain a competitive edge, to secure their families financial future and for a little glory along the way.  Players like Mark McGwire who used a substance called Andro that was not banned by baseball or against the law of the land, now are being ridiculed by congress and banned from the Hall of Fame.  Players like Raphael Palmeiro, who was very much a stand up guy  through out his career, were drummed out of the game.  

It seems that the guy on the bottom of the totem pole is taking all of the heat for decisions, or should I say failure to make decisions,  that the executive level was responsible for.  Why has no one pointed a finger at the Player's Association's role.  After all, wasn't it their job to protect the little guy?  Why has no one questioned how all of these greedy owners who raked in a windfall of profit, could NOT know what was happening on their own teams and try to put a stop to it? 

My friends, you are falling into precisely the trap that MLB is hoping for.  Let's villanize the poor players, who suffered the most.  Let's allow them take all of the blame for all of this.  After all, these guys are cheaters and dope addicts and glory hogs.  Well, Bud, that does not work because some of us out here see the bigger, the real picture of what happened.  You sat back and watched steroids destroy the statistical integrity of our game. 

Now, there is no solution to make this problem disappear.  Do you throw away 20 years of stats?&nbs