April 11, 2005

MLB PICKING ON KIDS TO SHOW HOW TOUGH THEY CAN BE

       It is similar to having a 200-pound adult male pounding an eight-year old child into submission.  That’s what’s taking place as major league baseball scours the minor leagues for failed drug tests the way a pedophile would scour neighbourhood playgrounds preying on the vulnerable.  I doubt that this was what those camera-mugging politicians had in mind when they called baseball onto their carpet and proceeded to lambaste the sport for its lackadaisical approach to the war on drugs.  But baseball needs to feel its oats and show the world that their crackdown on drugs is working, and since they aren’t tough enough to take on major leaguers they are taking on those they actually can beat.

       The whole situation smacks of desperation and proves how incapable baseball is in any arena that desires intelligence and forethought.  The feat is reactionary and exploitative and allows the minor thinkers of baseball to believe that they are making progress by catching and punishing future lawbreakers.  The major problem, or course, is that it’s just plain easy to pick on the kids.  Minor leaguers don’t have a union; they don’t have any protection or any rights and are easy targets. 

      If baseball insists on ploughing through the tiny towns and slapping around the small-timers then they should do so on the QT.  Why publicize these names?  Just because baseball believes that this kind of publicity will hinder future actions by the abusers I doubt whether any major league fan will care that Joe Backwaterguy from Palooka, Missouri was caught using steroids two years ago or whenever those tests were conducted.  If they want to prove that their new drug plan works then they should start plucking names off a major league roster.

       So far the sport has suspended one—ONE—major league player, Alex Sanchez.  They took a flaky, fringe player who is destined for part-time work with baseball’s worst franchise—Tampa Bay—and are touting his suspension as an example of their get-tough policy.  Give me a break.  The fans know who the lawbreakers are—and are waiting for one of those players to be caught and suspended.  The only problem with that is—those players aren’t being tested.  Baseball’s drug checkers moved into the San Francisco camp this spring and tested several Giants—but didn’t test the one guy we’re all waiting to be tested.  What’s the point?  Are they hoping to catch Scott Eyre or Jim Brower or some other bottom of roster player? 

       If Barry Bonds, and Ivan Rodriguez, and Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa aren’t going to be tested, haven’t been tested, or are being held back from testing until the drugs clear their systems then what is the point of having a drug policy? 

      Suspending Sanchez and a bunch of minor leaguers doesn’t prove anything to anyone, except that baseball likes to talk like a big tough guy in front of the cameras and then act like a cowardly child when the cameras are turned off.  Hide your children people; major league baseball is coming to your town.