The Mitchell Report

After several years of investigating, rumors, lies, hidden needles and misplaced pills, the Mitchell Report has come to see the light of day. Since the document is well over 400-pages long, and the conspiracy theories even more complex, it’s almost impossible to grasp the whole situation. So let’s take a look at some of the conclusions we can be sure of, or least we think.
#1-Performance-enchancing substances have become a permanent fixture of Major (and Minor) League Baseball and most other sports as well. Steroids, Human Growth Hormone and whatever else are no different from any other sought-after illegal product or technology. Much like sneaking in cocaine across the border or computer nerds spreading internet viruses, the drug users in baseball will always be one step ahead of the people who are testing them. So the urine test works for steroids, but there is no test for HGH yet. And when there is a test for it, your local dealer will already have the next undetectable substance rolling off the lines and they probably already have. There is reason why users and suspected users like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Andy Petiette and Fernando Vina have never turned up positive. The best and richest baseball players use the most designer-quality state-of-the-art drugs that no has ever heard of them much less know how to test for them because you can’t test for something until it comes to light. Performance-enhancing substances are here to stay because the makers will always be one step ahead the catchers.
#2-Mark the steroid era with an asterisk not the steroid-users. Bob Costas, one the best broadcasters of his generation, said their should be a plaque in the Hall of Fame that reads something like this: There have been many eras in baseball including, segregation and integration, the mound being lower and mound being higher, day games and night games and the steroid era. Each era represents a change in the way the game is played. He went onto to elaborate to the guys at ESPN about his opinion and he is right. We will never know who was a user and who wasn’t a user and to deny some guys Hall access and while allowing others is a shame. Every team had a player on the report so everyone was cheating. It was dark time and to be honest a lot of things probably balanced themselves out. And even if guys like Bonds or Clemens are proved without a doubt to be users you can’t vote them out and vote in other players just because they were never caught. Costas is right; people have to know that this era like any other era must be taken with a grain of salt.
#3-Move on to the future. You can say whatever about how George Mitchell and his colleagues collected, organized and presented their report but his underlying message was clear: move on. Mitchell and Costas seem to be on the same track. Nothing can be done to undo the past. Mitchell suggested to Bud Selig that no punishment should be given to people named in the report and he’s right. Punishing these guys based on suspicion is irresponsible and will accomplish nothing. Ban all those guys for x-number of games but it does nothing to repair the game or teach them a lesson because now they know the rules of the game. Which is what Mitchell went on to say about how there has to be a state-of-the-art drug testing program ran by an independent operation. Now again, the users and makers are always going to be ahead of the authorities but it is our duty to protect the integrity of the game as best we can which brings us to our next point.
#4-It’s everyone’s job to accept responsibility for what happened and to do the right thing in the future. Owners, general managers, coaches, trainers, players and to some extent media and fans are all guilty of letting the problem get so big. Everyone knew it was happening but did nothing about it until the monster grew too big to contain. Now we have to take the lesson we have learned as rally call for the future. It’s every franchise responsibility, from the top to the bottom, to curtail the use of these substances. There has to be character in the board room and the clubhouse to ensure that users will eventually be found out. And if people are found to be cheating, then bring the hammer down. The NFL has got a pretty good system because it is strong and firm. Let it be known that usage will not be tolerated and players will pay in games, money and reputation.
#5-Suspicision will always maker louder noises than logic. As long as we have performance-enhancing substances (which we will) there will always be people writing tell-alls and coming up with conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, the media and the public often convict these players on the weakest claims. Let’s all remember that although there is a very good chance that players of the past were users and players of today are users that they deserve the right to an honest trail. Let’s not turn the hunt for drugs into 21st century McCarthyism.