When baseball and politics converge

Baseball and politics converging -- the ostensible point of this blog according to the guy who runs the place -- so rarely does occur.

But when it does, man, is it full of gas; bloviaion rarely gets more lofty and nonsensical.

As Major League Baseball's steroid scandal widened to include the sport's most prolific active home run hitter, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday that he will introduce legislation imposing drug testing standards on professional athletes if baseball players and owners do not adopt a stringent crackdown on steroids by January.

In the wake of the disclosure that San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds used substances provided him by a trainer who has been indicted in a steroid distribution ring, McCain, in an interview, gave baseball until next month to adopt the more stringent drug testing requirements of minor league baseball or face federal action.

"Major league baseball players and owners should meet immediately to enact the standards that apply to the minor leagues, and if they don't, I will have to introduce legislation that says professional sports will have minimum standards for testing," McCain said after returning from a European trip late yesterday. "I'll give them until January, and then I'll introduce legislation."

Under the threat of federal intervention, Major League Baseball officials promised rapid action to impose stringent drug testing.

There's only a couple of problems with all of this. First, the reason BALCO (I missed the interview with the company's founder, Victor Conti, last night on 20/20, but heard the highlights this morning on the radio...ouch), was so popular a destination for athletes was that Conti offered an effective product to mask their steroid use. So it is unlikely testing would have detected what Giambi, Bonds, and Sheffield (among others) were doing. I mean, how many times has Marion Jones peed in a cup? Secondly, if the government imposes testing, what happens when a player is caught? Does he go to jail?

I'm sure the players' union is eager to get on board with that one.

Baseball reported a year ago that as many as 84 of its 1,200 players tested positive for steroid use, providing the first official accounting of the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports and triggering automatic testing -- with penalties attached -- this past season. The discovery that 5 percent to 7 percent of 1,438 steroid tests were positive automatically triggered mandatory testing of every player this past season. The testing was anonymous, so the players who tested positive could not be identified. That process is ongoing.

A spokesman for the players' association, Greg Bouris, said the union had no comment.

A source of concern for the union seems to be whether drug testing of players leads to legal action by law enforcement authorities.

"What if baseball does its drug testing, finds illegal use of steroids and then a player is suspended," asked one MLB insider who asked not be identified. "Then what happens? Do you get a visit from someone with a badge? The union objection comes from what happens when somebody is found guilty."

Most law enforcement agencies who investigate drug cases tend to be more concerned with prosecuting drug distributors rather than individual users.

Trouble with that last paragraph is that most law enforcement agencies, in trying to prosecute the distributors, aren't all that concerned with taking down the users in order to get to the sellers. Whoever leaked the grand jury testimony to the SF Chronicle certainly didn't do it out of concern for the great institution of baseball. Or to protect Henry Aaron's legacy. They did it to put more pressure on athletes to step forward and start fingering the source of their steroids.

Moreover, it seems to me that if baseball should be subject to interstate commerce laws, and therefore subject to the long arm of Sen. John McCain, then shouldn't baseball also -- finally -- be subject to antitrust regulations for the same reason? If it isn't, then the former makes no sense either.

Drugs in general bring out the best in people's (especially congressmen's) hypocricy, and "performance enhancing drugs" more so than most. As we were watching ESPN News cover this wih great solemnity this morning, Madame Cura noted the many commercials for Enzyte and Viagra on the broadcast. Performance enhancing drugs, albeit of a different kind. And baseball's most effective fan drug is the long ball. What brought baseball's popularity back after the lockout ten years ago was the thrilling chase of Maris's record by Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. We knew McGwire was using andro, legal at the time, but I don't think andro was enough to turn him into the incredible hulk he became in the latter half of his career. And Sosa. Yikes. The guy's head is actually larger than when he started out. I don't recall MLB shedding too many tears of righteous indignation during their run.

And Bonds has been allowed to play by his own rules for years now. It's no coincidence that he packs the house in San Fran and on the road.

Steroids have changed the game...and fans love it.

I'm not against more stringent testing. But I don't think it is the magic bullet that MLB wants to infer that it is. The only way that use of this stuff is going to get curtailed is if the players, the managers, the GMs and the owners demand that it be curtailed. The players know if a guy is juicing, they see the acne and they see the drastically increased conditioning. So do the coaches and managers. If they were willing to speak up, and if team officials were willing to act, by threatening to bench the player and hand out stiff fines, the stuff would end pretty quickly. Instead, what happens now is that when a Turk Wendell accuses a fellow player like Bonds of pumping bad things in his body, it's the tattler who is ridiculed, especially when the guy doing the talking is a journeyman reliever and he's talking about a superstar.

In typical fashion, Bud Selig and the owners are trying to paint the players' union as the sole source of the problem. The problem is the culture of the sport that puts so much emphasis on home runs (and throwing 97 mph -- don't think pitchers aren't taking little helpers; Roger Clemens' career eerily mirrors Bonds'). It's about players wanting to stick together at all costs and owners rewarding players who do anything they can to perform better than their peers. The Giants' owner and GM know what Bonds is doing to stay competitive. And they just signed the 41 year old to a three-year contract. The Yankees knew what they were getting when they acquired Giambi for 30 years and a half trillion dollars or whatever (which makes their attempts to rid themselves of his contract now that his enhanced body may be breaking down look so craven).

But, but, but, I say. Let us have hearings! Let us have testimony! Let us have sermons delivered from hushed Senate chambers by the Right Reverand McCain. Let us have more tut tutting by the bozos on sports talk radio.

It will help us keep warm this winter as we wait for Spring Training.