Quote:
Originally Posted by z28jd
You're joking, right? What person who you talked to during that time and up until now puts any blame on anyone except the players? Think of how the players from that era are treated, and then think about people like Bud Selig and George Steinbrenner even being discussed as possible future Hall of Famers. The players were destroyed in a public court, while owners/Selig were congratulated for cleaning up the game when they were forced to do so.
There was a night and day difference how players got treated vs owners/Selig for the same thing. They were all responsible for the era, but not only did one group take 100% of the blame, the other group came out looking like heroes while also pocketing a fortune. The players made money then, but the best ones clearly lost future earnings.
Bud Selig got paid $18M per year at the end of his contract and he's still getting paid millions per year in retirement.
|
I have NEVER heard anybody refer to baseball owners and leadership as "heroes" for "cleaning up baseball." Every person I've heard of who had half a brain and a smidge of baseball knowledge feels the whole thing was botched from the beginning and more "CYA" than actually caring about the sport or players' health. And yes, I include Bud in that.
As for "100% of the blame," I agree that that may be true from some angles, and I stated in the beginning I feel that blame should be spread out among the rulers, players, media, and fans. However, I adamantly believe that I lay the majority of the blame for steroid use on the heads of
the players who took the steroids.
How about a more direct analogy: for several years, your government, at the behest of the banking industry, relaxed regulations to the point of there seemingly not being any. Lo and behold, the financial geniuses do all kinds of shady, crummy deals and what happens? The biggest recession in 80 years. Many people blamed the banks and investment companies (many of us are still hoping some heads will roll,) but
nobody condemns the government for their role. Why???