Posted By:
Kenny ColeSo long as ALL potentially culpable parties are investigated. That would include the Commissioner, the players union, the owners, and the players. After all, since we're looking to preserve the "sanctity" of the game (something that I believe was lost long ago, if it ever really existed), we certainly need to insure that not only are the actual cheaters not allowed to prosper, but that those who knowingly prospered off of the cheaters who prospered are properly sanctioned as well. Certainly, it cannot seriously be argued that only the players are tasked with preserving whatever "sanctity" the game presumably possesses. Above and beyond all else, isn't that the job the Commissioner is supposed to have?
In that regard, if the powers that be in baseball were aware of this steroids thing and did nothing about it because, say just for the sake of example, it was bringing TONS of money into a game that was near death due to a strike, it seems to me that those powers are equally culpable. So, shouldn't we punish them equally? If an owner or commissioner had "guilty knowledge" [to use K.M.Landis' explanation for banning Buck Weaver]of the use of steroids, give them the boot too. While I realize the concept loses a lot of meaning when you are talking about professional athletes and owners, isn't it nonetheless supposed to be true that here in America, not even the REALLY rich and powerful, like owners, are above the righteous hand of the law?
Give me a break. I haven't weighed in before because reading all of the inane BS about the sanctity of baseball's records and whatnot has just made me tired. None of those records are sancrosact, and none of them were achieved by saints. Perhaps this is a news flash, but practically every one of the records we so worship was recorded by someone who cheated, somewhere, somehow. Unfortunately, when the lynch mob mentality gets whipped into a frenzy, as it is now, we tend to forget that fact. However, it is almost indisputable.
I guess you can argue about degrees of cheating, and you can argue about whether some types of cheating are more honorable than other types of cheating. That's what this discusion boils down to, and I'm simply not smart enough to figure out what type of cheating by the pantheon of record setters is/was best and least deterimental to the game. Moreover, I frankly don't care. What I am convinced of is that all of our heros cheated, or at least gave themselves some sort of undue advantage, in some form or fashion. That's why they set records. For "baseball" (or anyone else for that matter) to point the finger at Bonds, while ignoring all of those others who stood to prosper from his alleged misdeeds much more than he did, in my opinion, is the height of hypocrisy.
If all of the "wrongdoers" are treated equally, I'm all for a full scale investigation. Somehow, I don't think that's gonna happen.