If Every Player Was Doping, Why Use Asterisks?
By TYLER KEPNER
CHICAGO — The 2004 World Series championship ring has 45 diamonds weighing 1.89 carats, cast in 18-karat white gold. On its face is an Old English B, the logo of the Boston Red Sox. Johnny Damon does not wear his, yet it keeps losing its sheen.
David Ortiz was the most valuable player for the Red Sox in the 2004 American League Championship Series. Manny Ramirez was the M.V.P. of the World Series. Both on Thursday were revealed to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, and guilt by association may stick to that merry band of self-described idiots.
“I’m sure that’s what people are saying,” Damon said. “When and if that list comes out, I’ll be able to determine what that championship means to me.”
Damon now bats behind Derek Jeter, a cornerstone of Yankees championship teams that also included players said to have used performance-enhancing drugs. If any fans naïvely believe their teams were pure while the Yankees were tainted, Thursday brought a new reality.
“I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the only organization that had somebody doing it, you know?” Jeter said. “What does that mean?”
Perhaps it means that if an asterisk sticks to one group of champions, it could also apply to all. And if every great team of an era has an asterisk, what is the point of the asterisk, anyway?
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Dave Winfield
I grew up in an era when 40 HR was a lot. Next thing I knew Brady Anderson hit 50. And the focus on hitters is deceitful. You can't convince me that pitchers weren't doing it too.
Pitchers were deep into
Pitchers were deep into steroids, so much so that former pitcher Tom House admitted to steroid use in the 60s. Steroids is nothing new. An MLB players drank monkey testoterone in the late 1800s. There was a three-part SI series in 1969 by Bil Gilbert detailing drugs in sports and the need to create some rules. Its a good read for anyone who still lets the media manipulate their beliefs about steroids, what they knew and when folks knew it.
http://www.cosellout.com/?p=251
P6 did you read Rhoden's article in NYT? He talks about Marvin Miller (one of the reasons I'm interested in labor law) and Miller's belief these leaks continue to ensure the public remains interested in steroids and it remains a story so they can justify the millions they are spending on their Bonds case.
P6 did you read Rhoden's
Not until you just mentioned it.
Marvin Miller, the retired players union executive director, said that the outing of big names — A-Rod, Sosa, now Ramirez and Ortiz — has more to do with the government’s failure to get the evidence it needs to convict Barry Bonds of perjury. To justify spending millions, names drip out. For major league players, the more immediate question is: how will they fix this continuing and damaging drip of names?
Sadly, the time for fixing it has passed.
I hadn't thought about where such leaks might be coming from.
I have a decent mind that
I have a decent mind that works okay but I still can't get my mind around why baseball players are being pursued by the federales for allegedly using steroids. Something is seriously out of whack here. Trying to send Barry Bonds to jail?
At this juncture, the outing
At this juncture, the outing of select baseball players who flunked those tests in 2003 is about breaking the players' union and driving down salaries. If you think about it, none of these players -- with the exception of maybe Roger Clemens (assuming he's on the list) -- is going to face any legal liability from these revelations. Those who have won championships and/or awards aren't going to be stripped of those honors and neither should people expect the 'guilty' athletes (or their teams) to give them back.
It's therefore safe to conclude that MLB is less concerned with the integrity of baseball the sport than it is the power it can wield over baseball the business. Otherwise, they'd either move on from an era when PED's were tolerated, if not, encouraged by MLB teams & owners (upholding the confidentiality of the '03 test results), or they'd act to strip the teams and players of these awards and titles.