The End of this Era?

Senator Mitchell's report is about to be released live to the public in about 20 minutes. I can't help but wonder what kind of impact this report will have on the game. Will the public view the game as tainted? Will we wonder if his sources (two as I understand it) captured the totality of the number of players?

Chipper Jones late this season noted that every player in this era - the "steroid" era - will be scrutinized, whether they used steroids or not. And it's certainly a shame, in my opinion, that an outside investigator had to scrutinize the game.

Let's be clear about one thing: performance enhancing agents have been around the game since the beginning of the game. There, I said it. Now let's consider why I've said it.

Baseball players have always tried to find a way to gain an advantage to play the game better, be it for the prospect of more money, love of the game, or pure vanity. Players who are on streaks will continue doing whatever routines they did since the beginning of their streak. When players decided to use gloves in the game it was seen as a performance enhancer; more importantly, it was seen by most ballists at the time as not a "manly" thing to bring to the sport, at least initially.

Through the years ballplayers have used various diets, vitamin supplements, snake oil, whatever they thought would help their bodies endure the trials of a major league season. Not much was really said about it.

But this is different. What we are seeing is not merely the use of natural agents to help the ballplayers; we are seeing agents which are scientifically produced and which often lead to long-term deleterious affects. Steriods and HGH basically manipulate the body in such a way as to enhance recovery. They allow far more strenuous exercise and contribute to building body mass.

But, this is a natural progression. And it's been one that baseball could have monitored since the first rumblings were being made in clubhouses.

Kennesaw Mountain Landis dealt with the innocence of the game when he became baseball's first commissioner of baseball in 1920. He banned the Chicago Black Sox (Shoeless Joe Jackson among others) and made it clear that gambling would not be permitted in the game. Today, the vestige of his decision remains firmly entrenched in each and every clubhouse in Major League Baseball as signs posted which forbid betting on baseball games.

Bud Selig might want to revisit that notable decision. He has to ask himself whether it is more important to protect the integrity of the game or not. We'll see what happens.

As an aside: Sorry for not posting! I will post quite a bit later after the Mitchell report.