Grant Brisbee of SB Nation, writing about Ryan Braun’s failed substance test last week,
made a point about the steroid era that was both incredibly insightful and, in retrospect, staggeringly obvious:
[I]t's still premature to turn this into a What Braun Did sermon. But the one thing the Braun story makes you remember, even before you know all of the details of this specific case, is that this crap will never, ever, ever, ever go away. Never. It's here. Forever.
This is, methinks, the most cogent comment about the steroid era that I’ve read in a long, long time.
* * *
There are two chief responses to the use of PED’s in baseball, two ‘sides’ that people fall within.
On one side, you have what I’d call the ‘angry villagers.’ These are individuals who want to eradicate steroids in baseball; folks who tar-and-feather anyone who
looks like they might be a user. They are chasers of monsters in the night, armed with pitchforks and burning torches.
On the other side, you have the ‘peaceniks’: individuals who oppose conflict of any kind. These are folks who beg for ‘compromise’ whenever a debate get heated. These guys would’ve been Loyalists during the Revolutionary War; they consider Chamberlain’s plan of appeasement to be sound political strategy.
It is very obvious who is winning this debate: the angry villagers are winning. Frankly, they’re kicking Neville’s skinny arse. The angry villagers have prompted Senators to debate steroids on the floor of the U.S. Senate; they have random, aggressive drug tests signed off in the new labor agreement; they managed to keep Jeff Bagwell out of the Hall of Fame. They’ve chased off Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, they’ve nailed Grendel’s arm to the lodge, and now they’re out hunting for his mother.
I am not opposed to this, generally. The whole steroid thing in baseball was getting insanelyout-of-hand, and it is a significant positive that major league baseball took action to punish users and limit steroids from the game.
I think, too, that a lot of credit for these changes goes to the angry villagers, the people who weren’t content to bury their heads in the sand every time Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa contorted their weird bodies to hit a home run. Left to its own devices, I think major league baseball would’ve turned a blind eye on the rampant use of steroids for as long as possible, as long as it was turning over profits. The angry villagers didn’t accept this: they didn’t like the falseness of what baseball was becoming. They didn’t like that players were ignoring even the notion of fair play.
I think it is to all of our benefit that the angry villagers won...their argument is a valid one, and they’ve made the game better. Kudos to them.
But…it’s time to back off, villagers. It’s time to put the pitchforks away, and disperse the mob.
Because Grant Brisbee is right: you can’t chase away all of the monsters. You can’t exterminate PED’s; you can’t have a perfectly clean game. It’s an impossible goal, as impossible in its way as our country’s ‘war on terror.’
Baseball before 1992 still had its monsters: it is difficult to see how steroids are drastically different than the ubiquitous use of
amphetamines in the 1960’s and 1970's. And baseball of the future will have many more monsters: if we are troubled by anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, what do we make of Bartolo Colon
using stem cells to fix his damaged arm?
* * *
What am I saying? What’s the point, Fleming?
Three points:
1) The anger and passion that led to productive, useful changes in baseball over the last decade is now significantly less useful than it was. A lot has been accomplished, but we’re screaming at shadows, now. We need to let up a bit.
2) We need to recognize that there is no end to this battle. Steroids are an example of a significantly larger fight, which is the fight between our want for an even playing field in sports, and the many medical and biochemical advances that are coming down the pipeline. That isn’t going to change.
3) We need to have a reasonable discussion about all of this, one that does not start with angry villagers gathering up farm tools. We need have a discussion that is not limited to one goal (the eradication of all drugs, anywhere, ever). We need to consider solutions that are fluid, solutions that can adapt to a world that is adapting, to sciences that are always changing.
The angry villagers won us an important battle. But…they’re fighting an impossible war.
And they’re fighting against monsters who are not monsters. Ryan Braun, if he did use a banned substance, did not do so out of malice. He did not do it out of some sense of being slighted. If he is guilty, he is guilty of wanting to succeed at a very difficult game. Certainly, he should be held accountable for his transgressions, but it is appropriate, too, to consider the context of those actions.
We’re at a point of stability right now. Braun’s positive test notwithstanding, all of the evidence suggests that baseball has gotten a good handle on the steroid issue. But we can’t continue to follow the line of thinking espoused by the angry villagers; we need to consider the peaceniks. We need to examine what the future of medicine and biochemistry is, and how it will influence sports. We need to discuss what we mean by a ‘level playing field,’ and we need to realize that the field has never, ever, been level.
And we need to discuss a workable strategy. We need to stop being re-active, and figure out a way to get ahead of the science; predict the changes to come and come up with a satisfying compromise to those changes. We need to let the Neville’s speak.
Dave Fleming is a writer living in Wellington, New Zealand. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions here and at dfleming1986@yahoo.com. He would like to congratulate his high school Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins on their undefeated football season, and their Division 2A championship.