The Mitchell Report: A Black Day for Baseball?

Some seem to think that the Mitchell Report, detailing the names of a number of former, and a few current, major league baseball players who used human growth hormone (HGH) steroids is a black eye on the game itself. It is nothing of the kind. This report just made the obvious a little more obvious and empowered Commissioner Bud Selig to really take charge, to push down the player’s union a bit further, and then to give the impression that the game is now clean. I admit that I am not a Bud Selig fan nor do I think anyone who truly loves this great game should be surprised at this report or at most of the names on this list. But the leaders of baseball had to know Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were "on the juice" during their epic home run year. The truth is the money and attention they brought back to the game helped it recover from the 1994 strike season.

If truth be told most of the players cited today no longer play the game and the rules that were in place when they did play did not have a direct effect on their actions. Whose fault was that? The players were not breaking a single rule in the game at the time they used these hormones.

MLB will now have an Olympic style agenda regarding drug testing and the game will be better for it. What puzzles me is how they went about all of this. I am no fan of Barry Bonds but just because the guy is a "jerk" to the fans and the media shouldn’t make him the "fall guy" for the whole sport. The hypocrisy here is very thick and everyone who shared in the problem, including Selig and the owners, should really share some of the blame. Maybe now we can move on and play the game on a more level field. I hope so. As always the game will survive, because it is a great game, not because the people in it are all so great.