The Mitchell report — pass the asterisks around

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 12/27/2007

   Major League Baseball will never be the same, not since the release of the now-famous George Mitchell report. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitchell, after a 20-month investigation into steroid use in Major League Baseball (MLB), released his 409-page finding that 86 current and former major league players are known to have purchased or used steroids or Human Growth Hormone (HGH).

 That has brought major shame to the All-American pastime. This is the worst thing that’s happened to baseball since the 1919 Black Sox Scandal.

 Is this what MLB wanted? Did MLB get what they expected, or did Commissioner Bud Selig and the owners officially get what they already knew? Remember, Selig is the man who hired Mitchell, and MLB paid out $27 million for this.

 Man, that’s a lot of money to get kicked in the gut. The official Steroid Era in Baseball now has a timeline.

 Other than the owners and the reputation of the game itself, no one was hit harder by this report than Roger Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young award winner who was the biggest name on the list. He was finger-pointed by Brian McNamee, a former New York Yankees strength and conditioning coach who was interviewed three times.

 McNamee said he injected Roger Clemens with Winstrol starting in 1998, and injected him four to six times in 2000. Clemens, through his attorney, denied that he used steroids.

 Until this Mitchell report, the most prominent person believed to have used steroids was San Francisco slugger and homerun king Barry Bonds. Neither Bonds nor Clemens have ever tested positive for steroids.

 Bonds, because of BALCO and his sworn Grand Jury statement in which he denied ever knowingly taking steroids, has been the target of an assault by media and fans who viewed his face as the symbol of steroids in baseball. Bonds has been indicted on four counts of perjury.

It’s been widely believed that steroids help you hit homeruns, not throw strikes. Well, that has now changed; Clemens is now an additional steroids poster child. He’s a former world champion with 350 career wins. Now, like Bonds, he’s tainted for life. 

 Because MLB never had a drug-testing policy until 2003, when they finally agreed to start testing players, the owners are equally to blame, as this report confirms.

 “The onset of mandatory random drug testing, the single most important step taken so far to combat the problem, was delayed for years by the opposition of the players’ association. However, there is validity to the assertion by the players association that prior to 2002, the owners did not push hard for mandatory random drug testing because they were much more concerned about the serious economic issues facing baseball,” Mitchell wrote.

 So, pass those asterisks around, and start with the MLB owners and Commissioner Selig, who turned their backs on protecting the game. Economics has always been the weakness of the MLB owners; remember how the great Jackie Robinson was allowed to break the race barrier in 1947 primarily for economic purposes.

 The Negro Leagues had great players, and Black fans supported their game. The owners wanted those Black dollars, and to get them they had to let the Black players into MLB. It was no experiment — they knew financially that it was a win-win situation. Now see what all the Latino, Japanese and Cuban players have added to the American pastime.

 Selig was once an owner himself, of the Milwaukee Brewers, long before he became a commissioner. It’s my view he lacked the integrity and absence of personal bias that a great commissioner must have. He has always thought like an owner and sided with the owners. It was for that reason that the owners and Major League Baseball were reluctant to put a firm steroid and HGH drug-testing policy in place to protect the integrity of the game and its records.

 So, pass the asterisks around, first to the commissioner himself and all of the owners. They have known for years that players have used performance-enhancing drugs.

 The use of those drugs by some of the players helped bring the fans back — that’s why MLB has set four straight years of attendance and financial records. Last year, the game made $6.7 billion. That’s also why Mitchell suggested that none of the players in his report be suspended or fined or penalized.

 These players cheated because they were allowed to. What do you expect when you have an open competition where the rewards are guaranteed $$$$ money? Nobody worries about their health tomorrow or 10 years from now when, by taking steroids and HGH and other performance-enhancing substances, they can grab guaranteed money.

  The players did the same thing the owners did — it was about economics.    

Fitz Notes & Quotes

Larry Fitzgerald Jr. of the Arizona Cardinals was selected as a starter for the 2008 NFC team in the Pro Bowl. Larry was selected for the second time in this, his fourth season.

 Playing with a heavy heart: For the first time in Larry’s athletic career, he played a game in New Orleans at the Superdome. Larry’s late mother Carol was born in New Orleans, and her parents, Dr. Robert Johnson and Mercedes Johnson, met and graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans. Larry bought 20 tickets for extended family members who live in New Orleans.

 With Marcus Fitzgerald headed to the Hula Bowl January 12, 2008, and Larry to the Pro Bowl February 10, 2008, that makes me the first journalist to have his sons playing in college and pro All-Star Bowl games in the same year.

 Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:25 am, and biweekly he commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2). He welcomes reader responses to lfitzgerald@spokesman-re corder.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.