A Steroid Solution with Teeth?

Maybe Congress’ “overreach” last month with Major League Baseball wasn’t such a stupid idea after all.

MLB Commissional Bug Selig has proposed a new plan to deal with steroids in his sport and it’s a doozy. His proposal calls for a suspension of 50 games for a first offense, a 100 game suspension for a second offense, and lifetime banishment from the league for a third offense. No, those numbers weren’t a typo. This is a real proposal, from the Commissioner.

This is likely to get the players’ attention.

MLB Union President Donald Fehr now has the plan and, I presume, is looking at it carefully. There is going to be some back and forth between the Players’ Union and the League and they will both have to work out some critical issues such as a testing regimen, devising a test that won’t trigger positive results for fairly innocuous things like cold medicines and such, and finalizing penalties. That’s the fine work that will get done over the next few weeks. I’d expect a fairly quick negotiation between the two sides.

And, believe it or not, Congress is to thank for this.

Before the most recent Congressional hearings, the League was in a serious state of denial. Everyone who has watched baseball in recent years with even a passing interest has known that steroid use is rampant. Players like Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Mark McGwire have proven that with their sheer physique that absolutely no one believes they got simply from a good diet and a rigorous workout program.

So Congress threatened the League. they held their hearings, listened to the stories, and made things very plain: clean up your house or we’ll do it for you. Now whether or not you believe that Congress should have gotten involved, you can’t easily deny that the threat of their involvement (which, given how Congress involves itself elsewhere would have used a stunning amount of overkill and inefficiency) gave the Commissioner the backbone he needed to propose his plan.

I, personally, didn’t think Congress had any business involving itself in making rules for MLB. As I think back, though, I have to wonder if the hearings weren’t a dog and pony show on purpose. I wonder if the hearings weren’t a huge bluff designed to get the League’s attention and to prod it into serious action. It does make sense, considering that members of Congress, though they may be many things, are not especially stupid. They had to know that direct action would be hugely unpopular and very difficult to put into place. They had to know that pasding legislation that directly targeted one small industry would bring out a raft of opposition, not only from the League, but from voters. You could imagine such legislation being challenged in courts for a couple or three years with no real affect on the steroid problem. It would have been messy, wouldn’t necessarily have solved the problem, and would have given both Congress and the League a huge black eye.

Now, though, we have the League taking action itself, mostly, I think, because MLB understand that Congress can withstand a black eye on this issue and the League can’t. Baseball can’t withstand another serious fan backlash like the one that has been building over steroids. They need to buy some goodwill and getting serious on this will buy them a whole bunch, especially if the final plan has the teeth in it that Selig has proposed.

Good on Selig (and trust me, you won’t hear me say that very often) and good on Congress (ditto).

No related posts.

Category: Stuff I Like