Shadow of the Day

Title courtesy of an awesome Linkin Park song. The anticipation and trepidation of all of major league baseball, including the owners, players, and fans finally came to a culmination on December 13th, when former Senator George Mitchell finally released his report on the steroids scandal in baseball. The sun rose this morning and set in the evening, but everything in between from the baseball stand point consisted of Mitchell emptying the skeletons of the closet of major league baseball. The question is, what really changed? Sure, some players’ reputations suffered irreparable damage, but that’s really the only tangible change that amounted from this report. For those of you, like myself, who actually watched Senator Mitchell’s press conference, my condolences. The press conference was quite painful to watch, as Mitchell told the public absolutely nothing they did not already know. Steroids are bad for you? That might have been new information to someone who’s lived under a rock for the past decade, but for the rest of us every word coming out of Mitchell’s mouth was just recycled information that shocked no one. The only thing the public wanted to hear were the specific names on the list, and Mitchell did not even go over that specifically, he just released it in the report that he sent out. Some sources were premature with their versions of the list, causing many players to be falsely accused of something they had nothing to do with. Eventually the real list surfaced and it was a mixed reaction. Some names surprised no one (Bonds, Tejada), some were somewhat humerous (Chuck Knoblauch, Kevin Brown), and some no one wanted to believe (Clemens, Pettitte). It’s quite unlikely that the list revealed every player who ever used steroids, and even less likely that all the names will ever be found, but it’s a start.
Senator Mitchell advised MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to forego disciplinary action on the players who were named in the report. This is probably the right way to go, as many of the reports of steroid use by current players was still from several years ago before they were banned by baseball. Also, with very few of these names being connected to the scandal by a failed drug test or anything substantial it is hard to justify any sort of suspension. After all, some people’s names are linked solely on the word of a disgruntled clubhouse attendant and trainer so if it becomes a game of he said, she said then it would be impossible to suspend someone over it. The only punishment that will land down most of these players way is to be ripped apart in the court of public opinion, and for a select few, to be ostracized from the Hall of Fame. Other then that, nothing was accomplished by these reports. It is already a few short days past and people are beginning to forget it ever happened. The black mark will always remain on the players who were named, but nothing substantial will happen for the sport itself because of Mitchell’s investigation. Baseball had already taken the necessary steps to rid itself of this problem, with a vastly fiercer drug testing policy. The only thing it’s lacking at this point is a test for HGH, but they’re working on it. So with this Mitchell report gone and soon to be forgotten, hopefully Congress does not find it necessary to launch another pointless investigation, because I certainly do not want to waste another hour of my life watching a pointless press conference.