The Workermonkey

Friday, March 18, 2005

mlb woes 

# posted by josh @ 3/18/2005 12:07:00 PM

congress raped mlb yesterday. for those who missed it, while canseco said his part, palmeiro, schilling, and sosa denied steroid use, and mcguire silently invoked his 5th amendment rights, without saying those words.

i admit, at first it may seem unfair to draw the implication from his silence that mcguire was juicing, but think about his options. he could 1) admit he used them, 2) deny it as the others did, or 3) invoke the 5th as he did.

now clearly no one wants to admit they used them. but if he never used them, why not just deny it?? i can't think of any policy reason, if he didn't actually use them, for why denying use would have a negative impact. the worst that could happen is that people would say he's lying, but i think even worse assumptions are drawn from taking the 5th. my interpretation of it all is that mcguire was too big a man to sit there and lie under oath, so he just took the 5th. i admire this. of course it looks like he used steriods when he does this, but if he didn't why wouldn't he just say so? the others did. it's not like denying use was some off limits statement that no one would claim. 3 others did. so i dont think the policy reason, if any, could've been that big as to prevent mcguire from saying he never used steroids if he never did. and in this respect, i think the committee got exactly what tehy wanted. the system worked. mcguire honored the oath, and silence answered their question, without putting mcguire on the line as he may have been had he admitted to using steroids.

also, while i didn't get to see it in it's entirety, the clip i did see made selig and the other reps of mlb and the players union, etc look like morons. especially the head of hte players union (fehr?), who was STRUGGLING to explain why the 5 strikes rule is fair. actually, now that i remember, selig looked really stupid on that one too. first he said it was cuz of the collective bargaining, but then when asked directly he denied that the 5 strikes rule was in place because of the players. which is it? selig is horrible. i suppose it's fitting he is the commissioner during one of baseball's darker periods.

regarding mantle, ruth, maris, etc., you have to remember how much the pharmeceutical companies have developed lately. even if there were any supplements/steroids that could have a serious effect on any of the older players, they couldn't compare with the ones today, with recent developments. nor does it appear they could cause some of the health hazards that we see with today's products. if there were these problems, it seems as though we might've heard about these things before, and maybe there would've been an investigation at those times.

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