'Roid Rage

I posted this over at The Post, in response to what many people were saying. Aside from the general [annoying] hysteria of anti-Yankee propaganda put out by Red Sock Haters and Yankee Bandwaggoners, there is a silent throng who is not that affected, and a select few who see a bigger [more sinister] picture. Rock on, Sistah!

Good points, people.
Like the ape suit tells us, the show goes on, and the stigma of juicing runs deep. For every Yankees player who juiced, there are DOZENS of others who did so as well. People howling that there should be an asterisk [that's right, folks, "asterisk", please get it right] by the Yankees WS wins in '96, '98 - 2000 are missing the point. Every team had juicers. Some teams managed to win the championship, some did not. All of this talk of little stars is purely Yankee-bashing, and yes, we get it: you don't like the Yankees. Fine. 26 titles will engender that, and when yer larger-than-life, there will be envy and even hate. I'm okay with that.

Now, on to what Tanya was talking about. All of this current media frenzy is exactly what Bud Selig was hoping that the Mitchell Report would generate. You see, all of the media's sensationalist types are having a field day at the expense of players [many Yankees, many others too]; the Springer-esque sheep amongst us are predictably bleating about Rocket being a cheat, Andy being a cheat, asterisks, blah blah blah. Why is Bud happy? Because the frenzy is not directed at him. Bud was Commissioner when much of this was occurring. He tried to keep the peace [and thereby, keep the profits going]. He and his minions looked the other way. They shied away from confronting the union. They refused to crack down on their cash cow. They made the deal with the Devil and are now gleefully hearing "Bad Yankees! Bad Rocket! et cetera" which puts the spotlight exactly where they want it - somewhere other than on Bud Selig and MLB. Notice how Sen. Mitchell recommends that no player be punished for past transgressions [with a caveat, I understand] - first time a disciplinary action comes up based on this report, the union will go nuts. Not what MLB wants.

So, what IS the big deal? It's not so much individual performance. We all love tape measure home runs [unless we threw the pitch that got whacked]. When Ben Johnson ran his 9.79, I was astounded. True, he used a performance enhancer, and that gave him an unfair advantage, but it was still amazing. The big deal is competitive advantage: Player A uses steroids [as an example]. Player A builds bulk and recuperates faster, and gets a little bit better fast twitch.
All of this gives him the competitive advantage over Player B, who does not use any banned performance enhancers. Player A is a better player as a result [in this example, all other factors are equal], and wins the job. Player B is cut from the team for not being as good, and loses his job. Player A exhibits all sorts of problems, such as raging behavior, back acne, brittleness of body structure, and eventually, a tumor. Player B, now out of the game, suffers none of the symptomology, but has to work for a living like the rest of us average Joes.

Now, let’s go a bit south and a little bit before the major league scene... Question, do steroids [for example] work only on major leaguers? OF COURSE NOT! Many kids from San Pedro de Macoris, for example, all trying to impress the staff at the baseball academy, having decent meals and steady work perhaps for the first time in their life and desperate to make it in baseball. Maybe some give in to the temptation? Maybe MLB could do something other than look the other way? What is the morally right thing to do, as opposed to the profitable thing?

How about in America? Could MLB do more? Could the union do more? Could this possibly affect profits? Bingo. That's why Tanya is aghast. Don't just scratch the surface, peeps. This goes way deeper than that. Sheep, continue with your Bad Yankees bleating. It's exactly what Bud wants you to do. Baa. Baaaaaaaa.