DUDE WRITES:
Steroid use produces big offense which puts butts in seats. Gambling produces wary fans which removes butts from seats. Baseball's morality correlates precisely with fan attendance.
The baseball brass is certainly interested in gate, and maybe they turned the other way to boost attendance after the 1994 debacle, but if the media plays this story up like the did the Rose story baseball will regret their short-term profits.
I doubt Rose’s gambling was going to make fans question baseball’s integrity. Pete's gambling addiction was a part of his competitive personality and fans knew he wasn't throwing games. But once the media uncovered it and reported it like a sin, baseball had to do something. They probably could have suspended Rose for a year and made the appropriate contrite remarks had Pete told them the truth up front. I think it was his cover up that hurt him. It pitted him and baseball against the reporters who uncovered the truth and it forced baseball to part with Rose.
I think MLB was angrier with the lie than the behavior, because it made them look inept. They would have gladly soft-pedaled it had Pete given them a chance. It's well known in the baseball annuls that Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker probably conspired to throw a 1925 game. Cobb had actually bet on other games before 1919. Without an ESPN to muckrake, MLB could easily ignore it.
And I also say this because even with the cheating, Charles Commiskey was lobbying the other owners to go easy on his 8 Black Sox players and the other owners didn’t mind. The agreement was set, but Commissioner Landis had absolute power and he vetoed the deal. Unlike Selig or Fay Vincent and the rest, Landis had a lifetime contract and despot-like power.
If the players now in question for steroids were suspected for gambling on baseball what would the league do? They’d really be in a pickle. They’d almost have to let them go, but they would do so screaming. The precedent is set between 1919 and Rose. If it had not been for Landis forcing that medicine down their throats, baseball might not have any credibility today.
That’s why the penalty for steroid use should be the same. Without throwing the fear of God into the rest of the players, the temptation of steroids won’t go away. Right now players take steroids to turn $2 million contracts into $15 million contracts. The only disincentive to that is turning $2 million contracts into Customer Service jobs at Target.
Yeah, the homers may be fun for a while, but once you get use to them in greater numbers, they're no longer exciting. Baseball fans are not like NBA fans. You can't just give them the equivalent of the slam dunk to build a lasting fan base. Fans of other sports may pay more attention to Sosa-McGwire face-offs, but they’re not going to stick with the game for the long run.
The real hard core fans of MLB have a greater sense of history than fans of other sports. Does any sport hold more precious their age-old records? DiMaggio, Maris, Aaron give us a bridge to that past. Who held the record for most touchdown passes before Dan Marino? Who recorded the most lifetime assists before Magic Johnson? The average adult wearing a football or basketball jersey is not likely to know either.
Old time players? The guy wearing the baseball cap knows Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Arron etc etc. Does the average basketball fan even know Oscar Robertson or Bob Cousey or even Bill Russell?
The conventional wisdom might state that Rose’s gambling could crumble fan confidence. Maybe if fans thought long and hard about Rose’s use of Mario Soto, they might come to the conclusion that they were had. They will never take the leap that Rose lost games on purpose. But if Rose’s possible selfish use of players is enough to alter games and erode fan confidence, won’t fans become cynical that the sacred records of baseball are crumbling with the use of illegal drugs?
Maybe I’m alone in thinking that baseball has lost something over the years. I should have been crushed when the Bosox beat the Yankees this year, but I stopped watching after Boston took the big lead and didn’t lose an ounce of sleep worrying over it. The Yankees loss to the Mariners in the 1995 playoffs and the lousy umpiring in that series made me angry for a year. I didn’t feel that bad last year when I paid $200 a ticket to see the Marlins beat the Yankees in Game Four. It was more like, “Oh, well, at least we got to see a World Series game.”
Baseball owners will do whatever it takes to keep the sports press happy on this one. The fans won’t be outraged until the press is. The press made the Black Sox scandal and the Rose scandal. They weren’t scandals until they told us they were. If ESPN and USA Today are writing stories about how MLB is encouraging drug use with their soft penalties they will do more to curb this behavior. But a player can lose a year or two and still gain more by cheating. Only a lifetime ban will stop the best players; the ones that can break the records dishonestly. The little guy who can’t play at all without drugs might still take a chance, but the star athlete won’t take a risk if the penalty is everything.
It will be up to the media (sadly) to decide how honest the game is going to be.
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