Afternoon Baseball

Thanks to Dave for the e-mail about this.

Teams have been notified of the first in the series of random tests -- tests not random because they unannounced, of course, but because of who is selected.

For the Yankees, as my roommate Dave has pointed out, the first batch of players includes such sluggers as Tony Womack, Bubba Crosby, and Bret Prinz. But they'll get around to all of them. And if I understand it correctly, players can be tested multiple times.

Fortunately, a little focus is starting to shift to the other major sports, because baseball clearly is not the only sport with performance-enhancement problems.

For instance, the National Football League.

Read more...


For instance, Jim Haslett, the current New Orleans Saints coach, admitted steroid use during his playing days. Not surprising, since the NFL had no policy back then. He implicated the four-time Super Bowl champion Steelers of that era for being the heaviest users. Quite possibly true, but such an accusation pretends (most certainly falsely) that the dominant Cowboys, Vikings, Raiders, Dolphins, and Rams teams of that era didn't have much use for steroids, and as such were at a disadvantage.

A columnist for the Morgan City, Louisiana Daily Review, Justin Robicheaux, says Haslett cast a cloud of doubt over all ex-players from that period and should have kept his mouth shut.
He's right and wrong.
Certainly, Haslett should have probably not named the Steelers specifically unless he had some proof. However, this Mafia tendency of not ratting on anyone should not be getting such widespread support. Pro sports are a sort of fraternity, but the best ally of an immoral action is a code of silence from guilty and innocent alike. He didn't name individual players, but he made it clear (and he's not the first by a long shot) that there was a lot of steroid use in the 1970s in the NFL.

There was lots of steroid use everywhere, of course, and Haslett's best move was not condemning such players or calling for investigations. He simply made the point that a strong testing policy against steroids was recognized by the NFL 20 years ago, and that a similar move in baseball should have happened long before now. One league saw the signs, another didn't. Furthermore, Haslett was unequivocal on how steroids are not good; there was no "I got away with it" or "Everyone else is doing it, so why can't we" lines from Jose Canseco.

I don't have a problem with what Haslett did, minus the direct implication of Pittsburgh. If we want to criticize him, we should criticize the general underachievement of his Saints teams in the past four years.