Letters to the Editor
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well
I might be in the minority here, but I still think that this report was worth the time. For one, the sheer number of marginal players implicated suggests to me that these guys were holding on to their big league jobs for dear life. It's fairly obvious that they wouldn't have had the jobs if not for the PEDs, which means that they were taking the jobs that ostensibly clean minor leaguers could have had...and that's just criminal. Then again, it also stands to reason that if players like Gregg freaking Zaun were buying steroids then alot of those borderline players in AAA probably are as well, and that just goes to show how endemic this really is. It's not as if baseball players get into the majors and say "well, time to ramp up the HGH and/or Roids and start breaking me some records!"
Moving forward, it seems pretty clear to me that blame will have to be shouldered by players and teams alike for any future charges. What needs to be implemented is a sort of compliance department for each and every team. You have people on the payroll whose sole job is to make sure that the employees of that team (the players) follow the rules. Every single financial institution has one of these, and if a broker breaks the law, both he and the company are fined heavily. The same rules should apply to baseball. Any future players found to have taken PEDs will be fined and suspended AND the team will take a financial hit, rising with each subsequent conviction.
Also, there needs to be more players like Frank Thomas, who are willing to break through The Code of Silence and stand up for the game and their reputations...Frank Thomas is about the only person who came out of this whole mess looking good.
and lastly, wasn't every player named told so beforehand and given the opportunity to help with the investigation? Wouldn't you do everything in your power to not let anyone besmirch your name if you were actually clean? Why didn't anyone offer to help? And along the same point - there is nothing stopping the named players from suing for the moon here...except of course the whole testifying under oath, and subpoenas and everything that goes along with it...think that's why Clemens is not suing the pants off of baseball?
Saying that the players have no recourse isn't exactly accurate, they do..but it would mean they'd be beholden to the rules that go along with civil litigation - I'll hazard a guess that most don't want to do that.