It’s Time To Grandstand Again

            Thanks a lot, Raffy. Not only did your positive test help give Jose Canseco credibility as more than just a C-List reality TV star, but you’re sparking congress to start up that showboating thing they do so well, sticking their faces in front of the lens in the name of saving baseball.  "At this point I think [the chances are] getting better and better because of baseball's inability to police their own players," Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said Saturday on the ESPN program "Outside the Lines."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2127848

            With all due respect, Mr. McHenry, taking into account your years of faithful service and undoubtedly vastly superior knowledge of public policies and lawmaking… What are you talking about? Isn’t the fact that 2 players were caught in 24 hours proof positive that, in reality, baseball’s doing quite well policing its players? Two juicers. 24 hours. That’s pretty freakin’ good. The effectiveness of the policing should be judged on the merits of its ability to snare, not scare. If cops are catching criminals, that’s effective policing of said area. Whether folks continue to commit crimes knowing their criminal colleagues are getting caught is perhaps a matter of ineffective sentences, lax courts, or just simple indifference towards the consequences. But the policing was there, in any event. It’s the very definition of the word itself.

What Mr. McHenry, and all his TV-starved, opportunistic cronies need to realize, assuming they’re actually concerned about this problem and not just using campaigning (I know, I know, but humor me, for the sake of this blog), is that these players are grown men. You can warn them about the consequences. You can outline each banned substance, every ingredients, every questionable product. They can see with their own eyes that punishment suffered will be a public, humiliating one. And guess what? They may decide to shove a needle in their butt, anyway. In the end, they’re going to weigh the pros of enhanced performance vs. the cons of getting caught, and make a choice. They’re going to ask themselves if they’re smart enough to outwit a testing program, if they have enough buddies who’ll loan them a cup of urine, if enough people in their life and locker room are willing to look the other way.

And they’ll make a choice.

And that choice isn’t going to be affected one way or the other because a rep from NC (who, by the way, should be more concerned about policing his home state, considering only 3 years ago, **** and murder were on the rise in Tar Heel country. http://www.wral.com/news/2295840/detail.html) is on the warpath. I don’t remember March hearings in their entirety, so I don’t recall if this cat got his “allotted” camera time or not, but forgive me if I doubt the sincerity of his concern.   

I’m not saying the steroid situation isn’t a problem. I think it’s cheating, plain and simple, it’s bad for the game, and those indulging should be summarily punished. But let’s give MLB and Selig (who’s pushing for harder sentences as it is) at least a couple seasons to handle things in house before turning this into another C-Span sweeps week ratings stunt. Most of us don’t want the government in our living room. The idea of them on our diamond doesn’t sound much more appetizing.