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I have written about this topic a number of times, so I am just going to pull out what I wrote when A-Rod came clean and give it a bit of an update:
YesterdayToday we learned that A-Rod tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003 Mark McGwire took steroids for the bulk of his career. Today Tonight, the media vultures are out, picking at the bones of the player that they had previously trumpeted as the great clean hope. Buster Olney Jon Heyman believes Alex McGwire to be tarnished forever, and luminaries such as John Kruk, Tom Verducci, and Bill Madden feel that he should never be allowed into the Hall of Fame. Once again, the sanctimonious media is telling the masses that we should be livid, shouting their righteous indignation from the rooftops over the fact that they were, gasp, lied to by another superstar.
The hand wringing in the media is designed to distract us from one simple fact that the Olney’s and Verducci’s of the world desperately want us to ignore. Those guys were in the Yankee clubhouse in the late 90’s all the time. They criticize GM’s for not knowing what was going on in terms of baseball’s drug culture, yet they spent more time around these players than anyone but the managers and trainers. How did they miss what was going on?
The answer is quite simple, and is so damning as to pretty much disqualify any moral haranguing that you read from any reporter who worked during that era. They did not miss it, they just chose to ignore it. Home runs were good for the game that they cover and love, and they did not want to be whistle blowers. Whistle blowers are left on the outside looking in at all the fun, and the media members loved being insiders, loved being in on the grand party that was major league baseball at the turn of the century. Why turn Mark McGwire in when it will cost you his trust and your access to other players? So they just turned the other way while the players flaunted their use. In 1998, when someone asked McGwire about the andro in his locker, the writers skewered him for digging into someone else’s business. Now those same writers applaud when one of their colleagues procures sealed evidence of a supposedly anonymous drug test. The double standard and disingenuous nature of their actions make their moral proclamations “in the defense of the game” seem ridiculous. Suddenly you find it vitally important to defend the game? Where was that moral imperative as the players were bulking up around you?
Hypocrisy is the name of the game when it comes to the steroid story. It has become difficult to read anything on the issue with a straight face, as writers have the audacity to suddenly decide that they are the protectors of the moral fabric of baseball after letting the issue stay untouched for many years. Ultimately, the writers are just as culpable in creating the steroids morass that has engulfed the sport as anyone else. They only took heed once players like Canseco and Caminiti forced the issue out into the open. They want McGwire to apologize their way, according to their script, for “duping” them for years, yet they were never actually duped at all. They closed their eyes, put their fingers in their ears, and cheered McGwire, while vilifying the writer who wrote the initial story about “andro.” Spare me the moral indignation from the sports writers. They are bemoaning the very situation that they helped create.
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24 Responses to Steroids And The Disingenuous Media, Redux
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TIQ IQ
A-f’in-men brother…. This is pure gospel….
I actually really like Verducci – guy can write his ass off – but ugh he’s just so damn self-righteous about the whole steroid thing. Makes me not want to like him at all. I generally think of him as very pro-Yankee, but he wrote an annoying “A-ROD HAS RUINED BASEBALL!!!!” article when Alex was caught and a “Whatever, everyone did it” when Manny and Papi were. Maybe (I haven’t read The Yankee Years, but I’ve heard it’s 90% Verducci and 10% Torre) he’s just pro-Yankees like Jeter and Mo. I’m not saying I don’t love those guys to death, but it’s really easy to write gushing articles about them, then attack A-Rod.
Watching the Costas/McGwire interview was just painful. I actually ended up feeling bad for the guy. No, I don’t think he only took steroids for healing his injuries, and maybe he only admitted it so he could be the Cards’ hitting coach, but who really cares? At least he DID admit it so it can help everyone move on. People seemed way too eager to call him a “douchebag” who wasn’t being genuine about the fact that he was sorry. Really? That’d make Andy Pettitte a lying douchebag too.
(Also, is it just me, or does the typing for the comment box move really slowly?)
Are you typing from a phone or from your computer? For some reason, it is slow on phones, but I have not heard any complaints from computer users.
I’m on a computer but I figured out the issue – it was an IE/Firefox thing.
Anyway, this was a very good article, I totally agree. I don’t know if players would have been running around with performance-enhancers around reporters… but to pretend like they didn’t know?
I have had the same issue. It’s RIDICULOUSLY slow on my iPhone (so much so that I stopped using it all together on this site), and sometimes slow on my computer. I run Firefox. I just didn’t want to say anything because I never knew where to say it.
Yeah, I’m working on it, but I make no promises. I will say this- when it is running slow, it still picks up what you type no matter how quick you type, it just takes long to show up. So rather than not use it on you phone, you can just type your comment fully, wait 15-20 seconds, and it should show up.
Oh good to know. I will use it tonight. I’m glad you know that the issue exists.
Yeah, I’m just not incredibly technically savvy, so I dont know if I can fix it. I am tinkering, though, so we will see.
Well edited Moshe lol. Seriously tho everything you said is true, and it just amazes me how self-righteous these “journalist” are sometimes. Will they ever realize baseball is a game, its not like these steroid users committed a serious crime. But whatever they will always have the older generation who preach “how pure the game was in my day” (which is incorrect) and young kids on their side spewing their nonsense, so just let them talk themselves to sleep. I just stick around the few sports blogs and writers I know that don’t give a crap, although it is always nice to read you guys taking a shot at these “journalist”.
Great piece, Mo.
Here, here! Great perspective, Moshe.
“They did not miss it, they just chose to ignore it. ”
That’s simply not accurate, Mo. And I think it’s fair to say it reflects the overall thrust of this piece. Check out this Piazza piece by Murray Chass:
http://www.murraychass.com/?p=555
He tried numerous times to do stories on Piazza’s back-acne, but could never get it past his editor. The restrictions of working for a major newspaper is one of the main reasons why he left the NY Times for the world of blogging. The evidence was simply insufficient, and a big newspaper doesn’t want to get sued by a athlete who has the resources to fight back. As someone in Law School, I would think you would appreciate the need to pass a certain threshold of evidence in order to proceed with a story.
Yeah, that’s what we call a load of bull. They did no more investigation than looking at the players bodies. If at least 35 percent of players were using, the media could uncovered this a long time ago. They made practically zero effort to do so. Murray Chass and his single anecdote about bavkne really does nothing to convince me otherwise. I’m not suggesting they should havewritten about the players expanding. I’m suggesting that they should have seen these guys growing and tried to find some evidence, rather than sweeping things like Andro under the rug.
Just to add, once it became accepted to report on sterois, they put together entire books of evidence on individuals, put together investigative teams dedicated to steroids, etc. Where was that in the late 90′s, when these players were getting ”cartoonishly huge” all around them?
I have to say, I agree with Steve. I think it’s kind of ignorant to think that all the reporters knew what was going on. First, I highly doubt that these reporters even knew what they were looking at. Would you know what “cream and clear” looks like 15 years ago? Even if you saw it everyday, you would possibly think it’s work out drink or whatever. It was a known fact that all the athletes spend far more time in the gym now then 25 years ago. Secondly, I highly doubt the athletes were stupid enough to do it in front of reporters. Even in Canseco’s book, he said that he injected Mark McGwire in the bathroom. Reporters are not going to be allowed to go in and watch the athletes use the bathroom, lol. Seriously though, athletes are not going to inject each other in front of anyone else for the final reason…
Who wouldn’t want to be the one who broke the steroid story? In the age we live in, where reporters blog and Tweet everything they possibly can because they need to be the first to report, do you really think someone in the locker room would turn the other cheek? Sure, Joe Smith from the New York Hour (fictitious, in case you can’t figure it out, lol) might never be welcomed into the locker room again by the players, but he would go down in history as The Man who broke the steroids scandal wide open. He would be on every national media coverage, get hired anywhere he wants, etc… Look at the guys who wrote the Barry Bonds book; they have parlayed that into bigtime jobs.
I agree with a lot that is written, like how Joel Scherman wanted Mark to come clean, then bashed him when he did, or how Olney said that ARod was basically done, yet never retracted it. In this case, sorry Moshe, I love your work, but I don’t think you could be further from the fact here. A reporter would never sit on this type of lead, and I think to write “They did not miss it, they just chose to ignore it. Home runs were good for the game that they cover and love, and they did not want to be whistle blowers,” is almost as bad as what we have grown to despise from these reporters. When you say something like, “s so damning as to pretty much disqualify any moral haranguing that you read from any reporter who worked during that era.,” you better be right, because that is a serious allegation, and I think you are off base on it when you think about it logically.
My response to Steve hold true here as well. At the core, most of these reporters are fans. While exposing the players is the current culture, the media used to be a lot more interested in cultivating relationships with players and maintaining acceess. The media response to the Andro story illustrates this perfectly- the reporter was destroyed in the media for violating the privacy of McGwire. Can you imagine a similar response today?Leaks from a sealed grand jury document are hunted down and the reporters that dig up credible dirt are hailed. What happened to privacy?
Yes, but in one breath you are saying “What happened to privacy,” and in the next, you are saying that they are just as bad for not outing people. Granted, it’s a different time now, but the Yankee clubhouse has like 50 reporters in it. Do you honestly believe that one of them, perhaps one new to the business who wants to make a name for themselves, wouldn’t out them all if it was that obvious? We live in a world (and I am a former teacher, current therapist) that breeds children with a sense of entitlement, one in which all college kids want to start at the top. What better way to get to the top then to destroy the culture?
I hope none of this is offending you. I love your work, I just felt it would be a good place to debate it. (Seriously, if I offended you, please tell me. It wasn’t my intent at all)
Of course not- I love the debate. Zero offense taken at all.
Regarding privacy, I have no problem with investigating, or not investigating. I have a problem with the inconsistency. Don’t cite privacy as a reason for leaving a story untouched, and then ignore it on the same story because everybody is doing it. Also, on your other point, the culture of making a name and nailing the celebrity is pretty new to sports. Politics has had a similar change- much fewer reporters are sitting on stories in exchange for favors/access. Look at Tiger zwoods- apparently one am
Got cut off for some reason- regarding Woods, one mag apparently had dirt on him years ago but traded it for him appearing on the cover of a sister mag. That would never happen today, not a chance. They’d blow the lid off that thing and make a name for themselves.
You’re completely correct in regards to the double standard of privacy, I guess I just misunderstood.
I still think that if it was evident in the clubhouse, it would be reported on. I am of the belief that everyone was doing it, so at this point I could care less who comes out. If the Yankees injected themselves with lighter fluid, I wouldn’t care as long as they win. Former players like John Kruk make me nauseous when they say that they could have had better numbers. The media obviously picked favorites as evidenced by some players getting into the Hall of Fame, and others like Albert Belle not even getting a sniff. I still stand firm in my belief though that if the reporters knew of this, it would be hard for them to sit on it, although you have raised some points that have made me rethink that belief. Clearly it’s not unheard of for these reporters to sit on some evidence. I just think that when the Andro issue broke during the 98 season (I believe it was 98), no other reporters stepped forward and said, “Well I have seen steroids in this locker room” without naming names. Also, considering some athletes stuck something under their tongues when they would take the steroids, I find it hard to believe these writers would even recognize what they were.
After this debate, I have softened by stance on you being wrong, lol. I do still think though that you can’t be sure of this; sure enough to write that it “pretty much disqualify any moral haranguing that you read from any reporter who worked during that era. It’s just a very harsh statement to make without having facts, and it’s eerily similar to something Bill Madden or Mike Lupica would write; the same writers that (rightfully so) get bashed all the time.
And you make a fair point as well. I was probably a bit too strong, or at least overinclusive, to disqualify the moralizing from ALL reporters of the era. As you noted, I’m sure some were blameless.
Agree complete Moshe. Well done.
PS – I’m also encountering some minor technical blips on IE.
It’s not as though steroids just popped up in the late 90′s. They had been a part of collegiate and professional sports, and to some extent a talked about one, for twenty years. Brady Anderson tripling his previous season high of HRs, two men surpassing a mark that had held for almost forty years…if you make your livelihood following baseball and you fail to notice that, you’re blinding yourself to it. That knowledge or blindness goes for the fans too. Two things saved baseball post-work stoppage. The HR chase that drummed up attendance and viewership and the emergence of the Yanks-Sox rivalry that made millions tune in for more than one round of the playoffs. Baseball’s rebound was not a given. The Tom Verduccis of the world looked the other way because their livelihoods were at stake too.
I just want to expand on one of your points- fans are culpableas well- we saw these guys breaking records that had stood for a long time every season, and we asked no questions. We know what bodybuilders look like, so when players started to look like them, we should have had doubts.