The M(Sn)itchell Report: A Game Within the Game

The great sport of baseball has been living in the shadows of performance enhancers for decades. This didn't start with the current crop of "cheaters" and it's not likely to end with them, either. Amphetamines or "Greenies", as they are commonly referred, have been used by MLB players since the 60's. Mickey Mantle openly admitted to using them. They are illegal without a prescription, enhance athletic performance, and have been used almost openly in major league clubhouses for a half century. Yet, MLB didn't start testing or punishing players for using Greenies until 2006.

It was pretty clear to even most casual fans that the great HR chase of 1998 wasn't quite right. HR's were being hit at a record pace all around the league and the McGwire-Sosa race to erase Roger Maris from the record books captivated a nation. Many, if not most, suspected baseball was artificially inflating home run numbers with a more tightly wound ball. The theory was more fans would come to the games if the long ball was featured more often. Even as we believed MLB was cheating by providing a "rabbit ball", we still rooted for the record to fall to a modern day player so we could witness "history". It was great to talk about Babe Ruth and Roger Maris, but how many of us had actually seen those accomplishments? Being a witness to history is much more gratifying. Makes us feel like we were somehow a part of it. So what if the ball was wound tighter or the ball parks were smaller, we could justify that with the counter arguments that Babe and Roger never faced the finely tuned machines that are todays pitchers. Chicks dig the long ball...and so does everyone else. Baseball was experiencing record attendance numbers and all was right in the world that summer.

Fast forward a couple of years. The media, who can turn ordinary citizens into heroes overnight, and turn those same heroes into goats just as quickly, starts questioning Sammy's hat size and the supplements in Marks locker. They present pimples on Barry Bonds back as irrefutable evidence of wrong doing. The same media that built up the race in '98 was now hell bent on destroying the illusion. And we bought it just as readily as we bought the initial stories. Suddenly we were incensed that these men would dare "cheat" just to get a record or make more money. Never mind that we already believed the record was aided by a more tightly wound ball, smaller parks, and better playing conditions. Never mind that previous heroes used the performance enhancers of their day with impunity.

Fast forward a couple more years. Mark McGwire is basically in exile, rarely leaving his massive compound. Barry Bonds gets derided on every road trips, fans even throwing faux syringes at him. The U.S. Congress holds hearing on the subject of steroid use in MLB. MLB and the players union agree to a toothless testing program in an attempt to appease the fans. Congress isn't impressed.

A panicked commissioner decides the only way to save face is to appoint an "independent" investigator to get to the bottom of it all. He remembers that this fella who works for the Red Sox used to be a U.S. Senator. Suddenly a light bulb flashes... appoint George Mitchell to run an investigation into the steroid era. His background gets the Congress to back off and his ties to baseball might just sway him to be gentle in sensitive areas. Brilliant decision by Selig, even if it opened him up to more criticism.

Many months and multi millions of dollars later the report is published to the general public. Fans oohh and ahhh over the names, internet chat rooms rage with "I knew XYZ was juicing" comments, sport writers work overtime to one up each other on the content. Mitchell himself makes more television appearances than he ever did as a U.S. Senator. He's a cult hero few had ever heard of while he was a distinguished member of the United States Congress.

But what did all of this accomplish? Other than to sate the appetite of a public who loves to build people up just before ripping them to shreds, what did this entire saga solve, really?

MLB, while being publicly chastized on the surface is a big winner here. As an entity it can simply accept the findings, be contrite while accepting some of the blame, then brag that they were proactive in solving the "problem" they knew existed at least a decade ago. Mitchell gets to be a hero for "finding" the cheaters, even though he readily admits the report is far from all inclusive and his report would have been nothing with the Government forcing people to give testimony. The players who weren't on the list can say "I told you so", while the ones who do appear in the report can say "I made a mistake one time". The witnesses can rest knowing they will receive lesser sentences for "cooperating", and the team owners can hide behind plausible deniability.

When it's all said and done Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens will be in the hall of fame. 50 years from now people won't care if they creamed and cleared their way there. By then it will seem such a primitive way to cheat, just as we now overlook Mickey and his contemporaries little green pills.