State of Denial

Baseball and its sycophantic sportscasters are still in denial, desperate to sweep the drug allegations under the rug.

Earlier this year, dozens of players were named in the Mitchell report as having used steroids or human growth hormone. Baseball and the sports media couldn't wait to bury the story. They gave it a couple of minutes on the sports programs, ran an editorial or two, and that was that.

Of the many baseball games I have watched this season, I have not heard more than two mentions of the Mitchell report, and both times the subject was instantly dropped. Never forget that the sidekick in the booth is always an ex-player. If a play-by-play guy brings up the most explosive story since the Black Sox scandal, the sidekick will respond with three seconds of silence until the next pitch changes the subject. Gregg Zaun, the Blue Jays' catcher, was named in the Mitchell report, but so far the crack media team in Toronto has yet to investigate it.

Gregg Zaun
To cover their ass-kissing ways, the sports media love to point out stadium attendance as a way of showing that fans don't give a damn about doping in baseball. Completely untrue. Downtown, the crime rate is up but I still go to clubs and bars. Does that mean I don't mind people getting mugged?

Over the weekend, I read a piece by AP sports writer Pat Graham. The last baseball that Barry Bonds stroked over the fence was auctioned off for $376,612.

If that seems low, it's because it is: ridiculously low. The Bonds homerun ball that broke Hank Aaron's record sold for $752,467. You would think that the last homerun ball that Bonds ever hit would at least come close to that figure. Instead, it sold for half the price.

As Graham has it, it's probably because Bonds isn't permanently retired. Bonds has said that he still wants to play baseball (the Giants dumped him last season), but no team has given him an offer.

Sure, Graham. Keep telling yourself that, and keep drinking MLB's Kool-Aid. Keep it up. Treat fans like morons. At least you'll still be welcome in every team's locker room.

Bonds is up on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. The drug allegations around him are as thick as his arms. Yet in Graham's piece, he makes absolutely no mention of the criminal charges, Bonds' grand jury testimony, or the drug scandal. You'd think that this would be a pretty big part of the Barry Bonds story, but Graham leaves all of it on the cutting room floor. So what is Graham? A sports reporter, or an MLB publicist?

That is my problem now with the MLB drug scandal. Not so much the doping (I think it'll be cleaned up after this mess, and MLB has announced more off-season tests, as well as testing for draft prospects), but the way the sports media are in bed with the sports they cover. One thing that this scandal exposed is just how prejudiced the media are. With all of the hardcore sports shows on radio and TV, and the dozens of sports magazines on the shelves, how is it possible that the last decade of drug-ridden baseball went unreported until Jose Canseco decided to write a book about it?

Bonds' last homerun ball sold for comparative peanuts because people don't believe it's real. With criminal charges and drug allegations drifting around him, memorabilia nuts are wondering if Bonds will ever make the Hall of Fame, or if the homerun ball will be branded with an asterisk. In other words, people are not convinced of it's value.

People ask why I don't trust sportscasters. I should print out Graham's piece and have it laminated.

Photo: AFP/Jed Jacobsohn
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