On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 11:29:52 -0500, "Deborah Terreson"
 wrote:

>Hey, Bob and I were talking about baseball ands he is kind of pissed off 
>with the government's inquiry into steroid use - 


Really?  Does he have a laissez-faire attitude towards the issue of
steroids?

I'm not sure what I think about the issue myself, being of several
minds.



>This has come up before in
>the past, has it not? 



Steroids?  I don't think so.  Not as a high-profile congressional
issue.



>He was standing at the coffee shop, looking at
>newspaper headlines today and got all pissy about it.


Do you know what I'm pissy at right now?

Five Red Sox players appearing on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy".
This is more of an embarrassment to the game than steroids.


>He said when they had the 'reserve clause' in baseball, congress just washed
>it's hands of the whole steroid use affair. 



The reserve clause was effectively eliminated in 1976 (I think).  I'm
not intimately acquainted with the BUSINESS history of the game, but
it had something to do with some arbitrator finding a loophole in the
clause and allowing pitcher Andy Messersmith getting to leave the
Dodgers and go to the Braves.  I'm open to correction or clarification
on that point.

I don't think that steroids were an issue or anywhere near baseball's
radar until the last four years or so.

They WERE an issue in professional wrestling in the mid-1990's.  That
sounds funny, but there were a large number of kids who took seriously
Hulk Hogan's cartoonish wrestling persona (which was a combination of
carny boss huckster and All-American good-guy) and who might
CONCEIVABLY gotten the wrong message from the revelation that the
"Hulkster" was taking steroids.

But I don't think that this was enough to pique Congress's interest
very much.  Baseball, on the other hand, is more mainstream than pro
wrestling.



>Why the Big Beef now? Is it
>because there is more money in the game or what?


Perhaps.  And the consumers paying through the nose for tickets might
be entitled to wonder whether the competition is fair or whether some
athletes are taking the easy way out.

By the same token, baseball is a game that requires more than brute
strength, so I'm not sure that steroids will have as huge an impact on
baseball performance as on performance in other sports.

Then again, this is a made-to-order political whipping boy.  There are
no "good guys" in this drama - not the owners who looked the other way
while home runs were filling the seats and not the players who abused
themselves for short-term money and glory and resisted all efforts to 
test them for steroids.

So it's easy for the politicians to wax virtuous in front of the
press.

Then too, there are apparently legitimate health issues.  At least one
ballplayer, Ken Caminitti, probably died from a steroid overdose, and
there are reportedly young amateur athletes who have taken same and
suffered consequences - presumably believing that if the pros were
taking them, it was OK.


>I'm a bit fuzzy on this, and Bob mentioned Curt Flood (whom I'm searching
>online for right now) and went off about how he was traded without his
>knowledge and left the sport entirely.


Flood was a pretty good baseball player, but all that he's known for
today is his Supreme Court case.

He challenged the legality of baseball's reserve clause as being a
violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Supreme Court sided
against him, ruling that Congress had not chosen to make baseball
subject to this Act.

In fact, I think that was the third Supreme Court decision to make
that finding.  Whether that really was Congress's intent is a matter
of conjecture.

I'm not sure of the details (again, I am not an expert on the business
history of the game), but somehow in 1976, Andy Messersmith was able
to successfully do indirectly what Curt Flood had failed to accomplish
directly at an earlier date.

I don't remember if that caused Flood to leave the sport entirely or
not - wait a minute, that's easily enough checked - 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/f/floodcu01.shtml

Well, it looks like he played his last series of games in 1971 before
retiring at the age of 33 - a time when he presumably still had a few
years of baseball left in his body - so yes, I imagine that his legal
challenge made him persona non grata among baseball's establishment.

Flood is supposed to be a hero, but I'm not sure that the reserve
clause wasn't a necessary evil.  It kept ticket prices down and it
kept players from bouncing around from team to team, willy-nilly, in
search of the most money.

Many people tell me today that they don't follow baseball as much as
they used to because they can't keep track of all of the player
movements, and I feel the same way myself, really.

It's significant TODAY because baseball is still not subject to the
Anti-Trust Act - which, I assume benefits them in ways other than
those provided by the old reserve clause - and every time Congress
wants baseball to act, they flex their muscles and talk about
SPECIFICALLY making baseball subject to the Act (so as to leave no
doubt when the courts are again called upon to interpret the Act) - so
this is likely to lead to a showdown between MLB and Congress over the
steroids issue.



>I'm going to read up on this some, but am interested in your take on what's
>happening now and why.
>
>Deb.
>
>P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Begorrah!  I thank ye, lass!


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"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their
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