Murdoch, Giuliani, other Jock Sniffers and Steroids
By Evan Weiner
August 1, 2009
6:00 PM EDT
(New York, N. Y.) -- Only a fool would conclude that Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Donald Fehr are responsible for apparent wide spread banned substance usage in baseball since United States President George Bush signed legislation in October 1990 which made steroids possession illegal. The list of enablers is long and among the people and institutes on that list are Rupert Murdoch, Goldman Sachs, Rudy Giuliani, the Walt Disney Company (ESPN), newspapers like the Arizona Republic, the Chicago Tribune and all the other elected officials, the jock sniffers and hero worshippers who genuflected at the thought of having or maintaining a Major League Baseball franchise in their city and paid hundreds of millions of public dollars for that right with relatively little return on the investment.
None of the enablers ever asked questions if Major League Baseball was on the up and up and whether any of the players were taking illegal performance enhancing substances. There was the possibility of money to be made.
The jock sniffers and genuflectors are still out there and include the billionaire mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg who somehow found hundreds of millions of dollars of city money to help build the new Mets and Yankees privately-financed ballparks and the politicians in Miami who despite not really having money recently approved a public-private financial package for a stadium to house the Florida soon to be Miami Marlins.
No, it is far too easy to blame Bud Selig and Donald Fehr. Major League Baseball understood back in 1991 that the new federal ban of steroids was in place when then Commissioner Fay Vincent released a seven page memo which included the following. "The possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance by Major League players or personnel is strictly prohibited ... This prohibition applies to all illegal drugs ... including steroids."
Apparently people like George W. Bush and Jose Canseco missed Vincent's memo. Canseco alleges that he turned people onto steroids in the Texas Rangers clubhouse after Oakland traded him to the Arlington, Texas based team that received publicly funding for a new stadium along with tax breaks on land ceased by eminent domain by Arlington officials at well below fair market value. The managing general partner of the team? George W. Bush.
Canseco was conducting business in the clubhouse of the son of the sitting President of the United States who had signed the legislation making steroid possession illegal.
Not everyone turned there back on what was going on in baseball. The Washington Post writer Thomas Boswell and the commentator Bob Costas were sounding alarms.
They were ignored.
It is funny how those perceived as tough like Murdoch, like Giuliani didn't bother to ask any questions about baseball's integrity. Murdoch, who has only one political ideology and that is to make money, is perhaps Major League Baseball's number one enabler.
Murdoch's over-the-air FOX entity, which technically is a syndicator not a TV network, threw billions at baseball through both the national over-the-air TV package and his various regional cable TV sports networks. Murdoch also bought the Los Angeles Dodgers with a plan to make the Dodgers Asia's team or at least the northwest Pacific Rim’s team.
There were no questions asked about steroid usage in baseball. Murdoch's tough guy FOX News Channel never posed a question during the network's infancy about what was and is illegal drug usage in baseball. By the way, the players if they were taking anabolic steroids broke United States laws, it wasn't cheating it was illegal activity. But Murdoch's law and order, no nonsense talking heads, never bothered to ask about an industry than has been helped out by government largess. Of course, the FOX News Channel lives off of a Reagan era Cable TV law that allows it to make money despite a dearth of viewers as cable TV socialism allows the network to get money off of virtually every basic expanded subscriber whether that subscriber ever views the channel. Ninety eight percent of the cable subscribers are paying for what two percent out of 100 percent watch.
The Clinton White House was an enabler too. No federal agency, whether it was the FBI, DEA or the justice department went after the players who were getting bigger and bigger and credited their physical improvement with a rigorous off season workout plan.
Baseball newspaper writers have repeatedly claimed they had suspicions but no proof that players were juiced and it would have not been responsible for them to write about their hunches. Of course that didn't stop Boswell from writing his thoughts in the Washington Post or Costas giving a lecture at Columbia University in New York talking about what he perceived. Baseball newspaper writers were cheerleaders for the game after the 1994-95 strike and it was in their collective best interest to push the game whether it was because being a baseball scribe was a plum position on a paper or looking to get a baseball job.
In many cases, reporting on steroids probably would not have been in the best interests of newspapers when the business was viable in the 1990s. Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune (Cubs), Arizona Republic (Diamondbacks), the McClatchy Company (Pirates), the New York Times/Boston Globe (Red Sox), New York Post (Dodgers) owned teams others had marketing relationships although the New York Times has been reporting on the issue, recently. Magazines like Sports Illustrated (Braves) came went to the reporting party too, but SI did report in 2002 that Ken Caminiti used steroids in 1996 when he won the National League's Most Valuable Players Award. This year, SI scored on Alex Rodriguez being outed for failing a 2003 baseball drug test.
Did the New York Times obtain confidential information such as David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez failing drug tests illegally and is someone with an axe to grind singing in dribs and drabs about the 2003 confidential drug tests in an effort to embarrass baseball? The New York Times has put its share of the Red Sox up for sale.
CNN in the 1990s was part of Turner Broadcasting and among the businesses Ted Turner owned was the Atlanta Braves. When news organizations own sports entities, it is extremely difficult to report negative news and sure there is the mantra of there is a wall between news reporting and other businesses and the news reporting has a free reign but that simply is not true. Not in a vertically integrated business.
Money talks.
Goldman Sachs has been a part of baseball for a while. The New York financial company helped broker deals when owners wanted to sell teams and had a partnership with George Steinbrenner when the Yankees owner started the Yankees cable TV network which is reportedly worth more than any other regional sports cable TV network in the U. S.
Sports in the United States have three basic tenets. Sports need government, cable TV and corporate money to make it go whether it is baseball, hockey, basketball or college. Football is a bit different in that over-the-air network TV money is still a major component of financing. Without government, there probably are no new stadiums or arenas because facility builders would lose a lot of money on the ventures. Without the 1984 cable TV act, without the 1986 tax reforms, sports monies would not have grown exponentially and abnormally.
Sports left behind the rank and file blue collar worker and their families and wanted corporate dollars and those corporate dollars for tickets meant companies could write off luxury box and club seat tickets as a business expense. Spinmasters sold the public on the need for new stadiums and richer people as customers because the well heeled would pay the freight for increased costs. Somehow the spinmasters convinced voters to agree to sales tax hikes, "sin" taxes with increases on alcohol, cigarettes, hikes in hotel and motel room taxes, sewer taxes, utility taxes, car rental taxes and other funding mechanisms to fund more and more expensive stadiums and arenas.
The public was asked to pay more taxes and it didn't matter from the money came from a Democrat or a Republican run town as politicians of all stripes including those who keep pushing for tax cuts rolled out the public green for sports, Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball included.
The enablers like the former prosecutor, law and order guy like Giuliani wanted new stadiums because those stadiums in New York for the Yankees on Manhattan's west side and for the Mets in Queens would be economic engines. Giuliani fawned all over the Yankees, threw lavish New York City parades for the 96, 98, 99 and 2000 Yankees World Series victories. How many players on those teams used banned substances? Maybe none, but all players are suspects now.
There is also a thread here; some of the enablers also seem to be in the middle of the global recession. Wall Street helped get sports deals brokered and bought tickets. The cable TV news networks also never seem to get around, FOX and CNN, never did seem to report on the economy other than to tout Wall Street numbers. Guess it is easier to celebrate accomplishments on a baseball diamond or chasing blue semen stained dresses than do real reporting.
So don't blame Selig or Fehr on the so-called baseball sportswriters called "steroids era" as there is plenty of blame that can be go around. People might as well blame Selig and Fehr for the economic meltdown too, that might be a stretch but the people that helped enrich baseball also were involved both directly and tan gently in the economy breakdown. The enablers never stopped to ask questions, they just poured money into the game whether it was through government (new stadiums and tax breaks), media (cable TV) or corporates who bought the big ticket items, the luxury boxes, club seats while dining in expensive stadium restaurants and taking what they could off as business expenses.
Money still flows into baseball and other sports. Presidents, CEO’s, newspaper barons, TV executives all get misty eyed when it comes to sports. Fans cannot get enough of sports which is why all is forgiven. And the jock sniffers love being around athletes.
At one time, the French-born historian Jacques Barzun observed that to understand Americans you must first understand baseball. Barzun was so correct; just connect the dots, even an Australian born, naturalized American citizen named Murdoch bought into Barzun’s notion.
eweiner@mcn.tv
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Can't afford the cost of a sports event? Blame Reagan and Congressional Democrats in 86
http://www.examiner.com/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2009m3d18-Cant-afford-the-cost-of-a-sports-event-Blame-Reagan-anhttp://www.examiner.com/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2009m3d18-Cant-afford-the-cost-of-a-sports-event-Blame-Reagan-and-Congressional-Democrats-in-86d-Congressional-Democrats-in-86
Evan WeinerBusiness of Sports Examiner
Can't afford the cost of a sports event? Blame Reagan and Congressional Democrats in 86
March 18, 1:51 PM
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has in recent interviews admitted that he is not sure what to expect when it comes to how many tickets will be sold to Major League Baseball games this season. Given the economic news that comes out daily, it is probably a good bet that ticket sales along with corporate sponsorship dollars will plummet this year. If that happens, it will be the first time since the Reagan years that baseball revenues will tumble except for the strike era in the mid-1990s.
Big time sports, whether it is Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer or major college sports like football and basketball have been on an upward financial projection since the 1986 Tax Act, which inadvertently changed the entire sports industry. If people have been priced out of sports events, blame Ronald Reagan and the Democrats who controlled Congress back in 1986.
With a strike of the pen, President Reagan who changed league dynamics and accelerated the movement to build new stadiums and arenas complete with huge sources of potential income from luxury boxes and club seating. The National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle knew all about luxury boxes back in 1982, telling this reporter that “it was the bane of football.” Dallas and the New York Giants had boxes and were able to make more money that the teams could spend on players and Rozelle predicted that NFL owners would start moving around hoping to find stadiums with luxury boxes. NFL owners starting in the 1970s with Baltimore’s Robert Irsay were looking for greener pastures.
Reagan and the Congressional Democrats have allowed sports owners to practice sports segregation, a practice that forces owners to go after well-heeled customers instead of blue-collar fans. Those customers can afford the high prices for luxury boxes and club seats, high prices for foods and drinks, high prices for parking and merchandise. Poorer fans had two choices; cough up more money for less desirable seats or watch games from home on TV, generally on cable TV where they paid for the service as opposed to over-the-air television. It was Reagan who put the mechanism in place in 1986 that really started ownership free agency and a battle between cities for National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams.The Tax Reform Act of 1986 opened a loophole in the tax laws and gave owners ammunition in their battles with cities and states to get stadiums. The new tax law capped revenues that were raised inside the new or renovated facility that went into the cost of building the facility at eight cents on every dollar. An owner could get 92 cents out of every dollar spent in the facility in theory and also keep all of revenues from stadium naming rights, although leases could be negotiated that would give the municipalities more money to help pay off the construction. Municipalities also paid off stadiums through various taxing schemes including hikes in sales taxes, hotel and hotel taxes, rental car taxes, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, and breaks in property taxes including payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT).
With the new or renovated stadiums on line, owners were able to met players salary demands and those owners who did not have the revenue sources provided by new or renovated stadiums played city against city to get new facilities in an attempt to keep up with those owners who were in upgraded facilities.The law gave municipalities a federal tax exemption on bonds to build new stadiums. The results are stunning. In 2009, 26 of the NFL's 32 teams have new stadiums or renovated facilities with enhanced revenue streams.Of the six that have not gotten new stadiums, the New York Giants and the New York Jets ownerships have partnered on a new stadium that will open in 2010 that is getting tax breaks and incentives from New Jersey. Tom Benson’s New Orleans Saints franchise is getting handouts from Louisiana, although Benson should be the 27th team to get an updated facility as the New Orleans Superdome was renovated because of the damage from Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. Benson’s handouts end following the 2010 season and that could set up a possible departure from the Crescent City. San Diego’s Spanos family is still looking for a new stadium for their Chargers franchise and Minnesota’s Zygi Wilf wants a new stadium for his Vikings franchise. The York family still is hoping Santa Clara, California will still build a new facility for their 49ers even though San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom would still like the family to reconsider and look at a plan to keep the team in “The City.”Sports-team owners started putting pressure on municipalities shortly after Congress sent the completed bill to Reagan for his approval. In 1988, Bill Davidson’s Detroit Pistons began making all sorts of extra money at the Palace of Auburn Hills with the leasing of 180 luxury suites. Davidson built the facility without public money and other sports owners noted his success.
The need for a new stadium/arena frenzy really kicked in by 1989 as the Chicago White Sox ownership threatened to move to a publicly funded stadium in St. Petersburg, had the Illinois General Assembly not given approval for building a new ballpark on Chicago's South Side. Baseball expanded to taxpayer-funded stadiums in Denver, St. Petersburg and Phoenix. Most cities built new ballparks for their Major League teams. The Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers, Royals and A’s and Marlins still play in old facilities. Baseball is looking for a taxpayer-funded stadium for the Florida Marlins in Miami. Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri are paying for renovations for the Royals ball park. Washington opened a new stadium for the Nationals last year, new stadiums in New York for the Yankees and Mets open in less than four weeks and Minneapolis’ new stadium opens for Twins baseball in 2010. It is possible that A’s owner Lewis Wolff will be the only owner with a stadium problem in the near future if Miami-area elected officials give the go ahead to build a Marlins StadiumSpring training is different, too, with little cities being forced to build state-of-the-art complexes in a bid to keep teams from leaving for better offers in other areas of Florida or Arizona.In 1990, Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball signed a new agreement that mandated cities and states across the country to either build new facilities or renovate existing parks by 1994, or Major League owners could pull out of those cities. It's no coincidence that independent baseball minor leagues sprung up, using cities that Major League Baseball deserted as the basis for their business ventures.The National Hockey League was able to expand from 21 to 30 teams and relocate two Canadian-based franchises to the United States during the 1990s because of the 1986 Tax Act. The only non-U.S. city the league added was in Ottawa. Quebec City moved to Denver, Winnipeg ended up in Phoenix and the league added teams in new facilities in San Jose, Tampa, Miami, Anaheim, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Paul and Columbus, and Hartford relocated to Raleigh, N.C., when Connecticut said no to a new arena. Almost every NHL franchise has a new building with the exception of the two New York-area teams.The NBA expanded in 1987 to Orlando, Miami, Minneapolis and Charlotte. Minneapolis eventually had financial difficulty and nearly moved to New Orleans in 1994. The Minnesota Legislature bailed out the team. The NBA awarded teams to Toronto and Vancouver; the Vancouver team moved to Memphis, Charlotte ended up in New Orleans; and Charlotte built a taxpayer-funded arena for its new team. Seattle ownership was unable to get a new building and decided to move to Oklahoma City Only the New York-area teams; Sacramento and Orlando have old buildings, although the Magic ownership is getting a new building next season. Having a new building doesn’t guarantee financial success as the owners of the Indiana Pacers, the Simon Brothers, are looking for financial help from Indianapolis officials as running the city’s new arena along with the money-losing franchise has become too costly.
College programs have new or renovated facilities. The renovations included the building of luxury boxes and concession areas. With the enhancements came hikes in ticket prices, concessions and parking. Students like sports fans had to make a decision, buy higher priced seats in the same locations or watch games from home in front of a television.
Major League Soccer, which did not exist when Reagan signed the tax bill in 1986, has also benefited from the rush to build new stadiums. Seven new soccer stadiums have been built since 2002 with others scheduled to open in the next few years.
Going to a major league sports event or a big time college football game is no longer an option for everyone. In fact, a survey cited by Paul Pelosi, one of the major backers of the new United Football League, said that 66 percent of those of identified themselves as NFL fans never expected to see an NFL game in person. Why? The cost of attending a game.Are the games too costly these days? Blame Ronald Reagan. His signature on the 1986 Tax Reform Act changed the world of sports.evanjweiner@yahoo.com
Evan WeinerBusiness of Sports Examiner
Can't afford the cost of a sports event? Blame Reagan and Congressional Democrats in 86
March 18, 1:51 PM
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has in recent interviews admitted that he is not sure what to expect when it comes to how many tickets will be sold to Major League Baseball games this season. Given the economic news that comes out daily, it is probably a good bet that ticket sales along with corporate sponsorship dollars will plummet this year. If that happens, it will be the first time since the Reagan years that baseball revenues will tumble except for the strike era in the mid-1990s.
Big time sports, whether it is Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer or major college sports like football and basketball have been on an upward financial projection since the 1986 Tax Act, which inadvertently changed the entire sports industry. If people have been priced out of sports events, blame Ronald Reagan and the Democrats who controlled Congress back in 1986.
With a strike of the pen, President Reagan who changed league dynamics and accelerated the movement to build new stadiums and arenas complete with huge sources of potential income from luxury boxes and club seating. The National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle knew all about luxury boxes back in 1982, telling this reporter that “it was the bane of football.” Dallas and the New York Giants had boxes and were able to make more money that the teams could spend on players and Rozelle predicted that NFL owners would start moving around hoping to find stadiums with luxury boxes. NFL owners starting in the 1970s with Baltimore’s Robert Irsay were looking for greener pastures.
Reagan and the Congressional Democrats have allowed sports owners to practice sports segregation, a practice that forces owners to go after well-heeled customers instead of blue-collar fans. Those customers can afford the high prices for luxury boxes and club seats, high prices for foods and drinks, high prices for parking and merchandise. Poorer fans had two choices; cough up more money for less desirable seats or watch games from home on TV, generally on cable TV where they paid for the service as opposed to over-the-air television. It was Reagan who put the mechanism in place in 1986 that really started ownership free agency and a battle between cities for National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams.The Tax Reform Act of 1986 opened a loophole in the tax laws and gave owners ammunition in their battles with cities and states to get stadiums. The new tax law capped revenues that were raised inside the new or renovated facility that went into the cost of building the facility at eight cents on every dollar. An owner could get 92 cents out of every dollar spent in the facility in theory and also keep all of revenues from stadium naming rights, although leases could be negotiated that would give the municipalities more money to help pay off the construction. Municipalities also paid off stadiums through various taxing schemes including hikes in sales taxes, hotel and hotel taxes, rental car taxes, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, and breaks in property taxes including payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT).
With the new or renovated stadiums on line, owners were able to met players salary demands and those owners who did not have the revenue sources provided by new or renovated stadiums played city against city to get new facilities in an attempt to keep up with those owners who were in upgraded facilities.The law gave municipalities a federal tax exemption on bonds to build new stadiums. The results are stunning. In 2009, 26 of the NFL's 32 teams have new stadiums or renovated facilities with enhanced revenue streams.Of the six that have not gotten new stadiums, the New York Giants and the New York Jets ownerships have partnered on a new stadium that will open in 2010 that is getting tax breaks and incentives from New Jersey. Tom Benson’s New Orleans Saints franchise is getting handouts from Louisiana, although Benson should be the 27th team to get an updated facility as the New Orleans Superdome was renovated because of the damage from Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. Benson’s handouts end following the 2010 season and that could set up a possible departure from the Crescent City. San Diego’s Spanos family is still looking for a new stadium for their Chargers franchise and Minnesota’s Zygi Wilf wants a new stadium for his Vikings franchise. The York family still is hoping Santa Clara, California will still build a new facility for their 49ers even though San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom would still like the family to reconsider and look at a plan to keep the team in “The City.”Sports-team owners started putting pressure on municipalities shortly after Congress sent the completed bill to Reagan for his approval. In 1988, Bill Davidson’s Detroit Pistons began making all sorts of extra money at the Palace of Auburn Hills with the leasing of 180 luxury suites. Davidson built the facility without public money and other sports owners noted his success.
The need for a new stadium/arena frenzy really kicked in by 1989 as the Chicago White Sox ownership threatened to move to a publicly funded stadium in St. Petersburg, had the Illinois General Assembly not given approval for building a new ballpark on Chicago's South Side. Baseball expanded to taxpayer-funded stadiums in Denver, St. Petersburg and Phoenix. Most cities built new ballparks for their Major League teams. The Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers, Royals and A’s and Marlins still play in old facilities. Baseball is looking for a taxpayer-funded stadium for the Florida Marlins in Miami. Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri are paying for renovations for the Royals ball park. Washington opened a new stadium for the Nationals last year, new stadiums in New York for the Yankees and Mets open in less than four weeks and Minneapolis’ new stadium opens for Twins baseball in 2010. It is possible that A’s owner Lewis Wolff will be the only owner with a stadium problem in the near future if Miami-area elected officials give the go ahead to build a Marlins StadiumSpring training is different, too, with little cities being forced to build state-of-the-art complexes in a bid to keep teams from leaving for better offers in other areas of Florida or Arizona.In 1990, Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball signed a new agreement that mandated cities and states across the country to either build new facilities or renovate existing parks by 1994, or Major League owners could pull out of those cities. It's no coincidence that independent baseball minor leagues sprung up, using cities that Major League Baseball deserted as the basis for their business ventures.The National Hockey League was able to expand from 21 to 30 teams and relocate two Canadian-based franchises to the United States during the 1990s because of the 1986 Tax Act. The only non-U.S. city the league added was in Ottawa. Quebec City moved to Denver, Winnipeg ended up in Phoenix and the league added teams in new facilities in San Jose, Tampa, Miami, Anaheim, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Paul and Columbus, and Hartford relocated to Raleigh, N.C., when Connecticut said no to a new arena. Almost every NHL franchise has a new building with the exception of the two New York-area teams.The NBA expanded in 1987 to Orlando, Miami, Minneapolis and Charlotte. Minneapolis eventually had financial difficulty and nearly moved to New Orleans in 1994. The Minnesota Legislature bailed out the team. The NBA awarded teams to Toronto and Vancouver; the Vancouver team moved to Memphis, Charlotte ended up in New Orleans; and Charlotte built a taxpayer-funded arena for its new team. Seattle ownership was unable to get a new building and decided to move to Oklahoma City Only the New York-area teams; Sacramento and Orlando have old buildings, although the Magic ownership is getting a new building next season. Having a new building doesn’t guarantee financial success as the owners of the Indiana Pacers, the Simon Brothers, are looking for financial help from Indianapolis officials as running the city’s new arena along with the money-losing franchise has become too costly.
College programs have new or renovated facilities. The renovations included the building of luxury boxes and concession areas. With the enhancements came hikes in ticket prices, concessions and parking. Students like sports fans had to make a decision, buy higher priced seats in the same locations or watch games from home in front of a television.
Major League Soccer, which did not exist when Reagan signed the tax bill in 1986, has also benefited from the rush to build new stadiums. Seven new soccer stadiums have been built since 2002 with others scheduled to open in the next few years.
Going to a major league sports event or a big time college football game is no longer an option for everyone. In fact, a survey cited by Paul Pelosi, one of the major backers of the new United Football League, said that 66 percent of those of identified themselves as NFL fans never expected to see an NFL game in person. Why? The cost of attending a game.Are the games too costly these days? Blame Ronald Reagan. His signature on the 1986 Tax Reform Act changed the world of sports.evanjweiner@yahoo.com
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Why is A-Rod targeted while Stallone is not?
Why is A-Rod targeted while Stallone is not?
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February 26, 1:44 PM
by Evan Weiner, Business of Sports Examiner
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The Salem Witch Trails ended in 1692, Senator Joe Mc McCarthy's reign of blacklisting came to a sudden halt in 1954 but in the world of baseball writers, sports radio talk show hosts and sports TV's talking heads The Scarlet Letter (a book which was written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne) of S, for steroids, has been pinned on Alex Rodriguez and it is seemingly being done so for the benefit of fellow baseball writers and certain politicians not the general public.
The whole Alex Rodriguez situation is a dog and pony show with little journalistic integrity.
The problem for the writers is two fold. Elected officials have far more to worry about than the results of Alex Rodriguez urine sample and most baseball fans don't care. The writers, the moral guardians of baseball, are the only ones who are writing about whether Alex Rodriguez should get booed or whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame.
The writers are complaining about Alex Rodriguez news conference and how he didn't answer their questions to their satisfaction about getting supplements in the Dominican Republic. One New York newspaper, the Daily News, which recently cut its contribution to the employees 401k plan, sent a reporter to the Dominican Republic to see how easy it was for Rodriguez and others to get steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. It was pretty easy for me to find it in Samana in December; it is all over the place. It was simple for the Daily News reporter to find it too. Steroids are sold over the counter in the Dominican Republic pharmacies.
One by one, the bad guys or the ones who don't necessarily play footsie with the regular baseball beat guys, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez are falling and the scribes are having a conflicting time over this. The bad actors, or the ones they perceive as bad actors, are paying the price by their daily public humiliations. But baseball is being tarnished.
But missing in a lot of the prose written about Alex Rodriguez is the fact that he took performance-enhancing steroids in the Dominican Republic, not the United States and that is the way of the culture there. This remains a law enforcement issue or an immigration issue. Border patrol is not going to give drug tests to athletes. Miguel Tejada got a visa to play baseball this year even though he plead guilty to one count of perjury for lying to Congress in his testimony in 2005 on whether or not Rafael Palmeiro lied about whether or not he used steroids. Tejada faces a year prison term.
Tejada got into legal trouble, not for taking illegal substances but for lying to Congress. Alex Rodriguez is only in trouble in the public court of opinion with sportswriters and columnists presenting the story.
Players like Alex Rodriguez better apologize to the baseball writers or else. The or else is you can end up like Barry Bonds, intensively disliked by people who never met him personally in the perceived perception imaginary that is sold by the media because you didn't kiss the butts of baseball writers. After all, the baseball scribes matter, just ask them even if their jobs are being lost as many newspapers globally go out of business or go into bankruptcy. After all, the baseball scribe is the eyes and ears of the fan who has no access to players. They are acting on the fans behalf.
But all of this brings up a very troubling question. Is there a new Mc McCarthyism being practiced by baseball writers and is there a media double standard when it comes to baseball players and other athletes and baseball players and entertainers?
The actor Sylvester Stallone told Time magazine in 2008 that he used human growth hormone to get in shape for his new "Rambo" movie and added "HGH (human growth hormone) is nothing.
"Testosterone to me is so important for a sense of well-being when you get older. Everyone over 40 years old would be wise to investigate it because it increases the quality of your life. Mark my words. In 10 years it will be over the counter."
In 2007, Stallone was caught smuggling 48 vials of the banned human growth hormone Jintropin into Australia. In May, he was ordered to pay $10,651 in fines and court costs. It was the end of the story; Stallone paid his fine and moved on with his life. No one was calling for the removal of the statue of his Rocky character that sits near entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a cultural landmark. After the Australian conviction, a statue of Rocky was also erected in the Serbian village of Zitiste. His film Rocky has been inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film props placed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. The film and the props have not moved since his sentence.
Stallone made big news this week when it was announced that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be shooting a cameo appearance for his new movie the spring. No where in all the publicity stories surrounding "The Expendables" is there a mention of Stallone's Jintropin court appearance or Schwarzenegger use of steroids during his body building days before US made steroids a controlled substance yet the stories written about Alex Rodriguez continue a pace with the emphasis on steroids and how fans should be booing the Yankees players.
Entertainment writers have not editorialized about how Stallone has let down kids for taking drugs but baseball players are role models or at least there is a mythology about athletes as role models. Stallone could not have been a role model because actors and musicians aren't heroes like athletes.
Athletes are divided into two segments, baseball players and others. It seems very few sportswriters have ever complained about National Football League players being suspended for using banned substances. Sports and entertainment writers don't even approach professional wrestling even though the body count from performers that have died unnatural deaths in the past decade have skyrocketed with many of those deaths attributed from the use of banned performance enhancing drugs.
But for some reason only baseball players have the Scarlet Letter S as a permanent part of their wardrobe. Baseball scribes are seeing to that. Perhaps the baseball writers are trying to make up for the fact that they led the cheering in Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's hope for a "Baseball renaissance" after the 1994-5 players strike (the owners were found guilty of non faith bargaining in that work stoppage) and accepting the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race as an important part of the "Baseball renaissance" and looked the other way despite whispers in the industry that certain players were juicing.
In 1997 and 1998 “juicing” was illegal in the United States and that has been forgotten by the baseball writers community.
For some reason baseball, which has endured a betting scandal in 1919 (eight members of the Chicago franchise were banned from baseball for throwing World Series games, giving the victory to the Cincinnati Reds, the players were acquitted after a Grand Jury was convened) and a drug scandal in 1985. The game goes on and it will survive Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rodriguez and scorned baseball writers and columnists even if there are just a handful left after newspapers succumb to financial pressures and the recession.
Perhaps one day, Congress will delve into the entertainment industry that feature Stallone and Schwarzenegger and will address why there is no outrage that performance enhancers are used by actors and actresses and ask why there is no call for testing of actors and actresses whose bodies are their livelihoods as well and also hold hearings on why non-high school athletes are taking banned performance enhancing drugs. That would force baseball writers, who really are only interested in watching games, to do some real journalism.
Right now, all baseball players, including those who never took an illegal performance enhancer, are now forced to wear the scarlet letter S, placed upon them by the judge and jury baseball writers. There is an awful lot wrong with the way the whole baseball-steroids-HGH affair is being played out. Where have law enforcement people been over the past 18 years after steroids possession was made illegal? Why did it take until 2002 for an investigation into the use of banned substances to begin, which happened in the BALCO case in San Francisco? After all there were hints for years that something was going on.
Why is the focus just on baseball players in the US? Why haven't there been Congressional hearings about banned performance enhancers in other industries and finally why are baseball writers the judge and jury and placing the scarlet letter S on baseball players? Why does Sylvester Stallone get a pass and no one is looking to throw him in jail when he is caught red handed with HGH and baseball players scrutinized?
The Salem Witch Trails, the Scarlet Letter and McCarthyism live on if you are a big league baseball player.
evanjweiner@yahoo.com
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February 26, 1:44 PM
by Evan Weiner, Business of Sports Examiner
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The Salem Witch Trails ended in 1692, Senator Joe Mc McCarthy's reign of blacklisting came to a sudden halt in 1954 but in the world of baseball writers, sports radio talk show hosts and sports TV's talking heads The Scarlet Letter (a book which was written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne) of S, for steroids, has been pinned on Alex Rodriguez and it is seemingly being done so for the benefit of fellow baseball writers and certain politicians not the general public.
The whole Alex Rodriguez situation is a dog and pony show with little journalistic integrity.
The problem for the writers is two fold. Elected officials have far more to worry about than the results of Alex Rodriguez urine sample and most baseball fans don't care. The writers, the moral guardians of baseball, are the only ones who are writing about whether Alex Rodriguez should get booed or whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame.
The writers are complaining about Alex Rodriguez news conference and how he didn't answer their questions to their satisfaction about getting supplements in the Dominican Republic. One New York newspaper, the Daily News, which recently cut its contribution to the employees 401k plan, sent a reporter to the Dominican Republic to see how easy it was for Rodriguez and others to get steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. It was pretty easy for me to find it in Samana in December; it is all over the place. It was simple for the Daily News reporter to find it too. Steroids are sold over the counter in the Dominican Republic pharmacies.
One by one, the bad guys or the ones who don't necessarily play footsie with the regular baseball beat guys, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez are falling and the scribes are having a conflicting time over this. The bad actors, or the ones they perceive as bad actors, are paying the price by their daily public humiliations. But baseball is being tarnished.
But missing in a lot of the prose written about Alex Rodriguez is the fact that he took performance-enhancing steroids in the Dominican Republic, not the United States and that is the way of the culture there. This remains a law enforcement issue or an immigration issue. Border patrol is not going to give drug tests to athletes. Miguel Tejada got a visa to play baseball this year even though he plead guilty to one count of perjury for lying to Congress in his testimony in 2005 on whether or not Rafael Palmeiro lied about whether or not he used steroids. Tejada faces a year prison term.
Tejada got into legal trouble, not for taking illegal substances but for lying to Congress. Alex Rodriguez is only in trouble in the public court of opinion with sportswriters and columnists presenting the story.
Players like Alex Rodriguez better apologize to the baseball writers or else. The or else is you can end up like Barry Bonds, intensively disliked by people who never met him personally in the perceived perception imaginary that is sold by the media because you didn't kiss the butts of baseball writers. After all, the baseball scribes matter, just ask them even if their jobs are being lost as many newspapers globally go out of business or go into bankruptcy. After all, the baseball scribe is the eyes and ears of the fan who has no access to players. They are acting on the fans behalf.
But all of this brings up a very troubling question. Is there a new Mc McCarthyism being practiced by baseball writers and is there a media double standard when it comes to baseball players and other athletes and baseball players and entertainers?
The actor Sylvester Stallone told Time magazine in 2008 that he used human growth hormone to get in shape for his new "Rambo" movie and added "HGH (human growth hormone) is nothing.
"Testosterone to me is so important for a sense of well-being when you get older. Everyone over 40 years old would be wise to investigate it because it increases the quality of your life. Mark my words. In 10 years it will be over the counter."
In 2007, Stallone was caught smuggling 48 vials of the banned human growth hormone Jintropin into Australia. In May, he was ordered to pay $10,651 in fines and court costs. It was the end of the story; Stallone paid his fine and moved on with his life. No one was calling for the removal of the statue of his Rocky character that sits near entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a cultural landmark. After the Australian conviction, a statue of Rocky was also erected in the Serbian village of Zitiste. His film Rocky has been inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film props placed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. The film and the props have not moved since his sentence.
Stallone made big news this week when it was announced that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be shooting a cameo appearance for his new movie the spring. No where in all the publicity stories surrounding "The Expendables" is there a mention of Stallone's Jintropin court appearance or Schwarzenegger use of steroids during his body building days before US made steroids a controlled substance yet the stories written about Alex Rodriguez continue a pace with the emphasis on steroids and how fans should be booing the Yankees players.
Entertainment writers have not editorialized about how Stallone has let down kids for taking drugs but baseball players are role models or at least there is a mythology about athletes as role models. Stallone could not have been a role model because actors and musicians aren't heroes like athletes.
Athletes are divided into two segments, baseball players and others. It seems very few sportswriters have ever complained about National Football League players being suspended for using banned substances. Sports and entertainment writers don't even approach professional wrestling even though the body count from performers that have died unnatural deaths in the past decade have skyrocketed with many of those deaths attributed from the use of banned performance enhancing drugs.
But for some reason only baseball players have the Scarlet Letter S as a permanent part of their wardrobe. Baseball scribes are seeing to that. Perhaps the baseball writers are trying to make up for the fact that they led the cheering in Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's hope for a "Baseball renaissance" after the 1994-5 players strike (the owners were found guilty of non faith bargaining in that work stoppage) and accepting the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race as an important part of the "Baseball renaissance" and looked the other way despite whispers in the industry that certain players were juicing.
In 1997 and 1998 “juicing” was illegal in the United States and that has been forgotten by the baseball writers community.
For some reason baseball, which has endured a betting scandal in 1919 (eight members of the Chicago franchise were banned from baseball for throwing World Series games, giving the victory to the Cincinnati Reds, the players were acquitted after a Grand Jury was convened) and a drug scandal in 1985. The game goes on and it will survive Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rodriguez and scorned baseball writers and columnists even if there are just a handful left after newspapers succumb to financial pressures and the recession.
Perhaps one day, Congress will delve into the entertainment industry that feature Stallone and Schwarzenegger and will address why there is no outrage that performance enhancers are used by actors and actresses and ask why there is no call for testing of actors and actresses whose bodies are their livelihoods as well and also hold hearings on why non-high school athletes are taking banned performance enhancing drugs. That would force baseball writers, who really are only interested in watching games, to do some real journalism.
Right now, all baseball players, including those who never took an illegal performance enhancer, are now forced to wear the scarlet letter S, placed upon them by the judge and jury baseball writers. There is an awful lot wrong with the way the whole baseball-steroids-HGH affair is being played out. Where have law enforcement people been over the past 18 years after steroids possession was made illegal? Why did it take until 2002 for an investigation into the use of banned substances to begin, which happened in the BALCO case in San Francisco? After all there were hints for years that something was going on.
Why is the focus just on baseball players in the US? Why haven't there been Congressional hearings about banned performance enhancers in other industries and finally why are baseball writers the judge and jury and placing the scarlet letter S on baseball players? Why does Sylvester Stallone get a pass and no one is looking to throw him in jail when he is caught red handed with HGH and baseball players scrutinized?
The Salem Witch Trails, the Scarlet Letter and McCarthyism live on if you are a big league baseball player.
evanjweiner@yahoo.com
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