MLB rewarding steroids user?It appears baseball has found itself in quite a conundrum. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder/performance enhancing and women's fertility drug abuser Manny Ramirez is an uncomfortably close 4th place in the National League All-Star voting as of this writing with 442,763 votes, just over 34,000 behind New York's Carlos Beltran.
What? Please stop for a moment and think about this. We are in the “steroid era” of baseball. All we hear about is how disappointed we are in such former stars as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens, yet the fans are still rewarding Manny with a potential All-Star game appearance? Heck, the Dodgers may even be rewarding him if he has a contract caveat that pays him a bonus should he make the All-Star team.
Why is there not a rule that stipulates that players who have been caught using performance enhancing drugs are ineligible to participate in the game? I am losing a lot of faith in the management of Major League Baseball for not taking a more proactive approach in curbing the use of steroids. By allowing Manny to potentially participate, what is the message that Commissioner Bud Selig is sending? Is it perfectly acceptable for players to violate the current drug policy and still be shown for display on a night that is meant to display the most positive aspects of the league?
Here's something I just stumbled upon. Apparently baseball does have a policy in regards to this situation, and it states: “A player shall be deemed to have been eligible to play in the All-Star Game if he was elected or selected to play; the commissioner's office shall not exclude a player from eligibility for election or selection because he is suspended under the program.”
Honestly, I'm starting to think that the league executives are simply putting on a facade of caring about steroids usage in their league. Think about it, their most profitable times came as a direct result of steroids users; the McGwire/Sosa home run race of '98, Bonds' single season home run record and Bonds' chase for the all-time home run record. If they really wanted to cut down on steroids usage, they would not have budged on issues like this and the rule in the paragraph above. They must not have been too concerned if they let offenders of the current drug policy still participated in their premier showcase event outside of the World Series.
Of course the better part of me dismisses such notions, but the MLB allowing Manny to potentially participate after breaking what would appear to be the league's most sacred rule raises a lot of questions in my mind: Is the league more concerned with ticket sales and TV ratings than the integrity of its game? It needs to balance those two very carefully or else it could end up on the wrong side of both of those issues.
The best of the best?
Who can tell me definitively what the purpose of the All-Star game is?
How about Dodgers manager Joe Torre?
“To me, I think the significance of the All-Star Game is to reward players who have a good first half.” Sounds reasonable. Let's get a second opinion.
What are your thoughts, Charlie Manuel? You must have a valid opinion, being a world champion manager for the Phillies and all.
“The All-Star Game is for the fans and I think if (Manny) got voted in, then it would be appropriate for him to play.” So it's not about rewarding the best players from the first half? It's a popularity contest?
We need a tiebreaker. How about the league? They should be a definitive source.
According to a 2003 New York Times article: “Despite initial opposition to the idea, the Players Association agreed yesterday to a two-year experiment that will link the outcome of the All-Star Game to home-field advantage in the World Series.”
So now the game is about home-field advantage in the World Series?
The league seems to be in a state of perpetual miscommunication on this issue. There cannot be three different aims for this single exhibition game. It just won't work and all it will do – and it certainly has done – is cause controversy. Is that really something the league wants on its biggest night outside of the playoffs? Sure it generates discussion, but its also turning viewers off to the game.
Out of the four major sports – NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL – the baseball All-Star game is the only one that is experiencing a downturn in television ratings. Last year's edition of the midsummer classic did have more views than any other since 2002, but a lot of that can be attributed to the setting at Yankee Stadium. Overall, The game has been on a downward trend since the 2001, and the game two summers ago got the lowest ratings since the 1970's.
Obviously something must be done by the executives of the league to turn this trend around, since the World Series home-field advantage thing just isn't working out (a debate for a later posting). It is on that note that I present my idea to boost ratings: add another game.
I call it the “All-Stats” game. More often than not, the players that are doing the best are often pushed out of the All-Star game because of the fans' votes. In order to get some more exposure, these players should have a game of their own. What would happen is that after the All-Star rosters are announced, a team from each league would be compiled from the remaining players featuring the two best offensive and defensive players at each position, based on statistics, and the top two pitchers from the major pitching stat categories (ERA, Wins, Strikeouts and Saves). These teams would be managed by the manager from each league that had the largest win-loss improvement from the previous year at the All-Star break.
I will argue that this game would be much more exciting and intriguing than the All-Star game and would draw back the baseball purists who have been turned off by the politics of the midsummer classic. In addition, it would be another game worth of revenue for the league, the stadium and Fox Sports, who covers the game.
Because, as seems to be a recurring theme on this blog, everything boils down to money.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4215510
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4210101
http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/weekly-ratings-mlb-all-star-game-leads-fox-to-ratings-win/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/16/nba-all-star-game-ratings_n_167404.html
http://www.nfl.com/probowl/story?id=09000d5d806a6a1a&template=with-video&confirm=true
http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/2009/01/nhl-all-star-overnights-up-12.html
http://uk.reuters.com/article/televisionNews/idUKN1436552520080715
Think I made some great points? Did I say something that you disagree with? Anything that you think I missed? Let me know: comment below.