So the U.S. judicial system found 104 names in a spreadsheet at a testing company in Long Beach, California. This was November 2003. Obviously one major leaguer’s name on that list stood out from the rest – Alex Rogriguez. The test results and the list were to have been destroyed. But for six days, the Major League Players Association (MLPA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) could not agree on when the records destruction should take place. Enter the government who legally entered and searched Comprehensive Testing, Inc.’s premises for ten names who were allegedly associated with their BALCO investigation. Instead they find the almost anonymous list of 104.
I say almost anonymous because Rogriguez’s name is now front and center in sports news across the world. Two questions immediately come to mind. If this list was supposed to be confidential, who leaked the one name from the list with the most incendiary consequences? And secondly, what should be done about the other names on the list?
The confidentiality of testing for player’s use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is an agreement between MLB and the union. There is no aspect of U.S. law that protects that confidentiality directly. Given these facts, who is in the most beneficial position to have the names exposed? The federal prosecutor that’s who. So without a shred of evidence on my part, I hereby name the prosecutor’s office the leaker. There are laws on the books when it comes to government employees leaking confidential information. And whoever leaked the information, in all cases, should be tried. Who else benefits from this illegal act? You guessed it, the media, specifically Sports Illustrated.
Will we ever know who leaked the information? Will that person or persons ever be prosecuted? No. All we have to do is look at the BALCO investigation and prosecution. Barry Bonds et al are either in the process of being permanently harmed, or have already been permanently harmed. But these users of PEDs are not completely innocent either. I believe they get what they deserve. If they must give up gold medals, or lose lucrative sponsorships, or be left out of the Hall of Fame, so be it. They are cheaters and have stained the very sports that have given them so much.
What about the media? Their skirts are clean, right? Wrong. Taking ill-gotten information from illegal government sources and “reporting” that information to the public is all they say they do. Reporters look past the fact the reason they received the information is through illegal means. They write multiple columns that try to explain they are just doing their job.
So what’s the result? The leaker (prosecutor) gets to expand the investigation by leaking one name. They hope to find the sources of these (now) illegal substances and if they must ruin athlete’s lives to do it – they view it as collateral damage. The SI reporter and the magazine get what they want – readership. More readers mean more exposure for the magazine, which means more advertising dollars and more profit. The writer may even net industry awards for “just doing their job”.
But two wrongs do not make a right. The government and Sports Illustrated were doing things in their best interest. The government leak is illegal. The SI stance, they say, is protected by law, specifically freedom of the press. But what about right and wrong? Standing beside the first amendment claiming that sources are confidential is not a protected right of the press and they should be brought to divulging their source – period.
This is all very muddling. Where does it end? Who is responsible? I lay the blame for what has happened and what should happen going forward on two parties. Major League Baseball and the player’s association. The reason the 104 names were to be confidential was because these two entities wanted to only assess the extent of PED use in baseball in 2003. They believed that by moving slowly on policing PED use would serve the best interests of all concerned. What is the best interest of all concerend? – MONEY. Use of PEDs throughout the 1990′s was accelerating at a rapid pace. Home run records were falling and attendence was breaking records every season. Television revenue was being attracted in quantities never even dreamed of in years past. If MLB and MLPA brass did not know about PED use by players, they had their collective heads in the sand.
But they did know, and wanted it to go away by itself. Instead of stopping it immediately through rigorous testing and penalties, they whitewashed it for the money. The difference between knowing of the abuse and not knowing is the difference between a conspiracy and ineptitude. I vote for the insidious choice.
So what should happen now? If MLB and the union want to get baseball out of the mess they have allowed to happen, they should publish all test results and punish the transgressors. Defuse the entire situation and do the right thing. Take the sting out of being complicit in PED use, protect the players who have not cheated, and use the high road to bring baseball out of this well-muscled abyss.
But as we all suspect and fear, they will not do that. Bud Selig and Donald Fehr will not take the public relations hit they richly deserve. They will cite legal reasons and privacy rights without telling us the real reason – they are bowing to the dollar.
