Quote:
Originally Posted by dave
Quite obviously MLB's testing is a useless, abject failure. PED's remain rampant and there's not a damn thing MLB can do unless someone snitches or a doc gets careless.
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Plenty they can do about it. Weekly MANDATORY random and non-random drug screening. I am subject (Not weekly) to it as an airline pilot and have spent 24 years in the AF/AF Reserves subject to it.
The owners can build monstrous new stadiums, charge $12 for a 16 ounce beer, players make $5 million plus a year, agents and lawyers are raking in the cash, corporations, corporate sponsors (stadiums), and advertising agencies (think about 10 seconds of Super bowl air time) are swimming in money from pro sports, tax revenue base for: stadiums, concessions, parking, etc etc are making politicians powerful and rich too.
In all that money the first priority SHOULD be to keep this game,
OUR GAME, clean. There is plenty of money flying around to do that. And therein lies the problem - there's plenty of money flying around and everybody wants their big cut; at the expense of the game. You throw "thirty pieces of silver" on the table and you can get people to do anything - It's human nature.
So I turn my introspection to the fan (Us). ARoid, Bonds, McGuire, all exist not because of their greed and ego (per se), but rather because we continue to fund it. Everybody keeps going to the stadiums and buying the merchandise and worshipping these guys and it will just continue. The purity of the game is gone. But, after 20 years I had to go back and see an MLB game with my 6 year old son. Out in San Diego, great new stadium and location. I don't pay attention anymore. I was just there for the spectacle and the stadium and the show, As well as the desire to take my son to his first game. The players, coaches, managers, and owners are nameless to me. I don't care who is up on that stage or the statistics - it's nothing more than a theatrical production. Good player on third, Chase Headley, I think. He had a good game defensively with a couple of hits. Fun player to watch, but I didn't see him. I just saw the face of Brooks Robinson, my all-time favorite, and I sat back and enjoyed the show and thought about all the great memories of the past. I am going to Wrigley next week (w/ my son) for the first time in my life. Again, just for the show and to see Wrigley - nothing more. We'll talk a lot about guys like Sanberg, Dawson, Santo, and Banks but I don't think I'll even notice who's in the lineup for the day we're there.
I am so jaded on baseball, the game I loved, I can't believe it. "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you ...."