With Roger
Clemens’ acquittal on perjury charges regarding his testimony about taking
steroids, the Major League Baseball performance-enhancing drug (PED) issue is
back in the national spotlight.
While Clemens’
was acquitted by a jury of his peers, he still has to face the jury of baseball
journalists who vote for the Hall of Fame. In dealing with other suspected or
admitted steroids users, the Hall of Fame voters have not been particularly
forgiving.
According to a
recent article by Tim Keown in ESPN the
Magazine, however, there is reason to believe that forgiveness is becoming
more common, and for one particular reason: fatigue. Keown argues that the
public has grown tired of the steroids saga. For proof, he compares the uproar following
the initial revelations about sluggers like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds to the
relative calm that has surrounded the recent Ryan Braun case.
Unlike McGwire
and Bonds, Braun was actually suspended by MLB for a positive steroids test,
but the suspension was overturned when a mediator determined that the test
procedures were slightly inconsistent with expectations. Despite his positive
test, Braun has faced very little scrutiny and has returned fairly easily to
his regular baseball routine, according to Keown.
If Keown is right
and the baseball world has become disinterested in PED stories, then Clemens’
first shot at the Hall of Fame will be telling. Hall of Fame voters have been
hard on suspected steroid users in the past, but they have had the force of
public sentiment in the past.
As the public
becomes disinterested, MLB loses suspension appeals on technicalities, and the
US government runs out of players to charge with perjury, baseball writers may
be the only group left to hold players accountable for steroids use.
--Brett Sherrick
No comments:
Post a Comment