Now MLB must decide how to handle Bonds

Written by Jonathan Leshanski
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
While the courts will take action – and Barry will face a criminal trial with up to 30 years of his life at stake, the court of baseball will have to make their own decisions too. Once again Commissioner Bud Selig will have to make a hard choice as to what is the right thing to do in regards to censuring or not censuring Barry Bonds. That’s not necessarily an enviable position – because what I think is right, and what you may think is right may not be the same thing. With Barry’s drug tests becoming part of the public record as soon as it is entered into evidence, baseball will be forced to take a public stand on Barry, and the role that steroids have played in the game over the last few decades. This action will take is one that will shape baseball for decades to come – especially if baseball opts not to take the easiest path and opts to get its hands a little dirty in trying to end the steroid era once and for all. It would be a cowardly action by Selig to not take some sort of stand on Barry’s accomplishments but it would be the easiest – he wouldn’t end up fighting a battle over the validity of the records which could be challenged in court or by the Player’s Union. It would essentially maintain the status quo and not strain relations between the Union and ownership. But it would be easiest and perhaps least controversial thing for Bud Selig to do. He could get away with just a public statement saying how disappointed he is about the whole affair but that baseball has made great strides in rooting out performance enhancing drugs. Baseball would merely accept the records for what they were and let them stand allowing the public to judge the validity over time. Second, Bud could step up and be the second commissioner to offer forth an asterisk following the records of a home run hitter. This would be somewhat better as baseball would acknowledge the cheating publicly and mark the fraud prevalent in this dark age of baseball’s history. It would send a message to future generations, as well as to ballplayers that baseball will not cover up cheating once it is exposed. There is little downside to this action, save that it will lead to a longstanding debate as to how baseball’s commissioner failed to stop steroids much sooner – especially with positive tests dating back to 2001 and continuing beyond that. Third, they could come forth and declare all of Barry’s records invalid and purge them from the official records of the game – and ban him from the game a la Pete Rose, thus blocking his entry to the Hall of Fame or from working within the game of baseball in the future. This would he highly debatable and would open up a lot of criticism of the game – but it wouldn’t be negative publicity as baseball would be shown to be cleaning house. It would send a message to players, both those who’ve cheated and those who may be thinking about it that cheaters will have to face repercussions, especially for covering up for cheating within the game. It would of course open the door to potential legal action, and an immediate appeal from the Players Union via the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and legally could even be in violation of that agreement – but it would be a courageous move which could change the nature of the game in the future. Fourth Baseball and Bud Selig could approach Congress – and do something unparalleled – they could ask for a change in exactly what the Collective Bargaining Agreement must include, gaining autonomy in releasing test results, determining punishments, and raising the standards by which the purity of the game would be judged. They’d be able to make the game more transparent and help eliminate drug use and performance enhancing cheats. Admittedly they could get the same result if Congress were to create a national professional athletics drug policy. Unless the courts decide to drop the charges against Barry without entering his drug records into public record, Bud Selig will have to do something to save face both for himself and for the game itself. He could choose one of the options outlined above, create a combination of these options or he could find another alternative altogether (for example let the records stand but ban Bonds from the game) but he’ll be forced to do something or see the game crucified in the court of public opinion. I don’t think we’ll be waiting all that long to find out just what is going to happen. We want to hear your feedback. Feel free to comment on this article here or visit our message board. You can contact Jonathan Leshanski via the writer's Profile or the AHP Staff via the contact form. Hype up this post at BallHype!

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