Saturday, August 8, 2009

Of Baseball And Steriods

As with sports in general, baseball rarely catches my interest, but I occassionally come by things that I can't not say anything about. This steriod scandal that's been happening for the past decade or so in the sport has almost reached the point of absurdity. I just watched David Ortiz's press conference; rumor had it his name was on a list of people that tested positive for steriods in 2003. Mr. Ortiz talked for a few minutes and denied any allegations that he took drug and then Michael Weiner, MLB Players' Union Chief, talked for longer and ran the media through every hoop possible to try and make the claim that the list meant nothing and that nobody knows anything about who tested what for what. I thought about it for a second and realized what the MLB is, has been, and will try to do. It is obvious that a number of big-name players are in the mud of this scandal. If the MLB did the logical thing by finding out who took the PEDs and punishing them, (I'm assuming they would be off the diamond for quite some time) the league would lose a very substantial portion of its following. Without star players, ticket sales will plummet and ESPN will have to find some other summer sport to fill the months with. I don't claim to know everything about the sport, but I'd be willing to wager that if overall ticket sales fell 10-20%, a few troubled teams and/or stadiums would go under. Instead of letting this happen, the MLB will draw this all out for attention and end up letting the big names off the hook so as to not lose fan support.

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