I SMELL REFUND

Now we're getting somewhere that will potentially bring real closure to this steroids in baseball story. I've railed for years about the culture being polluted due to the fact that both sides, players and owners, had incentives to keep steroid use under cover.

Now that the cat is out of the bag and we're taking punitive steps, the punitive actions have been laid at the players doorstep almost exclusively.

Even the Mitchell Report, other than making some recommendations to clubs that are filed under closing the barn door after the horse is gone,does not make any recommendations to punish the clubs for complicity in allowing the scourge to grow under their noses. They cashed the checks just as the players did, they profited just as the players did, they obstructed and lied just as the players did. And yet all the punishment is falling on the players.

There needs to be some form of punishment on both sides given that both sides had incentives to perpetuate the problem. If not, that side has no disincentive to try to regrow the problem at some time in the future. Maybe the Commissioners Office should have the power to impose stiff fines or loss of draft choices to teams that have a track record of players who test positive, over and above a certain level. This would imply a form of lack of institutional control that the NCAA uses to impose on rogue football programs after a certain level of bad behavior continues for a certain length of time.

Well maybe not if more cases like this proceed, in fact I wonder why an enterprising young attorney doesn't seek to pursue class action status for any and all fans interested in receiving refunds for attending what are now described as "tainted" games.

You simply can't have it both ways. And since the media is in bed with ownership, but occasionally sleeps around with a players or two it admires, fans cannot count on them to get behind any idea that does damage to ownership. IT WOULD BE A CONFLICT OF INTEREST, THEY KNOW WHERE THEIR BREAD IS BUTTERED, AND IT'S IN THE PRESS BOX, PROVIDED BY OWNERSHIP AND CHASED DOWN WITH FREE BOOZE.

IF RECORDS ARE TAINTED, THEN GAMES ARE TAINTED AS WELL. AND IF GAMES ARE TAINTED, JUST AS IF ANY OTHER PRODUCT YOU PURCHASED IS TAINTED, YOU AS A CONSUMER ARE ENTITLED TO A REFUND.

In a sense, it would be poetic justice if this type of case snowballs. However, it would hurt the sport long-term. I know personally, I do not watch any of the Olympic sports that have a taint or a stigma of steroid abuse. The results are always at risk of being retroactively overturned, so it becomes a case of why bother watching an event when there is a high probability the observed results will be overturned in a future administrative proceeding. That's not a sport that's worth spending my entertainment time and money on. As always, a case of be careful what you wish for.

The nonsensical continued bleating from baseball ownership and management along the that goes something like "Hey, we didn't know the players were doing this stuff. They lied to us too" has got to stop. It's insulting to the intelligence of any fans with an intelligence level above a three year old.

The following comments from Larry Starr, former trainer for the Reds and Marlins illustrate the point:

"Here's the thing that really bothers me," Starr said in a recent interview with FLORIDA TODAY. "They sit there, meaning the commissioner's office, Bud Selig and that group, and the players' association, Don Fehr and that group . . . they sit there and say, 'Well, now that we know that this happened we're going to do something about it.'

"I have notes from the Winter Meetings where the owners group and the players' association sat in meetings with the team physicians and team trainers. I was there. And team physicians stood up and said, 'Look, we need to do something about this. We've got a problem here if we don't do something about it.' That was in 1988."

I repeat that was in 1988 folks. 19-freaking-88. And in 1991 Faye Vincent sent his infamous toothless memo. I suppose that was supposed to be the extent of the steps they were willing to take to stop this "problem" that was growing under their collective eyes. Remember Michell's comment about how the owners were sidetracked with economic problems i.e: they were too busy ringing the cash register to care.

And now we're supposed to believe they've seen the light? Give me a break.

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FROM THE GOTHAMIST.COM

http://gothamist.com/2008/01/11/knoblauch_ends.php

Elsewhere, someone's suing the Yankees, but based on the $221 in damages he wants, the Yankees should still be able to afford Alex Rodriguez. The claimant brought suit in a small-claims court in Brooklyn. He wants a refund for five tickets from 2002-2007 -- including one from a game against Barry Bonds and the Giants and another from Game 2 of the 2003 World Series -- because the Yankees broke their implicit promise to provide a fair and honest game. Everyone knows what Bonds is accused of, and Pettitte started that World Series game. We assume the claimant, whose last name is Mitchell, is not related to Senator George Mitchell.