Our View -- Steroid investigation: Past cannot be changed

April 6, 2006, The Free Press

Spitballs, corked bats, tagging up early on a fly ball ... in all these details and more, the ethics of baseball has long been: “It ain’t cheating if you don’t get caught.”

Does it need to be said it ain’t cheating if it ain’t against the rules?

The self-evident absurdity of formal punishment for permitted activities casts a shadow over baseball’s announced investigation into past steroid use.

Assume that George Mitchell — the former judge, senator and ambassador appointed last week by Commissioner Bud Selig to conduct the probe — turns up conclusive evidence that the Barry Bonds-Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run circuses of the past decade were indeed chemically enhanced. What could Selig do with that information? The rules of baseball at that time didn’t prohibit players from taking steroids.

Jim Bunning, whose pitching exploits in the 1960s led him both to the Hall of Fame and the halls of Congress, has demanded Selig strike the records of anybody found to have “cheated” with chemical enhancers. Bunning himself was reputed in his playing days to use the spitter, but beyond the issue of his hypocrisy: These were real home runs that resulted in real wins and losses in front of real crowds that paid real money to spend real time watching. If none of it counts, where do those fans get their money and time back? Get real, senator.

Bonds’ pursuit of the career home-run record has made him the poster boy for the scandal. He has denied, both to the press and, reportedly, to a grand jury, using steroids. That grand jury declined to charge Bonds with either using illegal substances or perjury. No conviction, no charges, just suspicion.

Baseball now prohibits steroids. Its testing procedures are steadily becoming stricter — gone are last year’s relaxed collection rules when a player was handed a cup and allowed to leave and return a couple of hours later with a sample.

Whether this will change anything, or merely drive the users further underground and into more sophisticated enhancers (such as human growth hormone), has yet to be seen. But anyone underestimating the willingness of high-level athletes, in any sport, to risk future health for immediate competitive edge is deluding himself.