At The End of The Day, Some People Just Don't Get It

Well into day 2 of the Kenny Rogers saga and the battlelines have been drawn. It seems that now Tony LaRussa has gotten an earful from Cardinal fan and has proclaimed that the foriegn substance on the gambler's hand was not dirt. Gee, what a revelation Tony.

Last night, Buster Olney, Senior ESPN Baseball Analyst, joined Doug Gotlieb and Jeff Rickert on ESPN Radio to break down game 2 and stated that Kenny is not alone when it comes to doctoring the ball. Apparently, the amount of pitchers that use some form of foreign substance is not as low as MLB would like you to believe. 'There have been several pitchers tell me that they have used silicon sprays to help them grip the ball,' proclaimed Olney. Seeing as how MLB actively took a major role in covering up steroids, this doesn't really surprise me much.

What does suprise me are the apologists that seem to miss the point of all this. Why should we care? Because the integrity of the sport is what keeps us tuning in and not to the WWE. Fans know that by tuning into a sporting event, the outcome has not been predetermined and that the odds of one team winning the game are an even 50/50 split. But hey, what's integrity when you have a multi-billion dollar operation, right?

It's always the same argument, 'it's only steroids, what's the big deal?' Or you get the, 'everyone is doing,' line. Then when congress gets involved, you get the genius that undoubtedly will break out with the gem, 'isn't there enough problems in the world that we need to concentrate on baseball?' Well, get this through your fat, uneducated heads, baseball is a business that reaps the operational rewards of holding anti-trust status, that means that it can manipulate its market as much as it wants without having to worry about the feds breaking up the business, and it can get around trickly consumer protection laws. 'Hey, let's charge these guys 10 dollars for a beer and 20 for parking!' Price-fixing anyone? This has given the league the oportunity to grow after several mismanaged labor disputes and gives them the leverage they needed to attract fans back to the game.

Seeing as how baseball does have this special status, I think that would make the league a bit of a public trust, because after all, US laws are protecting the product, and those laws are supported by US tax payers. At any rate, MLB's 'turn a blind eye' argument is a classic decievement if I have ever seen one, and the fact that they knowingly cover up infringments of the operating rules and down right criminal behavior, makes the league guilty of being a criminal enterprise. Hey, they took down the Gambino family that way, why not serve a R.I.C.O. warrant at Bud Selig's door.

So, this all leads us to the heart of the matter. Baseball is wrong in covering up this latest round of cheating. It's not a conspiracy theory, and quite frankly the conspiracy theorists is always the wacko nut job that trys to sell the ridiculous party line, get a clue you self absorbed maniac, everything isn't always about you so stop thinking everyone else lives in the same fictional world you created in your head. But I digress. It is a fact. Millions of eyes can't be wrong, and damnit, that looked pretty dark and shiny on my HDTV. That was pine tar, plain and simple.

So when the next guy comes around trying to sell you on the fact that it's no big deal, nothing to see, move along, stop and ask what his motives are. Tony LaRussa isn't saying much because he still wants to be on Jimmy Leyland's mailing list, and quite frankly, Leyland could probably kick his ass if he saw him out on the street. I think it goes further, however, and the possible exposing of all of MLB's little white lies is far too much for a sport with so many black eyes to deal with. From the players' union to the owners, to the umpire's union, the fact is that they are all single handidly playing a role in the defrauding of the fan, and the increasingly mess the league has become.

This post season, the story was Kenny, and now MLB is on the verge of losing that story line and needs to act quickly to keep the focus the positives of the game. The irony being that the more they try, the more they villify the very thing they were looking to exploit for their marketing purposes. But hey, now more people will tune in to watch with this new layer of drama. Subplots, got to love them.

Oh, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist, nor an 'expert' to understand that it was a bad call, the umpire got the ruling wrong, and isn't worth his salt. But, I wouldn't expect people who equate past amature experiences and fantasies with contemporary issues in hopes of drawing compelling parallels to understand that.