Union solely responsible for 'roids mess
While the world ponders a future where many of the top baseball players of recent generation do not make the hall of fame (gasp) there's no reason to question where the blame lies.
That's squarely with the players union.
I wrote passionately years ago the job of the players union is to protect its players. Protect them from bad contracts, unsafe working conditions, you name it... the job is to protect. Yet when the issue of protecting its members from feeling the pressure to take performance enhancing drugs came along the union looked the other way. Why should our members be treated any different, they mused over expense account lunch martinis...
Well, Fehr and company you have your answer. If you can't figure out what "protect" means then quite frankly you're not qualified to have a job. The only reason the union agreed to the "secret" testing was because it didn't have the brain power to realize what a problem it actually was. When the results where finally available, only slowly did the powers that run the players union understand the significance of what they had on their hands.
Can you imagine the gasps that had to have occurred when the list revealed Alex Rodriguez is a steroid user? The highest paid player in the world, the highest paid player in the history of sports contracts was using illegal drugs.
The union did not provide an environment where its members felt everyone was on the same field, so to speak. The union could not maintain the secrecy it promised its members when it agreed to the 2003 testing.
The union screwed up big time, and if there was any accountability they would all be shown the door.
Not likely to happen, but it should.
While the world ponders a future where many of the top baseball players of recent generation do not make the hall of fame (gasp) there's no reason to question where the blame lies.
That's squarely with the players union.
I wrote passionately years ago the job of the players union is to protect its players. Protect them from bad contracts, unsafe working conditions, you name it... the job is to protect. Yet when the issue of protecting its members from feeling the pressure to take performance enhancing drugs came along the union looked the other way. Why should our members be treated any different, they mused over expense account lunch martinis...
Well, Fehr and company you have your answer. If you can't figure out what "protect" means then quite frankly you're not qualified to have a job. The only reason the union agreed to the "secret" testing was because it didn't have the brain power to realize what a problem it actually was. When the results where finally available, only slowly did the powers that run the players union understand the significance of what they had on their hands.
Can you imagine the gasps that had to have occurred when the list revealed Alex Rodriguez is a steroid user? The highest paid player in the world, the highest paid player in the history of sports contracts was using illegal drugs.
The union did not provide an environment where its members felt everyone was on the same field, so to speak. The union could not maintain the secrecy it promised its members when it agreed to the 2003 testing.
The union screwed up big time, and if there was any accountability they would all be shown the door.
Not likely to happen, but it should.
posted by Tom at
2:33 PM
