Take Me Out To The Ball Game

I used to love baseball.

My dad loved baseball. We watched it together. Played "catch". Dad sent me to ball camp (twice). He taught me to appreciate the game. I was never a "hockey" kid. I played for 2-3 seasons in the really early years. It was curling in winter and baseball in summer at our house - oh and we both loved to watch the CFL (for that matter I still do).

One of my best memories was spending an afternoon with my three boys and my dad at Telus Field in Edmonton watching the Trappers. It was a beautiful summer afternoon and we watched, ate, talked, ate, cheered, ate, sang "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" in the 7th inning stretch, ate and just loved each other.

I remember there were some other kids in our section running over, under, around and through (we were in the bleachers and there was room to run over, under, around and through) and generally disrupting what was otherwise a great day. Their parents were yelling at them, occasionally corralling them only to have them break lose later to do more acting out. My boys were happy and content to sit watch and, of course, eat.

Steven was only 4 or 5 and when we came to dessert he ordered a cone that was a bit too big for him. He looked at me with plaintive eyes about a third of the way through it and said, "I can't finish this dad." I said it was OK and just found an empty food try to put it in. No muss. No fuss. No worries.

Later, as we were leaving a lady who had been sitting a few seats away came up to me and said, "I just wanted you to know how wonderful it was to see how gentle you were with your boys. It was nice to have you all here watching the game with us." I thanked her and caught my dad's eye. He was grinning with pride and joy. His son and grandsons did good! It remains to this day the best compliment I've ever received from someone outside our family regarding my parenting skills. It still makes me feel warm 15 years later and it happened through, around, in the context of baseball.

Now the sports press is hunting Manny Ramirez with self-righteous zeal and the commissioner has benched him for 50 games. No court. No hearing. No proven evidence. No process. No justice. No game.

Let me firmly state that I am appalled by the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports, but what really is appalling to me is the hypocrisy and evil manipulation the owners of teams, commissioners and governors of sport embrace for their own selfish gain at the expense of the lives, health and well-being of the athletes.

The truth is that illegal or banned substances are simply at the extreme end of the continuum that also includes cortisone shots for hurt knees, surgery for torn ligaments, pain killers, hydrotherapy, oxygen and a host of other medically accepted treatments employed to help the athletes keep performing. We live in a consumer society which offers us all a pill for whatever is bothering us or holding us back or making us sad, mad or glad. On top of this, the pro athletes are under pressures that few others have to face and the powers that be have conveniently ignored the problem of illegal drug use in sport and even been complicit in its use.

There are only two options that I can see that have a hope of working. The first is 100% drug testing of all athletes in a particular league or sport coupled with crippling sanctions for failure to comply or test clean. Don't even begin to suggest that cost or complexity would make this option unworkable. As long as the players and owners enjoy incomes and lifestyles that are in the top .0001% of all humanity on Earth that argument is only valid if you are a complete idiot or in collusion with those who earn their livelihoods off the breaking and broken bodies of abused athletes.

The unfortunate reality is that this scenario will always result in more scandal, ongoing investigations, controversy and escalating efforts to find ways to beat the tests, devise new drugs and keep cheating. The downside will always be out weighed by the upside as far as the athletes, coaches, owners and league bosses are concerned. A few busted cheaters, a few destroyed careers, a few wrecked legacies, a few records tainted will always be "acceptable losses" when compared with the rewards of winning - even if you cheat to do it.

The alternative is to open it up and manage the use of performance enhancing substances in the open. Again 100% testing will have to be used but the reasons will be different. Essentially, the teams as corporations and the owners must become responsible for the ongoing and long term health of their employees. Rather than benefit from the achievements of cheaters who risk their lives for money, fame and glory while having no obligations towards them for the consequences of the risks they have taken, the teams, owners and leagues would become legally responsible for the use of these substances and their effects on the players.

This would create a strong motivation for the teams to closely monitor their athletes use and health. The whole sport would have a vested interest in making sure that use was as safe as it can be made. We as fans would know exactly what was going on and players could choose whether or not to use substances based on their career objectives and personal moral codes instead of under the pressure of having to deal with these choices illicitly. Fans could actually decide if they preferred to idolize athletes who use performance enhancers vs. ones who don't. Corporations could choose athletic spokespersons based on their read of which type of athlete would best represent their brand to their clientele. We could do away with the witch hunts, shattering revelations, debates about asterisks in the record books and the host of other uncertainties this issue is creating.

Most importantly, tragic outcomes like the horrible end faced by Lyle Alzado for example could be largely avoided or at least the team, owners and leagues would be obliged and able to provide support and compensation to afflicted athletes and their families. Also, the risk to young, non-professional athletes would be greatly diminished as the whole issue would be dealt with in the open instead of the dark corners of the clubhouse and dressing room. We do not know even now how many young men and women have been damaged by succumbing to the pressure to use these substances and incur the consequences of their use before ever (if ever) entering the ranks of professional sports.

In the meantime as we debate the morals of the athletes who are suspected of using banned substances we ignore the obviously reprehensible morals of owners, coaches, league officials and corporations who have all turned a blind eye to the obvious use of these substances by their employees because they have enjoyed the obscenely huge profits these men and women have generated for them by sacrificing their bodies and long term health.

It's time that the people who get rich through professional sport, including the athletes, stand up, take responsibility and face this problem head on. Continued banning, testing and sanctioning will only continue the cat and mouse game and subject whatever sport is in view to ongoing suspicion, ridicule and fan disenfranchisement.

I believe if the choice to use or not use was able to me made in the open we would see that the very best athletes and best organizations would have little or no abuse. As it is there is now no one who can be trusted, no one who's hands are clean, no one who's motives are pure and no one who holds the high moral ground. This is because the default position we have all adopted is "it's OK as long as you don't get caught". The system rewards those who cheat well and it destroys those who cheat poorly. In that we probably shouldn't be surprised, it's just another game with it's own rules and it's own winners and losers. But for my money it's a lousy game.

For my part I want to love baseball and other sports again, but for that to happen they are all going to have to start being honest with themselves and with me as a fan.

When that starts to happen I'll be back in the bleachers.