Posted by John Brattain on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 3:26 pm

Well, let’s get back to the fascinating stuff in “The Yankee Years.”

To begin with–how much do you think the commissioner of baseball is aware of the official goings-on at the annual baseball winter meetings? One would think the commander-and-chief of the sport should have a pretty good handle on the agenda and whatnot.

Rewind to 1998: the baseball winter meetings in Nashville…there, MLB medical director Dr. Robert Millman and Dr. Joel Solomon (he served the MLBPA in the same capacity) made a presentation to various baseball executives and team physicians about the benefits of testosterone usage. Simply put, they were asserting that there was little medical evidence that steroids were harmful.

We’re reminded of MLBPA No. 2 Gene Orza’s claim that steroids were no more hazardous than cigarettes. How true that is (to what degree) I have no idea–all I know is that one player’s smoking will not coerce another to do likewise to keep up.

But I digress.

If Bud Selig can claim that he was ignorant of steroids in the game in 1998 he is either (1) a liar or (2) too stupid to live yet alone be the CEO of a billion dollar industry.

Probably the most disturbing aspect of all this is the union’s role in all this–the thing is, Marvin Miller is a principled man; we can argue until we’re blue in the face about the value of some of his principles but I feel comfortable that his are of good faith if occasionally misguided.

I’ve often felt that Don Fehr was cut from the same cloth–I’ve differed with Fehr on a number of issues over the years yet not once did I ever feel he was being dishonest, dishonourable, capricious or underhanded. I have believed that while he occasionally could be imprudent he would always be acting in a manner that demonstrated good motives.

I think he is basically a good man but I can’t help but wonder if he lost his way somehow.

The big problem for a man like Fehr is that to affect significant change in MLB require that he work with completely amoral individuals that are ultra focused on improving profits regardless of the ethics involved (or ignored) and since the fiscal succubi of MLB realize that the quickest way to more money is damaging the MLBPA it’s easy to empathize why he would be leery of any joint ventures requiring becoming bedfellows with such ones.

We’ve seen that with drug testing–players are falling right, left and center while the commissioner is feigning either ignorance or diligence on the issue. No owner or commissioner has been called before a grand jury, nobody’s prosecuting any member of management for misleading statements made before the various government committees regarding drugs or their economic status over the years and nobody on that side is facing jail time or government scrutiny.

Marvin Miller said these things would happen if drug testing were brought into the sport and we’ve seen it occur–the media focuses on the Barry Bonds, the Alex Rodriguez’s, the Mark McGwire’s and the Roger Clemens decrying their lack of honour while the vast majority of anyone on the management side has all but been given a free pass by the government, media and general public despite their obvious complicity.

Small wonder that Fehr was/is reticent about dealing with such ones where trust is of paramount importance.

What makes me wonder if Fehr jumped the tracks due to Gene Orza; Orza is allegedly the one that tried to find enough false positives to drop the ratio of positive results in the 2003 survey testing below 5% that provided the window of opportunity for the samples to be seized by the government, he has been accused of tipping players about upcoming tests, he’s the one that trivializes the effects of steroid use.

It’s hard not to get the impression that he has no problem with players using steroids even if it means coercing other players to use to keep up and obtaining the drugs from dubious and unhygienic sources further risking their health. It’s a completely irresponsible position when you consider that giving workers a safe and healthy work environment is a sacred tenet of any union.

However, the salary bar is the sacred cow the modern MLBPA–not worker well being.

If I had to hazard a guess, I’d suppose that Fehr is trying to merge or balance two philosophies–the ones espoused by Miller and the ones adhered to by Orza and the mix is toxic. Miller lacks pragmatism on the issue while Orza lacks compassion. Fehr should’ve been more proactive and creative–possibly setting up something in house. While Fehr believes that mandatory testing is a violation of privacy why couldn’t he have set up a “probable cause” regulation (along the lines the sport had in the 1980’s) for the union where a player would be tested if the MLBPA thought a player was juicing?

It wouldn’t be that hard–just set up an tips hotline where players could anonymously inform the union if they had strong reason to believe a teammate was using anabolic steroids. A positive test (from a union administered test) would result in sanction (such as loss of licensing money for a first offense and revocation of membership for a second offense) and he could’ve tried to create an environment where usage would be frowned upon. In short–create peer pressure to play clean and hit them in the pocketbook when they don’t; after all, if an economic incentive causes players to use then certainly incentives not to use could be put in place.

All this could happen out of the public eye without management’s knowledge.

Sadly, as has often happened in MLB things only go to extremes where both sides think in win-lose scenarios; both sides feel that for them to win, the others must lose. This has been the mindset within the game since Marvin Miller became executive director of the MLBPA.

Unfortunately, Miller was one who sought “unconditional surrender” on a lot of issues–including drug use by players. If owners wanted to get rid of the perception of drug use by players (be it recreational or performance-enhancing) he was adamantly against it–not so much because he wanted players to use drugs but rather the issues of privacy were more important. If that meant players should be allowed to break the law–so be it; that was a concern for the judicial system and not MLB.

There was no middle ground.

Fehr cut his teeth on Miller’s ideologies and while the vast majority were bang on–Miller is imperfect like the rest of us and prone to blind spots.

Regardless, what is done is done but one thing we all need to do is get as accurate a picture of this era as possible. We should never forget that despite his recent male bovine fecal matter on the subject, Bud Selig is a big reason steroid use within the sport grew to the extent it did. He doesn’t care if players use steroids as long as the public and government think it is and he is painted as the man that rid the sport of the scourge.

Best Regards

John