Steroids Don’t Work in Baseball

Final proof that steroids don’t work in baseball.

The World Baseball Classic final will be Japan vs. Cuba.

While most U.S. sports pages are wondering whether Americans will watch the game, or about Cuba still being led by Castro, it must be noted that neither Cuba nor Japan has any players with muscles ripping out of their shirts, no sluggers whose waistlines are wickedly pronounced because of overdeveloped chests, no players with hat sizes that have increased several sizes.

Baseball, as a team game, is a game of flexibility, speed and reflexes. As an individual game, as a popular American spectacle, it is only about power.  Under Commissioner (and, face, it, still owner) Bud Selig the U.S. game deliberately went toward the latter, toward individual achievement and spectacle. And in doing that Bud Selig destroyed baseball.

I saw Selig on a telecast the other day claiming the game is healthier than it has ever been. While it is literally killing its stars, owners are making money. So I won’t be watching this year. These last few weeks have convinced me, beyond any doubt, that Selig is not serious about getting rid of steroids and their influence, and that influence is pernicious to performance.

Of the last four teams in the tournament, in fact, only one — the Dominican Republic — had players who were bulked-up like Macy’s Parade balloons. Only two U.S. major leaguers will be in the final, both on the Japan team.  One of them, Ichiro Suzuki, is the best player in the world today. (And he’s right — we need to clean those dugouts.)

The differences between the teams, the steroid abuse by the major leaguers, were obvious to anyone watching. The two stories are being played as though they were happening on different planets.  The link between steroids and the American failure was not remarked upon by the American press.

And that is the biggest scandal of all.