With the recent revelations that Jason Giambi admitted to taking steroids, Barry Bonds admitted to unknowingly taking steroids—unknowingly, of course, if you’re a naïve fool—and the prior knowledge that Gary Sheffield had also taken them, an interesting observation can be made.
Why isn’t there an equivalent backlash for all three players? The Yankees are irate over Giambi, but seemingly couldn’t care less about Sheffield’s problems. The Giants aren’t exactly starting a witch hunt to determine the truth about Bonds, either. The argument could be made that the teams don’t care about Sheffield and Bonds due to matters of degree. Their alleged usage of steroids was accidental. Bonds claimed that he “unknowingly” took them, but anyone who has even remotely heard about Bonds’ training habits knows that this is unlikely, and that Bonds is probably trying to cover himself.
Sheffield’s “unknowing” excuse is more believable, since BALCO told him that “the cream” was really for treatment of his surgical wounds and scars. Meanwhile, Giambi admitted to taking four different types of steroids over part of three seasons, which included his AL MVP season.
The reason for the unequal fallout seems to be based over something else: money. The Yankees are saddled with Giambi’s contract, which still has over $80 million due on it. They are looking for any possible avenue of approach to void the contract.
While that may be unlikely, since it’s too difficult to claim breach-of-contract on leaked testimony to a newspaper, the Yankees can hardly be blamed for wanting to get rid of an oft-injured lead balloon of a player (Giambi), while looking the other way for a player who turned in an MVP caliber season (Sheffield).
Plus, Sheffield and Bonds are the kind of players that bring fans into the seats, and keep those jerseys flying off the shelves. Keeping players like them around not only aids the team’s likelihood of victory, but increases the chances that the franchise will stay in the black. The almighty dollar is prevailing in this situation, when the rules of baseball and common morality should be.
Is anyone truly shocked by any of these actions? Apparently not. Recent polls show that fans believe anywhere between 10 and 50 percent of baseball players are on steroids, but the knowledge that superstars are taking them still shocks some of the more naïve people.
In a world where money is power, it seems almost ludicrous to assume that teams will treat all steroid users and abusers fairly. Now Congress wants to get involved in the steroid battle, too, and if there’s one governing body in the world that even the least cynical person doesn’t believe in, it’s Congress.
So, barring drastic measures, it seems as if this situation is going to keep spiraling out of control well into the future, and evidently result in a dark shadow cast over the game, including a loss of respectability, and perhaps an irreparable decline in the sport’s popularity.
A dark shadow? Sounds pretty ominous … no wonder some people are so naïve. Maybe it’s because they choose to be.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual writer and are not necessarily held by The Poly or the Sports Department.
