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The Mitchell Report: Now What?

 Now What?

By Gary Armida

December 13, 2007 will go down as a dark day in baseball history. George Mitchell released his report and did not disappoint the scandal crazy country. There were names. There were names as big as Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada and David Justice. There were names as small as F.P. Santangelo and Adam Piatt. There were plenty of names in between like Troy Glaus, Mike Stanton, and Eric Gagne. There were copies of checks, there were stories based on the evidence of two somewhat questionable men. It made for some good reading, all 400+ pages (read it here). So here we are staring at the computer screen the next day trying to make some sense of it all. The true baseball fans are now wondering, “Now what?”

With 60 or so names referred to in the report, we can only assume that the report is incomplete. Senator Mitchell acknowledged that during his press conference citing the fact that there was a lack of cooperation from players. In fact, only Jason Giambi met with the commission during their entire investigation. It is somewhat laughable and yet sad when reading at the end of each player’s story that the player refused to meet with the Senator. The point is that with only a relatively small number of players named, this report really just scratches the surface of the true history of performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Again, this is something the Senator Mitchell stated during the press conference. This begs the question as to why these certain players were named when the organizer of the report states that he does not believe (and correctly so) that these are all of the players. Was it to embarrass them? What it to just list names so the public is not disappointed? We will never know. Now that these names are public, what will change? Eric Gagne just signed a ten million dollar contract. Andy Pettitte just finalized his 16 million dollar contract yesterday. Will those two plus the recently traded Miguel Tejada be banned from baseball? Of course they won’t. They’ll be making their money and helping their team win games in 2008. In this case, the report does not have an impact on the sport.

Then there is the issue of reliability. The two chief witnesses are men that were facing criminal charges. But, their evidence seems overwhelming. The canceled checks included in the report are pretty tough to explain away. Obviously, they were telling the truth in those circumstances. But, in the case of Roger Clemens, there wasn’t really a paper trail. There was a really detailed story that is consistent with the pitcher’s performance. If the report is correct, Clemens began using steroids during his first season in Toronto, a year after being told he was in the twilight of his career by the Red Sox management. Clemens had suffered through four sub-par seasons from ages 30-34. If the report is true, Clemens began using steroids and coincidentally began his re-birth with the first of two Cy Young award winning seasons in Toronto. The report then tells that Clemens used steroids late in the 2000 season. Is it coincidence that he won the Cy Young award in 2001 by going 20-3 at age 38? Clemens has already put out a statement that vehemently denies these findings. But, his image is now tarnished and he should be forever linked with Barry Bonds. The fact that Clemens put out a denial so quickly can raise suspicions about the source, but his legacy is severely tarnished.

It would be naïve to think that this report is a total fabrication or is totally true. But, one cannot deny that there is quite a bit of evidence surrounding the majority of the players named in the report. The canceled checks are a good start. There are many details that seem consistent across the board. The fact that Andy Pettitte’s story is different from Roger Clemens’ lends credence to the witnesses as it would have been easier to just simply link Pettitte’s use to Clemens’. Additionally, the dates matched to the player’s spike in performance. The stories also coincide with reports made years ago by certain media outlets. Jerry Hairston Jr. was named in a March SI article of which he denied the allegations. There are numerous players in this report who have denied previous reports. It makes the players look like the liars. The reporters who have spoken out against the reliability of the report are grasping at straws. Unfortunately, this report seems very truthful.

So, what’s the impact? For one it ends much of the speculation about certain players. There were always whispers about Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada and others. Those are no longer rumors. Secondly, the public now gets that confirmation (that we didn’t need) that the game was tarnished by a relatively small number of players. Senator Mitchell even makes mention in the report that he believes that the majority of players are playing the game honestly. We know that the problem has gone on for at least a decade and that the blame is shared by the owners, management, Commissioner, and Players Association. It was a problem that was left until the government forced baseball to deal with it. Thirdly, Barry Bonds comes out as a big winner in all of this. He is no longer to be vilified alone. Roger Clemens has to be placed right there with him as he broke many historical records during the course of his career.

A possible impact is located after the names (which many people won’t read). At the end of the report, Senator Mitchell makes some recommendations. Among them, he recommends that Baseball outsource their testing to an independent agency. This would be an excellent step as it would take away any perceived bias. The player’s union would be unable to complain as the independent agency would not have an interest in the outcome of a particular test. The most important recommendation comes in terms of Baseball needing to set up an investigation panel. As most experts agree, there is not a reliable test for HGH. Mitchell recommends that Baseball should be able to find a paper trail on a suspected player and have the authority to discipline based on that evidence. If Baseball is able to take that step (with the approval of the Union, which is unlikely), this whole report would be worth it on that alone. Baseball needs to take this step to further deter players from using HGH. As of this moment, with no valid test, all that is stopping the players from using it is their moral code.

Another impact is the range of players listed today. Sure seeing the two best players for the past 20 years named (Clemens and Bonds) makes a fan angry. Those players, allegedly, cheated their way into the record books. They took records from players who “did it the right way.” But, the majority of players listed were middle of the road players like Fernando Vina, F.P. Santangelo, Greg Zaun, and Nook Logan. This evidence clearly shows that performance enhancing drugs will only make a superstar player play like a superstar player. One needs to have the skill set in order to achieve the maximum benefits gained from quicker recovery time or added strength. Couple this revelation with the relatively small amount of players using these drugs and the impact of the drugs is lessened. What fans have been watching for the past 20 years has not been a complete fraud.

The biggest impact, however, is the realization that majority of players are clean. Baseball still has stars like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, David Wright, Greg Maddux, and hundreds of others who have never been implicated in anything having to do with performance enhancing drugs. It will make fans go back in time and appreciate the efforts of players like Fred McGriff, who was an outstanding player but fell short in milestones compared to his juiced counterparts. There were many players who put up good numbers, but were overshadowed by unnatural results. It is now time to revisit their accomplishments and give them the attention they deserve.

So, now what? The hope is that Baseball will use this as a springboard for decisive action. Commissioner Selig has already stated that he will take action. Now that the past was looked into, it is time to move ahead. The sport has many challenges ahead. Some may say that Baseball will not recover, but they are wrong. The sport is still good. It will overcome this too. There are enough stars in the game doing things the right way that will help regain the trust of the fans who are disheartened.  Today was a day for theatre. The next week or so will be spent processing this “scandal”. Once that is finished, the focus will return to the field.  

In the end, the Mitchell Report gave the public what it wanted. We got our names. We just didn’t get all of them. It is time to move on.

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