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Jay Mariotti

Obama Too Wishy-Washy on Baseball's Steroid Crisis

Posted Feb 10, 2009 11:59PM By Jay Mariotti (RSS feed)

Filed Under: MLB

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Barack ObamaAs you probably know by his gym attire, President Obama is a fan of the Chicago White Sox. By extension, he is an ally of the team's chairman, Jerry Reinsdorf, who has fallen all over himself in throwing parties, supplying new caps for White House use and extolling the virtues of a Sox guy -- not a Cubs fan -- occupying the world's most powerful political seat. Reinsdorf, a close confidante of commissioner Bud Selig, also has played a significant role in running baseball during 16 years of unmitigated chaos.

Or, the Steroids Era.

So might this hometown connection be one reason why Obama, facing questions about Alex Rodriguez's confession and Major League Baseball's never-ending steroids crisis, is expressing no interest in confronting lingering mysteries about the sport's sleazy past? And, more importantly, addressing whether the game's future is in good hands -- hardly a certainty considering the same enablers of the Steroids Era remain in charge of the boardroom and players' association? If the president is so keen on investigating something as relatively benign as college football's Bowl Championship Series, why wouldn't he boldly explore the particulars of the Steroids Era, Selig's pathetic lack of leadership in that period and the sinister role of the union?

When Rodriguez decides to sit down in his true blue sweater with an ESPN interviewer and say, "Back then, it was a different culture. It was very loose. The culture back then, and Major League Baseball overall, was very ...'' -- well, wouldn't Obama want the blanks filled in about MLB and the "loosey-goosey'' steroids culture to which A-Rod alluded? Wouldn't a sports-caring president be disgusted about Selig and the owners looking the other way while making megamillions in a juiced-up time? Wouldn't he want to probe Don Fehr, Gene Orza and the mischief within the union? Does he think the MLB-ordered Mitchell Report really answers all the questions?

I realize this country has more issues than any five commanders-in-chief could handle. We ache for Obama to fix the economy, end warfare, make people happy. But sometimes, the presidency also involves voicing harsh, aggressive statements about secondary problems.

And when he committed to a sporting agenda, he can't stop at whether Florida should have been forced into a national semifinal bracket with Utah, USC and Texas. That's silly putty compared to the integrity of baseball, which has spanned the ages as our national pastime and depends on numbers as sacred data for comparisons between eras. Does Obama really care more about the BCS than a steroids mess that has eroded our trust in baseball? That's how he came off when asked about A-Rod and the game at his first prime-time news conference.

"I think it's depressing news on top of what has been a flurry of depressing items when it comes to Major League Baseball,'' Obama said. "And if you're a fan, it tarnishes an entire era to some degree. And it's unfortunate, because I think there are a lot of ballplayers who played it straight.

"And the thing I'm probably most concerned about is the message it sends to our kids. What I'm pleased about is that Major League Baseball finally seems to be taking this seriously to recognize how big a problem this is for the sport. And our kids hopefully are watching and saying, 'You know what? There are no shortcuts, that when you try to take shortcuts, you may end up tarnishing your entire career and that your integrity's not worth it.' That's the message I hope is communicated.''

That's all? What about the other 103 names on the dirty list and whether they'll be made public? And did the union tip off Rodriguez about a test that was being administered? And was he told by Orza in
2004 that he may or may not have tested positive, only to never hear back? Is A-Rod simply telling another pack of lies? And as the devastating hits keep coming for baseball -- such as Miguel Tejada's expected guilty plea for lying to Congress about an ex-teammate's steroids use -- doesn't Obama realize that Selig and Fehr are STILL in place? How can we have any trust in the men who enabled the juicers for profit, the men who created a system that would allow more than 100 names to remain sealed, only to have the biggest of names leak almost six years later?

I mean, how wacked-out is baseball? And why isn't Obama outraged? How can he assume "a lot of ballplayers'' played it straight when it's possible none did? And why does he blurt out that "Major League Baseball finally seems to be taking this seriously'' when human growth hormone continues to be a pox on the game? Sorry, I expected more than a blase approval of the status quo.

In October, Obama made it clear that he doesn't want Congress involved. "Congressional hearings around steroid use is not probably the best use of congressional time,'' he said. I disagree, even in tough times. It worked well for his maligned and mocked predecessor, George W. Bush, whose attack on performance-enhancing drugs led to Congressional hearings and an anti-steroids environment that exposed supposed legends -- Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro and the rest -- as frauds. Without the government push, McGwire probably would be in the Hall of Fame, Clemens would be riding high as the all-time pitching machine and Bonds would be the untarnished holder of the home-run record.

During his 2004 State of the Union address, Bush said these potent words: "The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message -- that there are shortcuts to accomplishment and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now."

That's what I wanted from Obama, a get-tough speech. Instead, I got a sports talk-show host, commenting instead of demanding.



It's no surprise, then, that Rodriguez won't be asked to visit Capitol Hill, which means Selig and Fehr also are off the hook. Remember the former Congressional committee members who heard Clemens, McGwire, Palmeiro and all the rest in Washington? The new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is Edolphus Towns, a Democrat. For now, he wants no part of hearings. "The American people need leaders who will focus on stemming job losses and getting credit to flow in the marketplace before hearing from yet another person who cheated both himself and the game of baseball," Towns said.

For now, I agree.

But what about later? Towns says he'll keep tabs on the steroids situation and that he's dismayed by the A-Rod news, yet why not at least alert Selig and Fehr that the new chairman isn't happy and that everyone will be summoned to D.C. in due time? Next month, Bonds goes to trial on perjury charges in San Francisco. As for Clemens, a grand jury is deciding his fate and whether he lied to Congress. And for all of Selig's claims that MLB has steroids under control, we'd be naive to believe that vast numbers of major-league players still aren't juicing to some degree.

The sport has been too dirty for too long, with the same people at the top, for any reasonable person to believe everything is cool now. I'm disappointed that the President of the United States didn't voice the same conclusion. As we've seen the last two decades, the more wiggle room you give baseball, the more license you give people to cheat.

Next time there's a steroids crisis -- and it's coming, as sure as beer at the ballpark -- Barack the talk-show host needs to be President Obama.

Tags: alex+rodriguez, AlexRodriguez, barack+obama, BarackObama, barry+bonds, BarryBonds, bud+selig, BudSelig, donald+fehr, DonaldFehr, roger+clemens, RogerClemens

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Jay Mariotti

Jay MariottiJay Mariotti is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse.com. He is a daily panelist on ESPN's sports-debate show, "Around The Horn,'' seen Monday through Friday at 5 p.m. ET. Mariotti spent 17 years as a lead sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and has covered every major sporting event -- national and worldwide -- on multiple occasions.